CURIOUS INCIDENT. 128 



Before leaving the subject of panthers, I 

 must relate a very curious accident that hap- 

 pened to an old tigrero, about a year before I 

 left the country. During some of my wan- 

 derings, I happened to arrive at a cleared 

 piece of ground, where there was a rancho 

 built, and went to it to rest during the mid- 

 day heat. I found the owner of it an old 

 man, but disfigured in the most frightful way 

 possible to conceive ; he had little or no flesh 

 on one side of his head arid face, and his 

 right shoulder and side were also dreadfully 

 torn ; the wounds were all healed, but fright- 

 ful to look at. I asked one of his sons to get 

 his horse and accompany me when I started, 

 as I had never been in that part of the forest 

 before, and was alone. As we rode together 

 he told me the reason of his father's mis- 

 fortune. 



" My father," he said, " was a tigrero, and 

 had killed so many tigres, that he had got a 

 good number of cattle, and we lived very 

 comfortably ; but the " peste" (murrain), got 

 among them and destroyed them all, but one 

 cow and her calf ; so we collected our horses 

 and mules and resolved to seek another 

 " localidad." We selected this spot, and 

 having cleared away the ground, built our 



