76 
The Giant Armadillo. 
was about the bieudtli of a man's linger and six inches in length : at about 
an inch from its extremity and bored through it Avas a conical hole into 
wiiich the tip of the other piece, a rounded pencil, exactly litted about 
half-Avay down. After the stick is laid on the ground and some tinder is 
placed under the opening, an Indian holds the piece of wood tirmly in 
position there whilst another seizes the pencil (with its tip iu the conical 
aperture) between the open palms of both hands, and quickly twirls it 
backwards and forwards, at the same liuie exerting a downward pressure 
ou it : in the course of half a minute the so-called anb tinder placed below, 
catches fire. The tinder comes from, the libre-felt with which several 
species of ant line their burrows, and is obtained by them from a Mela's- 
tomacea. The Indians always carry it about with them in a closed piece 
of bambu. Although we Europeans, as well as the mulattoes and negroes, 
often attempted to nmke tire by this method, our efforts nevertheless 
proved in vain, however much we twirled. The two pieces of wood, as I 
noticed later, Avere always cut from Apcibn f/Jahni Anbl. 
191. The flames of our Are had hardly begun to blaze, when the atten- 
tion of our Indians was drawn to a noise in the bush close by. Bows and 
arrows were immediately picked u]), and thi-ee or four sneaked warily onto 
the spot. I myself crept just as cautiously behind lliem though l)efore I 
conld make ont the object in the thick Mimosa bushes from which the noise 
proceeded I already heard the twang of the bow-strings and the treble 
note of the escaping animal. The big comjmotion in the brush-Avood, led 
me to believe that the game would break aAvay where I was, which indeed 
proved to l)e the case. It Avas a giant armadillo that, jnerced by two 
arrows, was exerting its supreme efforts in forcing a way through the 
thick scrub which the arrows repeatedly prevented it from doing. The 
call of the hunters quickly brought those left behind at the fire to our 
assistance when the terrified animal was surrounded and soon killed liy 
blows with our clul>s. It was the rare Da-<iifpiif) f/if/anfrus; Desm. Its 
length, including the tail, amounted to 5ft., its height 2J ft., and it 
weighed from 80 to 100 pounds. The armour consisted of irregular plates : 
the growth of hair on the body appeared spar.se and thin : the claws were 
very powerful and long.. The Macusis called it IMaourairma, the 
Wapisianas on the other hand Manura. In the course of a quarter of an 
hour it was stewing, already cut up in pieces, on pointed sticks over the 
fire, which blazed in bright flames owing to the trickling over of the fat. 
The ta.ste of the flesh is very like that of a young sucking pig: unfortun- 
ately the violent bout of fever had so spoilt all my appetite that I could 
hardly enjoy a morsel of the unexpected dainty. My com,panions were 
still busy on their tasty meal AA'hen the sharp eyes of a Wapisiana again 
noticed something alive moving about in the savannah below : he quickly 
ran to the spot and soon returned carrying another but smaller armadillo 
by the tail. It was /)r/.s///)?f.<? rillofttis Desm. According to the statemeuts 
of the Indians this species is particularly distinguished by a peculiar 
growth of hair that covers not only the body but also the plates on the 
back, is solely present in the savannahs, and for the most part lives on 
carrion for which reason it is not eateu by them, a characteristic that is 
ascribed only to this one species amongst the seA'en met with in Guiana. 
In some of the festival songs of the Wapisianas and Macusis, the Yas^i, 
