L'ENCUERADO AND THE PARROTS.--GRINGALET MEETS A FRIEND.--THE COUGAR, OR
AMERICAN LION.--A STREAM.--OUR "PALM-TREE VILLA."--TURTLES' EGGS.--THE
TANTALUS.--HERONS AND FLAMINGOES.
The parrots that we heard chattering were quite sufficient to wake us up
in the morning. The sun rose red and angry; a perfect concert soon
greeted its appearance. The hoccos set up their sonorous clucking, and
birds of every kind came fluttering round us. Lucien, now reconciled to
the virgin forests, was never tired of admiring the varieties of trees,
shrubs, or bushes, and the infinite number of the winged inhabitants
which enliven them. We slowly descended into the plain; even now the
heat was too much for us, and long marches would soon be impossible. A
flock of cardinals, with crested heads, flew around us and settled on a
magnolia, which then looked as if it was covered with purple flowers.
Farther on, some paroquets, no bigger than sparrows, greeted us with
their varied cries. L'Encuerado, after tossing his head several times,
and shrugging his shoulders, at last stopped, and could not refrain from
answering them.
"Come and carry it yourselves!" he cried; "come and carry it yourselves,
and prove that you are stronger than a man!"
"What are you asking the birds to do?" demanded Lucien.
"They are making fun of my load, Chanito; a set of lazy fellows, who all
of them together would not be able to move it!"
Sumichrast made his way into the forest, cutting away the creepers with
his _machete_ in order to clear a passage. In less than an hour we had
crossed five or six glades. Suddenly I noticed that Gringalet had
disappeared. I called him, and a distant barking answered me.
"Can he have met with a stream?" said Sumichrast.
I advanced in the direction in which I had heard the voice of our
four-footed companion, and suddenly came upon him baying furiously at a
young cougar, which Sumichrast ran towards, but the animal fled into the
wood.
"Where did you turn out this fellow, Gringalet?" asked l'Encuerado,
quite seriously. "Don't trust too much to his friendship, for it might
be the worse for you; lions seldom fondle any thing without hurting it."
"Was it a lion?" asked Lucien.
"Yes," I answered; "but an American lion, or cougar, known by _savants_
as the _Felis puma_."
"How I should like to have seen it! Had it a mane?"
"No; the puma is without one."
We were crossing another glade, when Gringalet suddenly rushed between
our legs. On looking back, I saw the puma slyly following us.
"Well, upon my word!" said Sumichrast; "does this fellow want to prove
that a cougar will attack a man?"
L'Encuerado, who had put down his load, was already aiming at the
animal.
"Don't shoot!" I cried, authoritatively.
The puma did not advance any farther, but glared at us with its yellow
eyes, its tail lashing its sides with a measured movement, while it
displayed a formidable row of tusks. Suddenly it stretched itself along
the ground, as if about to play. Lucien was now able to examine
leisurely the beautiful tawny color of its coat. It surveyed us with
such a quiet, gentle aspect, that it seemed as if it belonged to our
party, even pushing its confidence so far as to begin its toilet by
first licking its paws, and then rubbing them over its muzzle.
I gave the word for continuing our journey. L'Encuerado obeyed very
reluctantly. After this rencontre I placed Lucien, who congratulated
himself upon having had such a near view of the beautiful animal, in the
middle of the party.
"If we don't eat the lion, it will eat us," said the Indian. "If we had
only wounded it, it would have gone and told all its companions that it
was any thing but prudent to go too close to our fire."
"Well, if it comes near us again, I give you leave to shoot it."
"You do? it's a bargain!" cried L'Encuerado. "Stop a minute, Tata
Sumichrast; cock your gun, Chanito; you shall have the first shot."
We stood together in a group, and I looked in vain for the cougar.
[Illustration: "I looked in vain for the cougar."]
"The rascal has got in front of us," added the Indian. "We'll astonish
him in a moment. Come this way, Chanito, but don't run or turn round. Do
you see that tree that stands in front of us? Not so far that way--that
one we were just going to pass under. Look at the wonderful fruit it has
on it!"
"It is the puma!" exclaimed the boy.
"That's pleasant!" muttered Sumichrast. "Then there are two pumas."
"No, no, Tata Sumichrast, it is the same one. Aim between its eyes,
Chanito; fire!"
There were two reports almost at the same moment, and the animal tumbled
down upon the ground without uttering a cry.
"Don't be too quick, Chanito," continued the Indian; "this is not a
water-dog; always reload your gun, whether the enemy be dead or not,
before you trust yourself within its reach."
Gringalet ventured to bark round the beast, and I kept in readiness to
shoot, while my companions cautiously advanced. The cougar had been
struck in the forehead, and no longer breathed. It was about three feet
in length, and its hair, which was slightly waved on some parts of its
body, showed it was a young one. The Indian raised the animal's enormous
head.
