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Updated: June 10, 2025
After he had made a few paces in a forward direction, he began to perceive something moving around the bodies of the animals. Snakes? No. What then? A few paces nearer. See! the whole ground is in motion. The bodies of the aïs, though dead, are covered with living, moving objects! Ha! it is a "chacu" of the white ants. Leon now comprehended the whole affair.
That would no doubt be explained when we had reached the scene of the chacu, and I forbore to trouble my companions with any interrogatories, as I had enough to do to guide my horse along the slippery path we were travelling. "About a mile from the village there was a sudden halt. I inquired the cause. "`The huaro, was the reply.
Usually the whole population of one of the villages of the "Sierras" lower down turns out for this sport, or rather business, for it is an annual source of profit. Even the women go along, to cook and perform other offices, as the hunt of the chacu sometimes lasts a week or more. A hunting party will number from fifty to one hundred persons.
It is an animal most difficult to approach, and there is rarely any cover on these naked plains by which to approach it. The chief mode of capturing it is by the "chacu." This cannot be effected by a single hunter. A great number is required.
"The hunters, who were afoot with the women, now rushed to the entrance, and in a short while new stakes were driven in, ropes tied upon them, rags attached, and the circle of the chacu was complete. "The mounted hunters at the same time had galloped around the outside, and flinging themselves from their horses, took their stations, at intervals from each other.
The meat was packed on the horses and mules, and the hunting party, in a long string, proceeded to camp. Then followed a scene of feasting and merriment such as did not fall to the lot of these poor people every day in the year. "This chacu lasted ten days, during which time I remained in the company of my half-savage friends. Of course only the vicunas were taken in the chacu.
As it was necessary to supply food for the army, and we were passing through a part of the country where the vicunas abounded, the party halted to engage in a grand hunt, which is termed a chacu. About two hundred men were told off for this purpose; some remaining encamped, and others being sent as scouts, to the rear, to ascertain that no Spaniards were following us.
The other animals were started incidentally, and killed by the hunters either with their bolas, or guns, with which a few of them were armed." The "chacu" of the Andes Indians corresponds to the "surround" of the Indian hunters on the great plains of North America.
A good substantial inclosure of branches and trees is necessary, and the construction of a "pound" is the work of time and labour. I know of no animal except the vicuna itself, that could be captured after the manner practised in the "chacu." We were now travelling among the spurs of the "Ozark hills," and our road was a more difficult one.
After hearing this I was at no loss to understand the padre's enthusiasm about the chacu. All the day before he had been bustling about among his parishioners, aiding them with his counsel, and assisting them in their preparations. I shared the padre's dwelling, the best in the village; his supper too a stewed fowl, killed for the occasion, and rendered fiery hot with `aji, or capsicum.
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