I see a Tapir for the First Time. 
297 
quick hands, while at the same time they now and again kept turning 
down a twig, signs to help find their way back out of the labyrinth. 
If the animal answers the call but once, it is the sure prey of the hunter 
who, like a snake in the grass, creeps closer and closer without hardly 
shifting the leaf lying on the ground until the bird or quadruped is 
within reach of his weapon, A curious thing about Indians who own a 
gun is the firmly-rooted and obstinate opinion that the more the powder 
the more true the aim. In spite of all our demonstrations against the 
fallacy we never convinced them to the contrary. The report is 
naturally more noisy and later on I would have betted anything that 
out of a hundred shots I could tell exactly how many were loaded by 
Indians. It is unnecessary to mention that what with the bad weapons 
they generally possess a number of accidents result from this sense- 
less idea, and that were they not to sneak so closely on to their game, 
or to decoy it into their immediate vicinity, the Indians would soon 
enough discard these fire-arms and resume their bows and arrows. 
842. We might have been working our way for about half an hour 
through the forest when suddenly my immediate companion stood .stock 
still, pointed to the ground, and uttered the word “Maipuri!” (Tapir 
America nus ) . A given signal put the three others, who were somewhat 
distant, in touch with the information, and they also cheerily called 
“Maipuri!” Quietly and without a sound we proceeded through swamp 
and bush and thick overhanging cutting-grass. The naked Indians 
slipped through this knife-edged grass (/$ klcria flagellum Sw. ) with such 
nimbleness and dexterity that their bodies did not show the slightest 
trace of damage, while as for me, who had only followed the path 
already broken, the blood was pouring down my face and hands. They 
never lost sight of the tracks whether these were left, clearly impressed 
on the swampy soil, or led over wide stretches covered with dead leaves: 
silent and sure we pushed ahead. We might have been running them for 
a little longer than an hour when they again led into a swamp. The 
Indians in advance signalled that the animal was quite close. Although 
I myself now sneaked forward as warily as I possibly could, T neverthe- 
less made just as much noise with one of my feet as the Indians with all 
their eight, which made them turn round upon me every instant with 
angered countenances. The first Indian now crouched low, with the 
animal in the swamp ahead ; we soon caught up to him, did the same 
thing, and I saw a tapir for the first time. After the manner of our pigs it 
had thrown itself lengthways in the wet spongy soil where it seemed to 
be feeling quite comfortable until, at the end of a few minutes, it must 
have noted our presence, when, sticking its head up and sniffing the air 
with its short snout, it got on its legs — the moment when all five of us 
fired as if by word of command. Wounded, but not mortally, it made an 
awful spring, circled round a few times and before we could reload, 
rushed into the thick bush, with us behind it, until we suddenly heard a 
dull splash in a piece of water ahead of us, and to our disgust found 
ourselves on the high steep bank of the Rupununi up Ihe opposite shore 
of which the tapir was just then clambering to make its way into the 
brushwood. An instant later, I stood all alone on the edge and saw the 