"Come," he said, "you deserve to die like a warrior. You are the first
of your race which ever ventured so close to my gun. Was it Chanito you
wanted to devour?"
"I think it much more probable that it wanted Gringalet; what a pity it
is that we can't tame these beautiful cats!"
"Cats!" repeated Lucien.
"Yes, to be sure; the great African lion itself is nothing but the
largest and strongest of all the cat tribe. Didn't you know that?"
"I thought the lion was a beast by itself; but, at all events, it is the
king of mammals?"
"It is rightly thought to be the strongest of all the carnivora: its
head, which it carries upright, and its beautiful mane, give it a
majestic appearance. With regard to its reputation for generosity, I
scarcely know what it is founded on; I fancy that the famous lion of
Androcles had just enjoyed a plentiful meal when it spared the life of
its benefactor."
It was no use to think of skinning our victim, for the flies were
already swarming on the dead body, although it was still warm.
L'Encuerado wished to attribute to Lucien the honor of killing the puma;
but the boy, although he had always longed to achieve such a feat, said
at once that he had missed his aim.
I stopped in front of a tree (_hymenaea_) belonging to the leguminous
family, the pods of which contain a sweet pulp, and from its trunk oozes
out a resin, which is much sought after by the Indians, who use it as a
cure for stomach-ache. A little farther on, a mango-tree tempted
l'Encuerado, who, like all his countrymen, was fond of its fruit. I
disliked the nauseous smell and taste of them, which reminds me of
turpentine, although in some countries, where care is taken in their
cultivation, they are said to be delicious.
Sumichrast, who was our guide, had to open a passage for us through a
perfect net-work of purple-flowered creepers. I helped him in his work,
and when we had overcome this obstacle, we found ourselves in a small
plain, in the middle of which rose a clump of palm-trees. Gringalet ran
off to the right, and soon returned with his muzzle all wet. Lucien, who
was in front of us, first reached what was a wide, deep, and
slowly-flowing stream. At this sight, l'Encuerado turned three somersets
in succession, and struck up a chant; our manifestations of delight, if
less noisy than his, were, at all events, no less sincere.
[Illustration: "L'Encuerado turned three somersets."]
A gentle breeze was blowing, while the air was cool and soft; so that,
forgetful of the past, and sanguine for the future, we built our
bivouac. While at work, our eyes were attracted on every side by the
insects and birds, whose splendid colors literally enamelled the trees
in which every shade of green blended harmoniously. It would be
difficult to describe the wild grandeur of the scene around us. We might
have fancied we were in one of those marvellous gardens which Arabian
story-tellers delight in depicting. The roaring of some wild beast
reminded us that our fire was nearly out. At last I set the example of
going to rest. We intended to pass three or four days in this spot, as
it was so favorable to our pursuits.
"Nobody can accuse us of being too fond of rest," said my friend; "this
is the 20th of April; therefore we have now been travelling
uninterruptedly forty days."
The next day at dawn I set off with Sumichrast on an exploring
expedition, leaving Lucien still fast asleep. We returned, about eleven
o'clock, with a dozen birds, among which we had a greenish-yellow
woodpecker, with a bright red tuft on its head; also a _Cuculus vetula_,
a species of cuckoo, which feeds on lizards and young serpents.
During our absence, l'Encuerado had cut down three palm-trees and
hollowed out the lower part of the trunks, in order to collect their
sweet sap. He also wove a sort of palisade of creepers round several
thick stakes, in which we could sleep without fear of surprise. In a
hole near the top of one of the palm-trees, Lucien spied out a parrot's
nest, and had taken possession of two young birds, red, green, and
yellow in color, which seemed to adapt themselves wonderfully to the
attentions lavished upon them by the boy.
"What are you going to do with these poor orphans?" I asked.
"I am going to take them home to my brother and sister. L'Encuerado says
that they would perch on the edge of his load."
"How shall you feed them?"
"With fruit, and sometimes with meat. M. Sumichrast said yesterday that
they would eat any thing that was given to them. I have already named
them 'Verdet' and 'Janet.'"
"They will be sure to get within reach of Gringalet; are you sure that
he will leave them alone?"
"L'Encuerado has already given him a lecture about it."
"Still I am very much afraid that 'Verdet' and 'Janet' will come to an
untimely end."
While we were resting, Lucien and his friend went off to examine a
caoutchouc-tree. The boy came back much disappointed.
"Your India-rubber-tree isn't worth much," said he to Sumichrast,
showing him a thick white liquid, which he had just collected.
"And pray why not?"
"Because India-rubber ought to be black and dry."
"It will acquire these qualities as it grows older. The India-rubber
oozes from the tree in the form of a milky liquid, like that with which
you are now smearing your fingers."
About three o'clock, when the sun was shining perpendicularly down upon
us, I conducted my companions through the thickets, in order to explore
the course of the river. Very soon we were obliged to cut our way with
our _machetes_, and several reptiles made off before our approach.
