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CREATURES OF PREY. 
Some by day, others by night; and perfectly distinct also at each of 
the three periods of the day,—morn, and noon, and evening. They 
disquiet the traveller, inasmuch as they reproduce our human voices or 
sounds, and seem ironical or mocking. One cries, another whistles, 
another sighs. This strikes like an alarm, that like a hammer, while 
a third imitates the tones of a bagpipe. The vast plains re-echo the 
mighty voice of the cariama. And that of the serpent-conqueror, the 
courageous kamichi, harsh and strong, echoing over the marshes, makes 
the savage tremble, for he thinks he hears the spirits passing. 
At evening, with the song of'the grasshoppers, the croaking of the 
frogs, the shriek of the owls, and the lamentations of the vampires, 
mingles the howl of the apes; until a hiss, which seems drawn from a 
wounded bosom, silences all, and spreads a universal terror, because it 
indicates the presence of the sharp-clawed prowler, the swift jaguar. 
In these forests there is nothing to reassure you. Yonder green and 
peaceful waters, whence ever and anon proceeds the sound of half- 
choked sighs,—you place your foot upon them, and with terror dis¬ 
cover that they are solid! that the surface is composed of great alli¬ 
gators, with their greenish backs resembling breadths of moss or aquatic 
herbs ! Let a living creature appear, and immediately they raise their 
heads and put themselves in motion; you behold the strange assem¬ 
blage rise from the slime in all their horror! But is this all ?—Even 
these monsters which reign on the surface have their tyrants over them. 
The piranga, or razor-fish, as swift as the cayman is unwieldy, severs 
with its saw-like teeth the latter’s tail, and carries it off before it can 
wheel round. The cayman, nearly always mutilated in this manner, 
would perish, if its cuirass did not prevent its enemy from dissecting it. 
The same terrible anatomist, with a flash of its scalpel, cuts down as it 
passes the bird which skims the waves. Aquatic birds which have 
been wounded by it are frequently caught. And what, then, of the 
quadrupeds ? The most powerful are devoured. A horrible combat is 
waged without pause in the deep waters,—in the waters living and 
overflowing with life, but with death also,—where is realized to the 
letter a rapid and furious suicide of Nature,—Nature devouring in order 
to re-create itself! 
