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The son of the ranchman, a tall, well-built young fellow, told me at once that there were peccaries in the neighborhood, and that he had himself shot one but two or three days before, and volunteered to lend us horses and pilot us to the game on the morrow, with the help of his two dogs. The last were big black curs with, as we were assured, "considerable hound" in them.
"They will eat anything they kill, but their chief food is roots. They kill great numbers of snakes. Even the largest python is no match for a herd of peccaries if they catch him before he can take refuge in a tree." "Well, then, it is very lucky that you stopped us before we fired." "Fortunate indeed, senor.
There were a few deer-runways and sometimes little paths made by peccaries the jabali, or wild pigs, of Mexico. The ground was clay and unusually dry, sometimes baked so hard that it left no imprint of a track. Where a growth of cottonwood had held back the encroachment of the willows there usually was thick grass and underbrush.
Should they be impeded in their progress by a river, the chief stops for a moment to reconnoitre; then plunges boldly into the stream, followed by all the rest of the troop. The breadth of the river, and the rapidity of the current, seem to be but trifling obstacles to them; and are overcome easily, since the peccaries are excellent swimmers.
It is an instinct of animals like wolves and peccaries to devour the enemy they have overcome and slain: thus, when the jaguar captures a peccary out of a drove, and does not quickly escape with his prize into a tree, he is instantly attacked and slain and then consumed, even to the skin and bones.
The white-lipped peccaries are found in all the forests of South America from the Caribbean Sea to the Pampas of Buenos Ayres. They are abundant in Paraguay; and Sonnini, the traveller, has observed them in Guyana. Others report their presence on the Orinoco and its tributaries as also on all the waters of the Amazon.
Our Indians shot some monkeys and three peccaries, with some birds, which served us for provision for some days; but we had no fear of being in want of food, as we were certain of finding an abundance of turtle on the banks of the river, and further down, of being able to purchase from friendly Indians, plantains, bananas, guavas, granadillas, pine-apples, water-melons, and many other fruits and vegetables.
As they use both their teeth, tusks, and sharp fore-hoofs with rapidity and effect, they become a formidable and dangerous enemy. The cougar is often killed and torn to pieces by a drove of peccaries, that he has been imprudent enough to attack. Indeed, this fierce creature will not often meddle with the peccaries when he sees them in large numbers.
Harry and Bertie could not help laughing. Dias had, on returning to the mules, taken his wife and seated her on a branch six feet from the ground, in order that, should the peccaries attack them, he might be ready at once to snatch up his rifle and join in the fight without having first to think of the safety of his wife. He now lifted her down.
The dogs were baying excitedly at the mouth of a huge hollow log, and very short examination showed us that there were two peccaries within, doubtless a boar and sow. However, just at this moment the peccaries bolted from an unsuspected opening at the other end of the log, dove into the tangle, and instantly disappeared with the hounds in full cry after them.
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