THE KING OF THE VULTURES.--THE TICKS.--L'ENCUERADO
FRIGHTENED BY A DEMON.--THE TAPIRS.--GOOD-BYE TO
THE STREAM.--THE PUMA'S PREY.--A MISERABLE
NIGHT.--OUR DEPARTURE.--THE SAVANNAH.--LUCIEN
CARRIED IN A LITTER.--HUNGER AND THIRST.--WE
ABANDON OUR BAGGAGE AND PETS IN DESPAIR.
The next morning l'Encuerado started alone on the raft; for we had
resolved to cross the savannah on foot, and thus escape, for an hour or
two, the insects which took advantage of our forced immobility in order
to bleed us at their leisure.
Flocks of black vultures hovered high up in the sky, bending their
course towards a spot not very far from the river bed. Our curiosity led
us in that direction, and in a large hole, with perpendicular sides,
about twelve yards wide, we saw several hundreds of these bare-necked
gentry fighting over the carcass of a buffalo. We were retiring in
disgust, when the vultures, who had not seemed the least alarmed at our
presence, suddenly manifested fear, and, abandoning their prey, stood
around in evident concern. A new guest had made its appearance in the
sky, and soared round and round above us. It settled down heavily, and
folded its black and white wings; the new-comer was the _Sarcoramphus
papa_ of the _savants_--a bird akin to the condor.
This king of the vultures, as the Indians call it, had a black tail, and
white plumage on its back. Its neck was adorned with a ruff of
pearl-gray feathers, and the top of its head was streaked in symmetrical
lines with a dark down; on its yellow beak there was a fleshy
protuberance, the utility of which ornithologists seek in vain to
explain. The magnificent bird darted round it a domineering look, and,
advancing towards the prey, began to feed. New guests were incessantly
arriving, but they all kept their distance.
At last the _sarcoramphus_ flew away, and immediately the vultures
rushed _en masse_ on the carcass, which soon disappeared under the crowd
of beaks.
We now made for the raft, but the distance was greater than we had
calculated; and, before going on board, it was highly necessary to free
ourselves of the hundreds of _ticks_ which we had collected in the
savannah. These insects are black, and as small as fleas, and gather in
masses at the extremities of plants, ready to attach themselves to any
animal that brushes against them. They then bury their claws in the
flesh, and greedily suck the blood. It is a tedious job to pick off one
by one these troublesome parasites, which cause an almost unbearable
itching.
About five o'clock in the evening, the raft came to shore in a bay
shaded by palm-trees. L'Encuerado hastened to stretch out his tigers'
skins, and, as night was at hand, we contented ourselves with the
remains of a tortoise. The Indian, who had walked but little, cocked his
gun and strolled along the edge of the river. In about a quarter of an
hour he returned, looking pale and excited.
"Have you been bitten by a serpent?" I cried.
"No, Tatita," he replied, quite out of breath; "something worse than
that! I have seen _it_!"
"What?" I exclaimed.
"A ghost!" said the Indian in a low tone, crossing himself.
"Pluck up your spirits," said I to the Indian; "if you have, we'll kill
it to-morrow."
"You can't kill it, Tatita."
"With ordinary bullets, no; but those which Sumichrast knows how to
prepare will soon settle him."
My curiosity was raised; for this ghost was an animal called a tapir,
which the Indians believe possessed of supernatural powers; and, as I
had never met with one, I was anxious that we should come across it.
"And didn't you aim at it?" cried my friend.
"No; I ran away," replied the fearless tiger-hunter.
Thus l'Encuerado, whom the evening before we had seen braving tigers,
crocodiles, and wild cattle, now trembled at the mere idea of facing an
inoffensive animal, which was only a relation of the peccaries, with a
snout terminated by a non-prehensile proboscis, yet to which his
imagination attributed certain demoniac qualities. He that night utterly
refused to go to rest; at the least rustling of the leaves he expected
to see the ghost appear. Instead of directly opposing his error--which I
knew would be of no use--I endeavored to convince him that my power far
surpassed that of the object of his dread.
[Illustration: "The reeds were pushed aside."]
"If it wasn't for that," I urged on him, "do you think I would permit
Lucien to sleep in so dangerous a neighborhood?"
Sumichrast gave the Indian two bullets, and solemnly told him that with
these projectiles he would surely kill the object of his dread if he
aimed straight. L'Encuerado gradually recovered his self-possession; the
idea of slaying in one of its most formidable shapes the cause of his
superstition excited his self-esteem, and he went to sleep, and no doubt
dreamt of his next day's exploit.
At day-break we walked down to the confluence of the two rivers; in
front of us stretched a broad prairie covered with thick grass. If the
tapir had not quenched its thirst in the night, it would be sure to
reappear; therefore Lucien and Sumichrast turned to the left close by
the stream, while I and my servant crouched down behind the trunk of a
tree at the entrance of the forest.
