A TERRIBLE PACHYDERM 
usually done in a quick way by severing the artery at the 
neck while the person to be killed was asleep. 
The Brazilians of the interior were almost altogether 
the descendants of criminal Portuguese, who had been 
exiled to the country, and intermarried with the lowest 
possible class of African slaves. They seemed to feel 
strongly their inferiority when facing a European, and 
imagined, in which they were not far wrong, the contempt 
with which, although it was covered by the greatest polite¬ 
ness, one looked down upon them. That was perhaps the 
only excuse one could offer for their vile behaviour, which, 
according to their low mental qualities, they liked to 
display in order to prove their independence and 
superiority. 
We made our camp in a heavenly spot, barring the 
devilish borrachudo (mosquitoes), on the bank of a 
crystal-like streamlet flowing north (elevation 2,200 
feet). We were really fortunate to have excellent and 
plentiful water all the time. The thermometer went down 
during the night to a minimum of 54° Fahrenheit. There 
were more shivers and moans from my men. Only 
Alcides and Filippe behaved in a manly way. The others 
were in terror of attacks from the onpa pintada (felis 
on fa) or spotted jaguar of Brazil, and of the terrivel 
tamanduas bandeira, a toothless pachyderm, with a long 
and hairy tail, long nails, and powerful arms, the embrace 
of which is said to be sufficient to kill a man, or even a 
jaguar, so foolish as to endeavour wrestling with it. It 
had a long protruding nose or proboscis, which it inserted 
into ant-heaps. A tongue of abnormal length was further 
pushed out, and then quickly withdrawn, when crammed 
with attacking ants. Ants were its favourite food. 
Although my men talked all the time of the terrible 
bandeiras , we never had the good fortune to receive the 
fond embraces of one. 
We had a beautiful sky — perfectly clear—on May 
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