JOURNEY TO GUATEMALA. 



135 



hardy and useful. The woods and mountains contain 

 some wild animals, but none very fierce or powerful. 

 The most remarkable are tigers and wolves. The former 

 are rather a species of leopard, and seldom attack a man, 

 but live on game, and sometimes come into the villages 

 and seize on the dogs and cattle. They are hunted for 

 the sake of their skins, which are very beautiful. The 

 zorillo is a small fox, which emits an effluvia so powerful 

 and offensive, that it stupifies, and has been known to 

 cause the death of a dog that had killed it. The same 

 effluvia leaves ' a blue dye on every thing it comes in 

 contact with. The tapir, commonly called the moun- 

 tain cow, is the largest of the quadrupeds in a wild state, 

 but in appearance is something between a hog and ele- 

 phant. The zahino and the striped boar are also found 

 in Central America, and a great variety of monkeys. 

 Dear and wild hogs are common in the woods. Of the 

 latter, there is a species with an excrescence on its back, 

 from which a fetid matter is constantly exuding. This 

 excrescence the natives call the navel, and say it must be 

 immediately cut out oil the animal being killed, as it 

 contaminates the flesh. 



The otter and the manati are to be found in the rivers, 

 which also abound with alligators. The latter are some- 

 times very large and dangerous. Concerning these ani- 

 mals, a curious circumstance was related to me, for the 

 truth of which, however, I cannot vouch. The wound 

 produced by the bite of the alligator very soon fills with 

 worms, and becomes exceedingly difficult to cure. But if 

 when a person is bitten, he immediately washes the wound 

 in the water of the stream frequented by that animal, no 

 worms appear, and a cure is easily effected. 



Of snakes, lizards, and other reptiles, there is a great va- 

 riety and abundance. The most dangerous are the rattle- 

 snake, and another species called the Tamagazo ; but par- 

 ticularly the latter, which is so venomous, that its bite oc= 



