bast shirts, the material for which is found almost everywhere in the
neighborhood of our halting-places. Soon the wood is alive with the
sound of hatchets and the crack of falling trees; and, even before they
are summoned to breakfast, they return with pieces of a silky bast of
about four and a half yards long and somewhat less than one and a
quarter yard wide. Their implements for shirt-making are of primitive
simplicity,--a heavy wooden hammer with notches, called maceta, and a
round piece of wood to work upon. Continuously beaten with the maceta,
the fibres of the bast become loosened, until the originally hard piece
of wood gets soft and flexible, and about double its former breadth.
After it has been washed, wrung out to remove the sap, and dried in
the sun, it has the appearance of a coarse woollen stuff of a bright
whitish-yellow or light brown, disclosing two main layers of wavy fibres
held together by smaller filaments. A more easily prepared and better
working-garment for a tropical climate is hardly to be found than this,
called cascara by the Indians of Bolivia, and turury by those of the
Amazon. Its cut is as simple and classical as its material. A hole is
cut in the middle of a piece about ten feet long, to pass the head
through, and the depending skirt is sewn together on both sides, from
below up to the height of the girdle, which usually is a piece of cotton
string or liana.
Another branch of industry our Indians were busy at, in their hours of
leisure, was the fabrication of straw hats, with the young leaves of a
kind of little palm, the same which supplies the excellent hats imported
from Ecuador and Peru, and known in Europe under the name of Chile or
Panama hats. Dexterity at all sorts of wicker-work seems to be innate to
this race; and the prettiest little baskets and the finest mats of
colored palm-leaves are to be bought on the Missions of the Mamore at
the lowest prices.
[Illustration: A SOUTH SEA ISLAND]
But all these occupations are left at the call of the first mate, who
has the proud title of Capitano. The boats' crews crowd round their
pots, each one receives his allotted portion in a calabash or a basin of
horn, and their spoons of the same material are soon in full activity.
If a jacare has lately been shot, or caught in a _laco_ (sling), every
one, after roasting his own piece of it on the spit, proceeds to cut
at the large slices of the white meat (which, though in appearance
like fish, is as tough as india-rubber) with the satisfaction usually
produced by three or four hours of hard rowing on view of anything
eatable. One tribe especially, the Canichanas, from the former Mission
of San Pedro at the Mamore, think roast caiman the finest eating in the
world; while others, the Cayuabas from Exaltacion, and the Mojos from
Trinidad, whose palates are somewhat more refined, prefer beef, fish, or
turtle to the musk-exhaling saurian. Notably the turtles, which are not
found on the Guapore and Mamore (they are not met with above the rapids
of the Madeira), are prized by them, though we grew rather tired of
them, and no wonder. On the lower Madeira, at our fires, there was
almost daily going on the cooking of turtles, of all sizes, from the
full-grown one of a yard in length to the smallest of the size of a
hand; and in every variety of preparation, too,--whole, and chopped up
as for soup; stewed; and roasted in their own shell or on the spit.
Bathing in the river, immediately after meals, is a luxury invariably
indulged in by all the Indians; and I never remarked that it was
attended by any evil consequences to them.
