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Updated: June 7, 2025
"Upon my word!" exclaimed Sumichrast, "does this wretch intend to give us a present to her children?" I stuck my machete into the ground, so as to have it at hand; and the brute lay down on the ground, as if ready to spring. "Now then, my fine lady, come and meddle with us if you dare!" muttered my friend, imitating l'Encuerado's tone.
We had spoken often enough to the Indian on the subject, but he always asserted that if God had allowed man to kill for the purpose of food, He had also ordered him to destroy hurtful animals, as they were the allies of the demon. Unfortunately, horses and dogs excepted, all animals were hurtful in l'Encuerado's eyes.
I also noticed that l'Encuerado's basket was decked with the three squirrels' skins, which would thus gradually dry. We had walked on for nearly an hour, the only incident being our meeting with various kinds of birds, when the melancholy cry of the couroucou struck on our ears.
"I wish I had known that before," he said; "we might have brought a pigeon or two with us, and then poor mamma would have had news of us before now." Sumichrast, who had taken upon himself the office of head-cook, vacant owing to l'Encuerado's wound, returned to the bivouac laden with our game.
The chant was ended by a prayer, which Sumichrast and I listened to, standing up, with our heads bared; and it was with earnestness that my friend repeated l'Encuerado's solemn "Amen," expressed in the words, "God is great." Having fed the fire with sufficient wood to keep it up all night, we lay down, side by side, under the hut.
Woods, mountains, valleys were crossed with a kind of feverish haste, and the approach of night alone forced us to bivouac. At about three o'clock in the morning, Lucien began to reproach us for our laziness. Wood-cutters now passed, who saluted me by name, and one guided us for more than a league, astonished at l'Encuerado's tales.
Our road now commenced to ascend, sometimes crossing glades or groves. Suddenly a wide prairie opened out before us, and Sumichrast led the way through its tall reeds. After a quarter of an hour's walking, our guide began to sneeze; Lucien followed his example, then came l'Encuerado's turn, and at last mine, and ultimately Gringalet's.
The report of a gun suddenly cut short my reverie, and l'Encuerado's shout of "Hiou! hiou!" summoned us to him. While I hurried Lucien along as fast as I could, I heard some loud shouting, which almost smothered the furious barking of the dog, and then saw my friend Sumichrast grasping the throat of an animal which Gringalet was worrying.
L'Encuerado's wound was less painful, and did not prevent his using his gun. Had it not been for my express prohibition, he would have resumed his burden. When we reached the summit of the hill, he led us among the trees, and, commencing a descent, our little party did not stop till we had reached the bottom of a dark and damp glen, close to a greenish pool.
When we talked about killing the animal, Lucien opposed the idea with great vehemence. He wanted either to carry it away alive or to let it go both being plans which could not be allowed. Gringalet, however, cut short the discussion by strangling it, l'Encuerado's carelessness having left it in his way.
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