The animal came down slowly, and we could only see it indistinctly. At last it reached the lower branches. It was an ant-eater (Myrmecophaga jubātā). It remained motionless for an instant, moving its enormous muzzle, and darting out its flat tongue, which, being covered with a slimy coating, enabled it to catch up the ants with facility. At length the "bear," as it is called by the Indians, slid down the trunk, hanging on to it with its enormous claws, its prehensile tail strongly clinging to the sides of the tree.
At the sight of this shapeless beast, only fifty paces from us, Lucien rushed to me in terror. Sumichrast had just cocked his gun, and the noise made the ant-eater turn tail and prepare to run off, when it found itself face to face with l'Encuerado. It stood up on its hind legs, with its snout in the air, and then stretched out its arms ready to strike any one who was imprudent enough to come within reach of them. Nothing could be more strange than the appearance of the animal in this defensive position. Suddenly a shot was fired, and the ant-eater crossed its fore legs and fell down dead. L'Encuerado had once been nearly throttled by an ant-eater, and hence it would have been of no use for me to have attempted to prevent his shooting it.
"Do not come near, Tata Sumichrast," cried the Indian; "these beasts die very hard, and I still bear the marks of their claws on my skin. Let me just tickle him up with the point of my machete."
"You need not have been afraid," said Sumichrast; "its ugliness is no proof that it is vicious. It will not attack human beings, and only makes use of its strength to defend itself. It is of the order Edentala, and akin to the armadilloes."
"Does it eat any thing but ants?" asked Lucien.
"The bank to the right was covered with cranes, and that to the left with spoonbills."
"Ants and other insects. It climbs trees, and its bushy tail distinguishes it from its brothers, the little ant-eater (M. dydactyla), which seldom visits the ground, and eats more insects than ants, and the tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla)."
"But how many ants does it take to satisfy it?"
"Thousands; and it would die of hunger if it had to take them one by one; but, thanks to the length of its tongue, it is enabled to pick up hundreds at a time."