After a rest of two hours' duration, the cooking utensils, the hammocks,
and improvised tents were carried on board again, and the voyage
continued. A second halt was made after rowing for two or three hours,
when we came in sight of a good place for fishing, such as the mouth of
some smaller river, or an extensive mud-bank. Such places were usually
recognizable from afar, by the multitude of snow-white herons and of
long caimans, which, finding it out before us, crowded there in peaceful
unity, and with similar intentions. The vicinity of the scaly monsters
is scarcely heeded by the Indians, who fish and take their bath,
laughing and jesting, though somewhat hugging the shore, just as if
there were no such thing as the tail or the tooth of the jacare in the
world; and, indeed, these creatures are themselves in much greater
danger than the red-skins. When the last steak of alligator has been
consumed, one of the Canichanas is sure to ask leave to have some fun,
and to provide at the same time for their next dinner. Of course the
permission is always granted, as the sport keeps up their spirits and
spares our provisions. Without loss of time, then, one of them, having
carefully fastened a strong loop of raw hide at the end of a long pole,
and having dexterously slipped off his bast shirt, creeps slowly through
the shallow water, pole and sling in hand, as near as possible to the
alligator, which looks on at these preparations with perfect apathy,
only now and then betraying a sign of life by a lazy movement of its
powerful tail. But it does not take its eyes off the Indian as he crawls
nearer and nearer. The fatal sling is at arm's length from its muzzle,
and yet it does not see it. As if under the influence of witchcraft, it
continues to stare with its large protruding eyes at the bold hunter,
who in the next moment has thrown the loop over its head, and suddenly
drawn it to with a strong pull. The other Indians, who the while have
been cowering motionless on shore, now rush into the water to the help
of their companion, and four or five of them land the ugly creature that
with all its might struggles to get back into the water, lashing the
sand with its tail and showing its long teeth; but a few vigorous blows
with an axe on the tail and skull soon render it tame enough. If,
instead of dragging back, the alligator were only to rush forward boldly
to the attack of the Indians, they would, of a certainty, leave pole
and sling and run for their lives; but this bright idea never seems to
occur to the uncouth animal, and the strife always ends with its death.
Though there were more than a dozen of them killed during the voyage, I
never thought of sending a rifle-bullet through the thick skull of one,
except on one occasion, when I was afraid that one of our Canichanas was
about to make too close an acquaintance with the hard, jagged tail of an
extraordinarily strong monster, which measured full sixteen and a half
feet.
Even before the huge spoil is cut up, four musk-glands, placed by twos
under its jaw, and on its belly, near the beginning of the tail, must be
carefully taken out, to prevent the diffusion, over the whole body, of
the penetrating odor of the greasy, brown liquid they contain. These
glands, which are about an inch and a half long and as thick as a
finger, are carefully tied up and suspended in the sun to dry. Mixed
with a little rose-water, their contents serve, as we were told, to
perfume the raven-black tresses of the elegant Bolivian ladies at Santa
Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba, in spite of, or rather by reason
of, their strong scent, which gives the headache to all save these
strong-nerved senoritas, who love a bull-fight above everything, who
know how to roll the cigarrito, and to dance the fandango with matchless
grace, but who scarcely are able to write their own names.
After such a pleasant interlude of fishing or hunting, the paddles are
plied with renewed vigor until the evening, when sleeping quarters are
selected, either on a sand-bank or in the forest. The canoes are moored
by strong piassaba ropes in some recess of the bank, where they
are protected against drifting trunks; the tents are erected, and
preparations ensue for the principal meal. Meanwhile, after the very
short interval of twilight usual in the tropics, night almost suddenly
throws her dark veil over the valley, and the bright constellations of
the southern sky in quiet majesty adorn the firmament.
While we prepare to take astronomical observations, half a dozen large
fires are lighted round about, in whose fitful blaze the neighboring
forest-trees appear like huge phantoms, looking contemptuously down on
us, poor tiny mortals. Our Indians warm themselves in the cheerful glow,
smoking, and chatting of the day's adventures, or rather of what are
regarded as such,--unusual good or ill luck at fishing and hunting; the
casual meeting of some canoe; or the sight of a seringueiro's poor
cottage. Work over, they take off the rough cascara, and put on the
camiseta, a cotton garment without sleeves, resembling a wide poncho
sewn together at the sides, and whose dazzling whiteness is set off by
two scarlet stripes along the seams. The ample folds and the simple cut
of the garment, which is made by the Indian women of the Missions on
very primitive looms, give quite a stately, classical appearance to the
numerous groups round the fires. Such must have been the aspect
presented by the halting-places of those daring seafarers, the
Phoenicians, who were the first to call into life an international
commerce, and whose light-rigged barques first ventured to distant
shores, to bring home the precious amber and the useful tin. Only the
dense swarms of mosquitoes, which set in immediately after sunset,
remind us rather unpleasantly that we are far off from those happy
northern regions, where such a nuisance can hardly be well imagined.
