In fact, one of the most wonderful things a traveller meets with in South America, is the different and strange sounds at night. The howling monkeys, the night-birds, the sharp cries of the jaguars, the roar of the pumas, the flapping of wings, the rustling of branches, and other noises, are astonishing!
How different from the lone solitude of our woods in New England, where the only sound, perhaps, that disturbs the silence of the night, is the distant hooting of the owl, or the howling of some dog. Indeed, the greater part of the time, every creature is so silent that you would scarcely know that any living thing was waking.
Well, I stayed so long in the bird cavern, that it was quite dark when I got back to my horse, and I had not yet made up my nightly fire. So I groped round in the dark and collected, as well as I could, some leaves and sticks, and began to kindle my fire. But just as I was kneeling down to blow at the heap of fuel I had lighted, my horse suddenly started, drew back to the full length of his cord, rolled his eyes, enlarged his nostrils, threw his ears forward, erected his main and tail, and stood there the very picture of terror. “There is danger now,” thought I; but I was resolved to meet it. So I jumped up instantly, and looking into the gloom, in the direction which my horse’s eyes took, I saw a dark mass of something moving slowly along among the bushes.
I was up the tree instantly, I assure you, taking with me my gun, which I had rested against its trunk. For a minute or two all was quiet. Soon, however, the dark body approached a little nearer, but so quietly, that I should have thought very little more of it, had not my horse shown symptoms of so much alarm. I levelled my piece and fired, and, as I suppose, wounded the animal; for he bounded up, and darted off into the thicket.
Just at this moment the fire burst into a bright blaze, which kept the wild animals away for the rest of that night. I did not rest or sleep very well, however, for I had used the rope that I commonly tied myself with, to fasten my horse. One thing, however, you may easily suppose, I did not forget to do; which was to give thanks to my great Preserver, who ‘guides the helm’, as we sailors say, by land, as well as by sea.
TRAVELS AMONG THE INDIANS.
The Steppes—New troubles—Bad water—Eating clay and ants.
I came at last to the dreary plains of South America, called Steppes, and here my troubles were unusually severe. All kinds of stinging insects, serpents, and loathesome reptiles annoyed me; besides I could hardly get food and drink. Sometimes, though rarely, I was so fortunate as to find a plant resembling the aloe, containing a quantity of pure water in its stem; but when I could not get this, I was obliged to drink the horrible water of the rivers, swarming with animalculæ (little creatures almost too small to be seen by the naked eye) to such a degree that I seemed to swallow about as much solid matter as liquid. As to food, I was contented, often, to swallow little balls of earth, as the natives do; for though it would be disgusting now, it served then, to keep the breath of life in me. It is a very fat, buttery kind of earth, and is prepared for food by baking it slightly in the fire. You are aware, I suppose, that the natives of Japan, Siberia, Africa, and other parts of the world, also sometimes eat clay.
After travelling a long time, I came unexpectedly upon a wandering tribe of Indians, consisting of only three or four families; and, entering one of their wretched huts, built of clay and leaves, I asked them for food.
At first they did not understand me, but with the help of signs, I soon made them comprehend that I was hungry; upon which one of them took down a bag containing a kind of greasy, spotted, whitish paste, gave me some of it, pointed to the fire, and went and lay down in his hammock, which with fourteen others was slung from some beams above.