Gradually, as we advanced, the bank became covered with swamp ivy,
bignonias, and cedar-trees, till we at last came out on a sandy shore,
where five or six turtles were apparently asleep. In spite of all our
exertions, the creatures reached the stream. L'Encuerado discovered two
little heaps of sand, one of which was still unfinished, and contained
twenty eggs about as big as chestnuts, and covered with a whitish skin.
A little farther on, Lucien caught a small red turtle, the size of a
crown-piece. On hearing from l'Encuerado that it would live several days
without eating, he made up his mind to take it home with him, and gave
it the name of "Rougette."
Gringalet began growling; a deer had just shown its graceful form among
the branches. We all concealed ourselves as well as we could, and when
the beautiful animal came down to the water Sumichrast shot it dead. I
left l'Encuerado to help the sportsman in skinning our prize, and went
on with Lucien. The stream gradually became wider, and we suddenly found
ourselves fronting an immense flooded plain, above which flocks of wild
ducks were circling.
I sat down on the ground in order to admire the lake and its banks,
edged with royal palm-trees, the foliage of which, though dark at the
base, is a beautiful green at the summit. The appearance of a
water-eagle, with its grayish-white head, disturbed the aquatic fowls;
as if by enchantment, some of them hid among the rushes, but the bird of
prey passed over without taking any notice of such game, which it
doubtless considered unworthy of itself. A tantalus settled down at
about twenty paces from us, and plunged into the stream and remained
motionless.
"Oh papa! what a curious bird! it looks as if it had a bald head."
"You are quite right; it is the bird that the Indians call _galambao_."
"It's almost as tall as I am!"
"Don't you see that it is mounted upon long legs like stilts?" replied
I, laughing. "It is a relation of the stork."
"This is the first bird of that kind we have met with."
"These long-legged birds, or waders as they are called, are scarcely
ever found except in marshes, or on the banks of large rivers. They can
always be recognized by their legs, which are of an enormous length, and
devoid of feathers below the knee--a conformation which enables them to
capture their prey in shallow water."
"Is this tantalus going to fish?"
"I should imagine so, for birds of its order have no other means of
obtaining food."
"One might almost fancy that it was asleep, with its great bill drooping
down over its chest."
"Woe be to the fish that is of your opinion. There! did you remark its
sudden movement? It plunges its head down into the water like a flash of
lightning; and now you can see it holds its prey in its beak. Now it is
spreading its short black-edged wings in order to take flight, and
divide among its young brood the products of its labors. Do you see that
beautiful large bird with a tuft on its forehead? That is the _Ardea
agami_, a wader of the heron genus. But look, there is a flock of
egretts (_Egretta alba_), clothed in their plumage as white as the
ermine. They fly about in flocks, but separate for their fishing. These
birds have rather a grave and sad air, and utter now and then a wild and
plaintive cry."
We stopped to watch these waders gloomily standing in the water, until
we heard l'Encuerado's "Hiou! hiou!" informing us that our companions
were approaching the bivouac. I took Lucien through the forest, replying
to his numerous questions about the Grallatores, when we heard the
chattering and clatter produced by a band of monkeys. About twenty wild
turkeys, doubtless frightened by the noise, rushed between our legs. I
let the poor fugitives go, for we had already more victuals than we
could consume. Lucien wondered at the number of animated beings which
surrounded us, all the more surprising when compared with the gloomy
solitude we had just passed through.
"In the _Terre-Chaude_," said I, "the water-side is always fertile, for
the inhabitants both of the prairies and the forests meet there."
"Why don't the Mexicans live in such a varied and beautiful country as
the _Terre-Chaude_?"
[Illustration]
"Because a dragon guards the entrance to these countries where nature
lavishes its choicest gifts."
"A dragon?"
"Yes; the yellow fever. A terrible malady which corrupts the blood, and
selects the most robust frames for its victims. The negro only can labor
under this burning sun; where even an Indian is overcome by the marsh
fever."
"Are we liable to catch these fevers?"
"We should be in danger if we staid here till the rainy season."
"How that tree is loaded with fruit!" said Lucien, interrupting me.
"They are the Mexican medlars. To-morrow we will come and gather some of
them. Five or six different species of their genus grow in these virgin
forests. These beautiful trees produce various fruit, which is more or
less in request. That which has attracted your attention--the _Sapota
achras_--is especially well known. It is considered the most wholesome
of all the tropical fruits; and from the trunk of the tree oozes out the
white gum called _chicle_, which the inhabitants of the _Terre-Chaude_
and the _Terre-Temperee_ are so fond of chewing."
The night overtook us just as we were discussing a haunch of venison
roasted by l'Encuerado. A distant roaring told us that we were
surrounded by wild beasts; but we had every confidence in our two fires
and the screen which l'Encuerado had constructed; so we went quietly to
sleep, although we were awakened several times by a renewal of their
frightful uproar.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]