Especially in the dense forest beneath cacao-bushes, or under the
close leafage of the large figueiras, where no breath of air incommodes
those light-winged tormentors, it is quite impossible, for the European
at least, to close an eye without the shelter of a mosquiteiro
(mosquito-net); and we could but wonder at our Indians, most of whom did
without it. After supper they simply spread a hide on the ground, on
which, with no covering other than the starry firmament above them,
they slept undisturbed till the dawn, only occasionally brushing away,
as if by way of diversion, the most obtrusive of the little fiends. The
capitanos only, and one or other of the older rowers, allow themselves
the luxury of good cotton hammocks, which are also made by their wives
in the Missions.
Such, with few variations, was the course of our daily life, until we
reached the regions of the rapids, when, of course, the hundred little
incidents connected with the dragging of the canoes through narrow,
foaming channels, and with carrying the goods and the vessels themselves
overland, disturbed the monotony of this rude forest life.
BESIEGED BY PECCARIES.
JAMES W. WELLS.
[It is to "Three Thousand Miles through Brazil, from Rio de
Janeiro to Maranhao," by James W. Wells, F.R.G.S., that we
owe the following exciting example of the perils of a hunter's
life in the wilds of the tropics. Mr. Wells and his
fellow-travellers, while journeying up the valley of the Sapao,
far in interior Brazil, came upon traces of the peccary, an
animal which, from its fearlessness, and its habit of moving in
troops, is occasionally a very unsafe creature to meet. What
followed we shall leave the author to tell.]
We were down in the deep, narrow valley, where the slopes of the
table-land surrounded us like a wall, up which there was no visible
ascent. The tall, rank grass was also littered with boulders of
sandstone and short, gnarled, and distorted cork-trees; it was a
toilsome march for both men and animals, but there, certainly, must be
the head-quarters of all the peccaries of the region, for everywhere the
ground was furrowed and rooted up, the grass trodden down in long
lanes, the pools of water turbid, from their wallowing, and the place
odorous as a rank pigsty; and yet, strange to say, not a pig was to be
seen, fortunately for us; for in such an inconvenient place an attack
from these vicious animals in the numbers they could evidently collect
would have enabled them to take us at great disadvantage.
We pushed on the animals to get out of this pig-set man-trap, and
eventually got clear of the labyrinth on the farther side of the last
feeder of the main morass, and, after some difficulty, found an ascent
on to the _geraes_, where we made a bee-line to the Sapao across the
flats.
During the passage of the swamps the Don said,--
"Ah! Senhor Doctor, what a shame to leave such a lovely place; if
you and I were only here to-night, what fun we would have with the
peccaries; but, patience, they will make us a visit to-night, because
of the trail of the dogs."
But neither time nor place would permit of carrying out the Don's
desires, as there was neither water nor pasture for the animals. The
Don's remark about the peccaries paying us a visit is owing to a popular
belief that these animals, when in considerable numbers, will follow a
dog's trail for many miles, and attack and kill him. In fact, it is
customary with the hunters to imitate the barking of a dog to attract
the attention of the pigs, and induce them to collect together and make
an attack; when, the hunters being safely ensconced in trees, the game
is perfectly safe, as the men have only to shoot what they require.
The ground traversed that afternoon was not so free from bush as we had
hitherto found, being in many places thickly covered with dense cerrado
(abounding in immense quantities of the india-rubber-producing
Mangaba-tree), where progress was very slow and difficult, and required
the free use of our wood-knives. After a long and wearisome march, we
reached the valley of the Sapao again, quite eight miles from the
peccaries' haunt.
I found the river valley presented much the same characteristics as we
had found lower down. For the purposes of a railway it is admirable; the
gradients are practically level, and the only works of art required
would be in crossing the many _burity_ swamps that intersect the route,
and these, although numerous, are narrow.
Even the Rio Sapao itself could doubtless be made into a good canal, in
the absence of a railway, for there is plenty of water, and the ground
offers great facilities for straightening its course.
Especial care was taken in preparing the camp that night. The Don and
Jose superintended the operation of constructing the fort, the sides of
which were further protected by spreading over them the hides used for
covering the packs of the mules. Bush was also cut to make up and
enlarge the defences, and a strong stake was driven into the ground
inside the fort for the purpose of securing the dogs in case the
peccaries arrived. The camp was made on the borders of a clump of trees,
to which we were enabled to sling the hammocks, no one caring to sleep
on terra firma that night, but two of the men who were unprovided with
hammocks spread their hides on the ground inside the fort.
