‘JUNGLE-HUNTING IN PANAMA 
always necessary. Early morning still- 
hunting is both the pleasantest and best 
way; working as quietly as possible at 
daybreak along the edges of clearings 
and over trails. 
The Indians have the same attitude 
toward game that natives are wont to 
have the world over. It is—‘get the 
game, no matter how.” An Indian may 
start before daylight with his old muz- 
zle-loading gun loaded with hand- 
shaped slugs, or with his hardwood 
bow and copper-tipped arrows; he slips 
along the trails without the least noise 
and is a splendid still-hunter. His shots 
are all at short range, and if a deer is 
wounded, he follows him with his dog. 
He oftener, however, depends upon 
waiting near a water-hole at daybreak, 
or placing noose snares in the game 
trails. Your guide will be “cutting 
trail’ ahead of you when he will sud- 
denly stop his almost automatic, clip- 
ping wrist-stroke with the * sharp 
traveling machete, and point out what 
seems to you to be simply another of 
the innumerable looping creepers and 
vines, which so soon obscure a tropical 
trail.. He shows you the cleverly made 
noose, at just the right height to take 
the deer’s head and neck, and of suf- 
ficient strength to hold and strangle 
him. 
One moonlight night I heard a shot 
and the guide said: “We can borrow 
some deer meat now from old ‘Noma,’ 
for he is out ‘tree shooting.’” We did 
find that the old Indian had shot a deer 
from a tree overlooking a yam patch 
where he had hidden himself at dark, 
before the moon arose. I have never 
heard of fire hunting or deer drives in 
the mountains, but occasionally you do 
see these in the coast lands, near the 
rivers. 
Three species of wild pig are found, 
and in certain localities are abundant. 
One variety gives off a strong, musk- 
like odor; so strong that you can often 
tell by the scent alone that a drove has 
passed recently. They live in the 
swampy land near mountain streams or 
in heavily timbered bottom-lands where 
” 
501 
acres and acres of soft ground are 
found rooted up by thesé gourmands 
in search of roots and fallen nuts. The 
tapir, or, as the natives call it, vaca del 
monte, is a huge, hog-like creature 
with a queerly curved, projecting 
snout, an almost hairless skin, and feet 
which look more like those of a small 
rhinoceros than anything else. They 
reach a very large size; three to four 
hundred pounds being no great weight 
for an adult, and through soft ground 

THE CHIEF OF THE CHOLAS 
