HUNTING THE MANITUS.
The favorite hour for feeding, with the manitus, is the early morning, during the dim, gray dawn. In consequence I was called up to join the hunters not long after midnight. Two large pitpans, each holding four or five men, were put in requisition, and we paddled rapidly up the river, for several hours, to the top of a long reach, where there were a number of low islands, covered with grass, and where the banks were skirted by swampy savannahs. Here many bushes were cut, and thrown lightly over the boats, so as to make them resemble floating trees. We waited patiently until the proper hour arrived, when the boats were cast loose from the shore, and we drifted down with the current. One man was placed in the stern with a paddle to steer, another with a harpoon and line crouched in the bow, while the rest, keeping their long keen lances clear of impediments, knelt on the bottom. We glided down in perfect silence, one boat close to each bank. I kept my eyes opened to the widest, and in the dim light got quite excited over a dozen logs or so, which I mistook for manitee. But the hunters made no sign, and we drifted on, until I got impatient, and began to fear that our expedition might prove a failure. But of a sudden, when I least expected it, the man in the bow launched his harpoon. The movement was followed by a heavy plunge, and in an instant the boat swung round, head to the stream. Before I could fairly comprehend what was going on, the boughs were all thrown overboard, and the men stood with their long lances poised, ready for instant use. We had run out a large part of the slack of the harpoon-line, which seemed to be fast to some immovable object. The bowsman, however, now began to gather it in, dragging up the boat slowly against the current. Suddenly the manitus, for it was one, left his hold on the bottom, and started diagonally across the river, trailing us rapidly after him. This movement gradually brought him near the surface, as we could see by the commotion of the water. Down darted one of the lances, and under again went the manitus, now taking his course with the current, down the stream. The other boat, meantime, had come to our assistance, hovering in front of us, in order to fasten another harpoon the instant the victim should approach near enough to the surface. An opportunity soon offered, and he received the second harpoon and another lance at the same instant. All this time I had both barrels of my gun cocked, feverishly awaiting my chance for a shot. Soon the struggles of the animal became less violent, and he several times came involuntarily to the surface. I watched my chance, when his broad head rose in sight, and discharged both barrels, at a distance of thirty feet, startling the hunters quite as much as they had disconcerted me. It was the Lord’s own mercy that some of them did not get shot in the general scramble!
The manitus, after receiving the second harpoon, became nearly helpless, and the Indians, apparently secure of their object, allowed the boats to drift with him quietly down the river. Occasionally he made an ineffectual attempt to dive to the bottom, dashing the water into foam in his efforts, but long before we reached the village he floated at the surface, quite dead. The morning was bright and clear when we paddled ashore, where we found every inhabitant of the place clustering to meet us. When they saw that we had been successful, they set up loud shouts, and clapped their hands with vigor, whence (as this was the only manifestation of excitement which I had seen) I inferred that the capture of a manitus was regarded as something of a feat, even on the Mosquito Shore.
Ropes were speedily attached to the dead animal, at which every body seemed anxious to get a chance to pull, and it was dragged up the bank triumphantly, amid vehement shouts. I had been somewhat piqued at the contempt in which my gun had been held, and had been not a little ambitious of being able to say that I had killed a manitus, and as, after my shot, the animal had almost entirely ceased its struggles, I thought it possible I had given it the final coup, and might conscientiously get up a tolerable brag on my adventure, over Mr. Sly’s punch, when I returned to New York. It was with some anxiety, therefore, that I investigated its ugly head, only to find that my balls had hardly penetrated the skin, and that the hide of the manitus is proof against any thing in the shape of firearms, except, perhaps, a Minié rifle. And thus I was cheated out of another chance for immortality! Lest, however, my story that the hide of the manitus is an inch thick, and tough as whale-bone, should not be credited, I had a strip of it cut off, which, when dried, became like horn, and a terror to dogs, in all my subsequent rambles. I suspect there are some impertinent curs here, in New York, who entertain stinging recollections of that same strip of manitus-hide! Dr. Pounder, my old school-master, I am sure, would sacrifice his eyes, or perhaps, what is of equal consequence, his spectacles, to obtain it!
But while my balls were thus impotent, I found that the lances of the Indians had literally gone through and through the manitus. The harpoons did not penetrate far, their purpose being simply to fasten the animal. The lances were the fatal instruments, and I afterwards saw a young Indian drive his completely through the trunk of a full-grown palm-tree. This variety of lance is called silak, and is greatly prized.
MANITEE HARPOON AND LANCES.
There were great doings in the village over the manitus. Beneath the skin there was a deep layer of very sweet fat, below which appeared the flesh, closely resembling beef, but coarser, and streaked throughout with layers of fat. This, when broiled before the fire, proved to be tender, well-flavored, and altogether delicious food. The tail is esteemed the most delicate part, and, as observed by Captain Henderson, who had a trial of it on the same shore, “is a dish of which Apicius might have been proud, and which the discriminating palate of Heliogabalus would have thought entitled to the most distinguished reward!” The better and more substantial part of the animal, namely, the flesh, was carefully cut in strips, rubbed with salt, and, hung in the sun to dry, made into what the Spaniards call tasajo. The other portions were distributed among the various huts, and the tail was presented to me. When I came to leave, I found that the cured or tasajoed flesh had also been preserved for my use. Broiled on the coals, it proved quite equal to any thing I ever tasted, and as sweet as dried venison. And here I may mention that the flesh of the manitus, like that of the turtle, is not only excellent food, but its effects on the system are beneficial, particularly in the cases of persons afflicted with scorbutic or scrofulous complaints. It is said these find speedy relief from its free use, and that, in the course of a few weeks, the disease entirely disappears.