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246 ANECDOTE OF A JAGUAR. 
head lowered, as is usual with our cats. The little 
boy was unaware of the danger in which he was 
placed, and became sensible of it only when the ja- 
guar struck him on the head with one of his paws. 
The blows thus inflicted were at first slight, but 
gradually became ruder. ‘The claws of the jaguar 
wounded the child, and blood flowed with violence. 
The little girl then took up a branch of a tree and 
struck the animal, which fled before her. The In- 
dians hearing the cries of the children, ran up and 
saw the jaguar, which bounded off without showing 
any disposition to defend itself.’ “ What,” asks 
Humboldt, “ meant this fit of playfulness in an ani- 
mal which, although not difficult to be tamed in our 
menageries, is always so ferocious and cruel in the 
state of freedom? If we choose to admit that, being 
sure of its prey, it played with the young Indian 
as the domestic cat plays with a bird, the wings 
of which have been clipped, how can we account 
for the forbearance of a large jaguar when pursued 
by a little girl? If the jaguar was not pressed by 
hunger, why should it have gone up to the chil- 
dren? There are mysteries in the affections and ha- 
treds of animals. We have seen lions kill three or 
four dogs which were put into their cage, and in- 
stantly caress another which had the courage to seize 
the royal beast by the mane. Manis ignorant of the 
sources of these instincts. It would seem that weak- 
ness inspires more interest the more confiding it is.” 
The cattle introduced by the Jesuits had entire- 
ly disappeared ; but the Indians rear the common 
pig and another kind peculiar to America, and 
known in Europe by the name of pecari. A third 
species of hog, the Apida, which is of a dark-brown 