We remained in this position for more than an hour, when suddenly the
reeds were pushed, aside, and two of the looked-for pachyderms came out
together on the green-sward.
L'Encuerado kept on crossing himself without intermission.
"Fire," said I, in a low voice, "and aim straight at the forehead."
The gun went off, and the tapirs decamped; but one of them fell on the
ground before it could enter the water; it was dead ere we reached it.
"You have killed the object of your dread," said Lucien, who ran up to
examine the curious animal.
"Yes, Chanito, thanks to the enchanted bullets."
L'Encuerado having positively refused to touch the tapir, Sumichrast
undertook to cut it up, as we much wished to taste its flesh. All our
efforts to induce the Indian to do likewise were fruitless, and his
ingenious mind found a retort to all our arguments. The flesh of the
animal reminded us a little of that of the peccary, although it was less
highly flavored.
About midday the tigers' skins were taken up, and the raft was soon
floating over the combined streams. We had at first thought of
proceeding in this way as far as the Gulf of Mexico; but the season was
now too far advanced to admit of such an excursion. We at length made up
our minds that the next day we should abandon our raft, and return by
the shortest route to our starting-point.
[Illustration]
At dawn of day our bivouac was enlivened by hundreds of birds.
L'Encuerado cut the mooring line of the raft, and let it float down the
stream, thanking it at the same time for the services it had rendered
us, and wishing it prosperity in its lonely voyage to the ocean.
[Illustration: "The deer sank down under the weight of a puma."]
As I stood watching the frail bark gliding away, two herons perched
upon it, and it soon glided out of sight laden with its winged
passengers.
We were all ready to start; the "Tapir River," as Lucien had named it,
we bid adieu to with three hurrahs, and our little party set off,
following Sumichrast, who carried Master Job perched on his shoulder.
Our way lay in part through a prairie, where the heat was overpowering,
and in part through palm-tree woods, infested with mosquitoes. At last,
overcome by fatigue, we felt compelled to halt and bivouac for the
night.
As we were arranging our bivouac next night, l'Encuerado saw a crayfish,
and set off with Lucien to try and catch some of them. I and Sumichrast
started on the trail of some deer we had seen bounding past. We had
scarcely gone more than five hundred yards before we climbed a hill
beyond which a savannah was spread out before us as far as the eye could
reach, the high grass of which looked almost like ripe wheat.
Sumichrast, who had halted, summoned me by an imitation of the cry of an
owl. I hastily and noiselessly joined him, when he pointed out to me,
among the trees, a deer quietly browsing, which would no doubt pass
within gunshot. I stood watching by my friend, following with anxiety
all the movements of the graceful animal, for twice it threw up its head
and showed some vague uneasiness. Sumichrast, fearing that it was about
to make off, was getting ready to fire, when the deer gave a bound and
sank down under the weight of a puma, which had sprung upon it. I fired
at the carnivore, which the ferocious brute responded to by a loud roar,
then, dragging its prey a distance of about fifty yards, it suddenly
made off. The venison of the deer, and more than thirty small crayfish
caught by Lucien and his friend, were a godsend to our larder, and amply
made up for the short commons of previous occasions.
We watched the sun go down from the top of the hill, and descried on the
horizon the bluish line of the Cordillera, with the volcano of Orizava
towering up towards the west. Henceforth this mountain was to be our
guide while crossing the immense savannah, an undertaking which filled
me with dread.
"Shall we cross that great plain?" asked Lucien.
"Yes, Master Sunbeam, it is the shortest way to Orizava."
"How many hours shall we be in doing it?"
"Hours? We shall be three or four days at least."
At this moment a storm, which we saw impending, burst over us, and we
hurried pell-mell to our hut. For four hours the heavens continued to
pour down, amidst thunder and lightning, a perfect deluge, and we were
all, in spite of our shelter, soaked to the skin. The clouds broke up,
and a few stars shone out; about midnight the clear sky regained its
azure tint, while the moon dimly lighted up the landscape. L'Encuerado,
who slept through it, now woke up to help us to rekindle the fire and
get ready a cup of coffee; after enjoying which, and changing our
clothes, we all retired to rest.
In the morning we held a council to deliberate about the route, and,
after some debate, we agreed to l'Encuerado's proposal, and decisively
resolved to cross the savannah direct.
It would have been madness to travel, so heavily laden as we were, under
the rays of a vertical sun; so I proposed not to start till the evening,
and that henceforth we should travel by night, a plan which quite
rejoiced Lucien.