After dinner, of course, peccaries formed the sole subject of
conversation, but hour after hour went by, yet no signs of their
presence appeared; and, after arranging the watches for the night, we
turned in, and with the fatigues of the day I was soon asleep.
It appeared to me, however, that I had barely closed my eyes, when I
felt my hammock violently shaken. It was the Don awakening me, saying,
"Wake up, here are the _porcos_, we are going to have some fun." The
first peculiarity that struck me was the prevalence of the odor of old
pigsties. I sat up, looked around, and listened. The pitchy blackness of
night surrounded us, but the fire, burning brightly, sent its flickering
light upon the tree-trunks, the foliage, and the hammocks; two men were
in the fort with gun and knife in hand, and the dogs tied to their stake
were with difficulty kept quiet, and vented their excitement in deep
growls. As I listened it became evident that we were surrounded by some
animals, for in many directions was heard, in the stillness of night,
the sound of bodies moving through the bush, twigs snapping, grass
rustling, etc. It was a moment of suspense, but not for long; for
suddenly, from all around us, came a blood-curdling sound of the
simultaneous snapping of teeth from vast numbers of the enemy, followed
by the appearance of a crowd of charging black animals, rushing with
wonderful speed towards a common centre, the fort. We in the hammocks
each lighted a coil of wax tapers that were prepared ready for the
occasion.
And what a scene ensued! the fire was rapidly scattered, and partly
extinguished; under and around us was a seething mass of black
peccaries, barely distinguishable in the dim light, but all pushing and
struggling to the front; the men in the fort had discharged their
weapons, and were hard at work, hacking and thrusting at the peccaries
as they endeavored to swarm up the smooth surface of the hides that
covered the sides of the fort. The men in the hammocks, after
discharging their guns, reached down and slashed with their knives at
the swarming animals below them.
The attack was more like the wild, reckless bravery of the Arabs of the
Soudan, for as pig after pig fell squealing and disabled, scores more
struggled for his place. The faint light of the tapers and the partly
extinguished fire served but to dimly illuminate the elements of the
strange, noisy, wildly weird scene; the trunks of the surrounding trees
and their foliage; the swinging hammocks with their occupants reaching
downward, cutting and thrusting with their long, gleaming knives; the
dim figures of the men in the _trincheria_, repelling with shouts and
thrusts the swarming enemy; the wild, rushing, charging forms of the
black bodies of the peccaries, as in great numbers they threw themselves
against the fort, regardless of being struck down one after the other,
and always impelled forward by those in the rear struggling to the
front; others made ineffectual attempts to reach our hammocks or
viciously gashed the trees that gave us support; the extremely
disagreeable and nauseous odors of the animals, their snapping of teeth,
like musketry file-firing, the reports of the firearms, the shouts of
the men, the howling and barking of the dogs, and the dim light, created
an indescribably strange and exciting scene. Every bullet of my revolver
took effect. I shouted to the men to reserve their fire, and fire
volleys, but it was like talking in a gale of wind at sea.
In spite of all efforts, still the battle raged. The animals appeared to
be in immense numbers, for, as far as the faint light would permit, the
ground was seen covered with their moving bodies, rushing, struggling,
the strongest beating down the weakest, grunting, squealing, and
snapping their teeth; and noticeable above everything was the abominable
exhalations from their bodies, an odor like a combination of rank butter
and garlic.
I was getting anxious not only for my baggage, but for the men behind
the fort, who had to cut and thrust like madmen; the excitement was
intense. The strong raw hides were ripped up as though slashed with a
sharp knife, and the bags of beans and farinha were freely streaming
their contents on the ground from innumerable rippings from the keen
sharp tusks.
Although we in the hammocks were quite safe, the fort was trembling;
many of the saddles and bags had been displaced by the sheer pressure of
the enemy. Our few miserable firearms appeared to have no more effect
than so many pop-guns, although the ground was becoming strewn with the
bodies of the slain and disabled. At last I succeeded in getting the men
in the hammocks to fire volleys at a given place, and after a time this
appeared to have an effect, for as suddenly as the attack commenced, so
it ceased; and the animals withdrew simultaneously and in silence.
