214 JAGUAR-HUNTER. 
Continuing to descend the river, they met with 
a great herd of chiguires that the tiger had dis- 
persed, and from which he had selected his prey. 
These animals seemed not to be afraid of men, for 
they saw the travellers land without agitation, but 
the sight of a. dog put them to flight. They ran so 
slowly that the people succeeded in catching two 
of them. - It is the largest of the Glires or gnaw- 
ing animals. Its flesh has a disagreeable smell of 
musk, although hams are made of it in the country, 
which are eaten during Lent; as this quadruped, 
according to ecclesiastical zoology, is esteemed a fish. 
The travellers passed the night as usual in the 
open air, although in a plantation, the proprietor of 
which, a jaguar-hunter, half-naked and as brown 
as a Zambo, prided himself on being of the Euro- 
pean race, and called his wife and daughter, who 
were as slightly clothed as himself, Donna Isabella 
and Donna Manuela. Humboldt had brought a 
chiguire ; but his host assured him such food was not 
fit for white gentlemen like them, at the same time 
offering him venison. As this aspiring personage 
had neither house nor hut, he invited the strangers to 
sling their hammocks near his own, between two 
trees ; which they accordingly did. They soon found 
reason, however, to regret that they had not obtained. 
better shelter ; for after midnight a thunder-storm 
came on, which wetted them to the skin. Donna Isa- 
bella’s cat had perched on one of the trees, and fell into 
a cot, the inmate of which imagined he was attacked 
by some wild beast, and could hardly be quieted. 
upon me, flashed out ina moment. He fell on me, and expired at 
the very instant I thought myself lost for ever.’ "—Captain An- 
drews’ Travels in South America, vol. i. p. 219. 
ans 
ee £ <4 