After the baggage had been equally divided, and every thing that was
useless thrown away, I counted the maize-cakes, our only food, and found
we had enough victuals for several days, besides crayfish, and the flesh
of an armadillo. We filled our gourds up to the necks with water and
corked them tightly, then lay down in the shade to gain strength for our
next stage.
[Illustration: "While the moon dimly lighted up the landscape."]
About four o'clock l'Encuerado called us to dinner, and by sunset we
started, home-bound, each with his allotted burden over his shoulder.
Sumichrast, with Lucien following, led the way.
"Well, Master Sunbeam, you are nearly as much lost in the stalks here as
you were in the forest. Are your boots well greased? We shall have many
days of hard walking."
"Where are all the wild cattle and horses?"
"Not far off, I hope! first, because they would guide us to the ponds
and the streams where they drink; and, secondly, we may need them to
furnish us with food."
"Then shall we find nothing to shoot here?"
"Nothing at all where the grass is so high as this; animals seldom
venture into the midst of these solitudes."
"And the birds?"
"They are never to be seen unless the grass grows close to the ground,
excepting birds of prey; and they, perhaps, are hovering over us now,
hoping we may become food for them."
For more than five hours we kept on without stopping. I then proposed a
halt. By lying down on the grass we at once found a soft bed, and Lucien
and the rest of us soon went to sleep. Before daylight l'Encuerado awoke
us, when, after taking our bearings, he undertook to be our guide. As
the first sunbeam appeared, we halted to form our camp and erect our
tent. We cleared a large space, and a hole in the ground served as a
fire-place. Our crayfish remained perfectly fresh, and while l'Encuerado
was broiling them, I and Sumichrast watched the direction of the flames,
as it was highly important for our safety that the savannah should not
be set on fire. The meal dispatched, and the fire extinguished, we
squatted down under the shadow of the grass, and resigned ourselves to
sleep.
I woke about midday, nearly roasted by the sun, which had now replaced
the shade. Calling my companions, so that they might change their
position, a new arrangement of our covering gave us more shelter, and
soon once more all were asleep; but in the short intervening time Lucien
began to repeat to the parrots the names of Hortense and Emile.
At midnight, l'Encuerado shouldered his load and took the lead. The
second night passed like the first, and we travelled at least eight
leagues.
Our third night was interrupted by five or six halts, but we plodded on
till dawn. At the first gleam of light, I examined the horizon; there
was nothing but bluish-looking mountains to the right, and in every
other direction only the gloomy and deserted plain. On this day we had
to be satisfied with maize-cakes; but the hope of at length reaching the
woods cheered every one.
"One night more," said l'Encuerado and Sumichrast, "and then we shall
have rest and abundance."
The fourth day's march was much more wearisome, especially to poor
Lucien, who, still uncomplaining, yet commenced to limp dreadfully.
The day broke, and I again examined the horizon, but could see nothing
except the sky and grass.
"I am afraid we are not going the right way," I said to l'Encuerado.
"God grant we have not been walking at random for these three days."
The Indian stood up on his basket, and carefully examined the outline of
the mountains.
"We are in the right path," said he, positively; "the savannah is very
wide, that is all."
[Illustration: "Lucien began to repeat to the parrots the names of
Hortense and Emile."]
L'Encuerado's assurances only half convinced me. Lucien's feet were so
covered with blisters that he could scarcely put them to the ground.
Unexpectedly I discovered that he was weeping silently; so I took him up
in my arms, when he soon fell asleep.
In this emergency, l'Encuerado, with the straps and poles of our tent,
managed to make a kind of litter, upon which we placed the boy.
Sumichrast helped me to carry him, and though we had to stop hundreds of
times to rest our arms, still we accomplished several leagues. The day
had scarcely begun to dawn, when I again examined the horizon; alas!
nothing was changed, and the only things I saw were flocks of black
vultures, which are not generally regarded as a happy omen.
[Illustration]
Owing to an accident by which our reserve gourd was burst and the
contents spilt, we were tormented by thirst, and the only food we had to
eat only half restored our rapidly-failing strength. In another day all
our maize-cakes would be exhausted, and the rice was of no use without
water. Fatigue gradually dispelled these gloomy thoughts, and we fell
asleep.
I awoke about four o'clock in the afternoon, and was dismayed to find
that l'Encuerado had deserted us, accompanied by Gringalet.
Having passed a whole night in useless waiting, hoping for his
reappearing, we resolved to pursue our journey. So we put all the
baggage into one heap, and set Janet and Verdet at liberty, leaving them
the sack of rice, which we could not carry. Then, loaded with our guns
and gourds--alas! almost empty--we prepared to start on our journey
without having the courage to undeceive Lucien, who thought we were
going to meet his friend.
At last, having examined the horizon carefully, I placed Master Job on
my shoulder, and, led by Sumichrast, Lucien being borne between us, we
pursued our course.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]