The Don (his voice chuckling with glee) called to us to get ready again,
as they would probably return. "Ah!" said he to me, in a low voice,
"what a splendid time we are having!" I thought, however, of the men in
the fort, one of whom was stanching blood from his wrist. I told the Don
to go and reinforce them; but suddenly the Don became very deaf; he was
very snug in his hammock and really could not hear me; but Jose, like a
good fellow, got out, ran for the fort, jumped in, and helped the men to
make good the damages. We could still hear the pigs in the bush, and
presently, without a moment's warning, we again heard that diabolical
crash of teeth from a complete circle around us, followed immediately by
another wild charge, and the battle was again renewed with all its
excitement; but then, after the first flush of excitement, we became
cooler, and Jose in the fort was a host in himself; this attack was of
much shorter duration, and the enemy once more suddenly retreated. In
the pause that then ensued I thought of Rodrigues, as it then occurred
to me that I had not hitherto noticed him; his hammock was quite still,
and its edges drawn together over his body, that formed a round,
ball-like protuberance in the centre. I saw it all, and could picture
the poor terror-stricken man, coiled up, with blanched face and bated
breath and making himself as small as possible. The men in the fort had
behaved very pluckily.
Six or seven other attacks eventually followed, but each one became
weaker, and at intervals between of longer duration. The eventful night
seemed interminable, and finally it was not until near daybreak that we
heard the last grunt.
At the first lights of gray dawn Jose proposed to reconnoitre, and went
off for the purpose. At first he proceeded very gingerly from tree to
tree. I proposed to myself to go also, but just at that moment I had a
fellow-feeling for the Don's deafness, and thought what a comfortable
place a hammock was, and that really I could do no good; and further I
remembered that generals should always occupy high, commanding
positions; every one was chary of moving from their places of security.
Jose soon afterwards returned, and reported that the enemy had finally
withdrawn.
Thoughts of the horses and mules then occurred to us, and we anxiously
awaited their arrival, for they had acquired the habit of appearing in
camp of their own accord in the early morning for their matutinal feed
of corn. Thankfully I saw three or four soon after arrive, but two men
had to go for the others, that were fortunately found browsing on a
plentiful supply of the shoots of young bamboos. Happily the animals had
been pasturing in a direction opposite to that from whence the peccaries
came, otherwise there would have been a stampede.
Almost the first thing the men did after the final retreat of the
peccaries was to slash the skin on the top of the loins of the defunct
enemy, and extract the gland that creates the disgusting odor peculiar
to these animals; for if not extracted soon after death, it taints the
flesh to such an extent as to render it uneatable except by Indians, who
do not object to any flavor, and eat all their animal food cooked on the
same principle as a European cook prepares a woodcock. There were
twenty-seven dead pigs found in and about the camp, and also several
wounded, to whom it was necessary to give the _coup de grace_. The
wounds were mostly from the knives and small axes, but a very
considerable number of the wounded must have got away to recover, or
linger unfortunately in pain.
Six of the plumpest were selected for drying and salting, the
preparations for which, and also to repair the damages done to the bags
of provisions, delayed our departure for some time.
An examination of these animals showed them to be a species of peccary
resembling that known as the _Dicotyles labiatus_, but an essential
difference was noticeable in the absence of the white lips that give the
name to that species; our enemies had black snouts and dark lips,
otherwise they corresponded in other points.
They had four incisors on the upper jaw, and six molars on each side
above and below; while the tusks, although smaller than a pig's, are
much finer and sharper, inclined slightly backward, and closely overlap
each other. Some of the bodies of the animals measured thirty-six inches
in length. They are more slender in build than the common pig, and
covered with long, stiff bristles, colored with alternate rings of gray,
light-brown, and black. These colors vary with the size and age of the
animals, and as either one predominates, they cause the animal to appear
either brown, gray, or black; the largest we found was almost entirely
black, whereas the smallest had quite a brown appearance.