In the more secret recesses of the woods wander apes, which the
Guaranies call caruguà, and the Spaniards _diablos del monte_, devils of
the woods. They are hairy, and taller than other apes; in walking they
generally stand on their hind-feet. Their footsteps are like those of a
boy of fourteen years old. They love solitude, and do not lie in wait
for man, but if they spy one near them in the narrow parts of the
forests, they tear him to pieces with the utmost ferocity. I knew of a
Guarany belonging to the new colony of St. Stanislaus, who died of a
dreadful wound he received from a caruguà. An Indian belonging to the
same colony killed one of these apes in a distant wood. Fearing that the
trouble of a long journey, under a burning sun, would prove
insufferable, he left the carcass of the beast, but cut off his horrid
nails, more formidable than any dagger, and showed them to Father Pietro
Paulo Danesi, a Roman, to whom the care of the town was at that time
entrusted; they were carried about the other Guarany towns, that all who
beheld might thereby judge of the beast to whom they belonged, and learn
to know and dread the terrific arms of the caruguà, whenever they had to
traverse rugged forests. I was once very near becoming the prey of one
of these ferocious beasts. Passing the night in the woods of Mbaeverà,
whilst the Indians and my companion Paschali Vilalba were sound asleep,
I heard the noise of boughs breaking, together with a little singing
sound resembling a human voice. As the voice and the noise approached
nearer to me, and I was at a great distance from the fire of the
Indians, I cried out and inquired of my comrades, who were at length
awakened by my clamour, what bird or beast uttered those sounds? After
listening awhile, they all exclaimed that the caruguà, the devil of the
woods, was approaching. A number of them ran to encounter him, armed
with spears and firebrands. The beast, alarmed at their approach,
hastened back; and thus delivered from peril, I breathed once again.