"The decisive moment had come. A victim there must be—either the buffalo or myself—and we were both disposed to defend ourselves stoutly. I should be puzzled to describe what passed within me during the short time the animal took to traverse the interval between us. My heart, which had beat so violently when I heard him tearing through the forest, no longer throbbed. My eyes were fixed upon his forehead with such intensity that I saw nothing else. There was a sort of deep silence within me. I was too much absorbed to hear anything—even the baying of the dogs as they followed their prey at a short distance.
"At last the buffalo stopped, lowered his head, and presented his horns; just as he gave a spring I fired. My bullet pierced his skull—I was half saved. He fell to the ground, just a pace in front of me, with the ponderous noise of a mass of rock. I put my foot between his horns and was about to fire my second barrel, when a hollow and prolonged roar informed me that my victory was complete. The buffalo was dead. My Indians came up. Their joy turned to admiration; they were delighted; I was all that they wished me to be.
"Their doubts had been dissipated with the smoke of my gun; I was brave, I had proved it, and they had now entire confidence in me. My victim was cut up, and carried in triumph to the village. In right of conquest I took his horns; they were six feet in length; I have since deposited them in the Nantes museum. The Indians, those lovers of metaphor, those givers of surnames, thenceforward called me Malamit Oulou—Tagal words, signifying 'cool head.'"
The traveler describes the cayman, which is of enormous size—the whale of the oozy lagoon. He relates the following adventure with a boa:
THE BOA OF LUZON.
"The other monster of which I have promised a description, the boa, is common in the Philippines, but it is rare to meet with a very large specimen. It is possible, even probable, that centuries (?) are necessary for this reptile to attain its largest size; and to such an age the various accidents to which animals are exposed rarely suffer it to attain. Full-sized boas are met with only in the gloomiest, most remote, and most solitary forests.
A boa
"I have seen many boas of ordinary size, such as are found in our European collections. There were some, indeed, that inhabited my house; and one night I found one, two yards long, in possession of my bed.
"Several times, passing through the woods with my Indians, I heard the piercing cries of a wild boar. On approaching the spot whence they proceeded we almost invariably found a wild boar, about whose body a boa had twisted its folds, and was gradually hoisting him up into the tree round which it had coiled itself. (See book for illustration.)