by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER THIRTY.
HUNTING THE TAPIR.
At one of our prairie-camps our English comrade furnished us with thefollowing account of that strange creature, the tapir.
"No one who has turned over the pages of a picture-book of mammalia willbe likely to forget the odd-looking animal known as the tapir. Its longproboscis-like snout, its stiff-maned neck, and clumsy hog-like body,render the _tout ensemble_ of this creature so peculiar, that there isno mistaking it for any other animal.
"When full-grown, the tapir, or anta, as it is sometimes called, is sixfeet in length by four in height--its weight being nearly equal to thatof a small bullock. Its teeth resemble those of the horse; but insteadof hoofs, its feet are toed--the fore ones having four toes, while thehind-feet have only three each. The eyes are small and lateral, whilethe ears are large and pointed. The skin is thick, somewhat like thatof the hippopotamus, with a very thin scattering of silky hairs over it;but along the ridge of the neck, and upon the short tail, the hairs arelonger and more profuse. The upper jaw protrudes far beyond theextremity of the under one. It is, moreover, highly prehensile, andenables the tapir to seize the roots upon which it feeds with greaterease. In fact, it plays the part of the elephant's proboscis to alimited degree.
"Although the largest quadruped indigenous to South America, the tapiris not very well-known to naturalists. Its haunts are far beyond theborders of civilisation. It is, moreover, a shy and solitary creature,and its active life is mostly nocturnal; hence no great opportunity isoffered for observing its habits. The chapter of its natural history istherefore a short one.
"The tapir is an inhabitant of the tropical countries of America,dwelling near the banks of rivers and marshy lagoons. It is theAmerican representative of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, or, moreproperly, of the _maiba_, or Indian tapir (_Tapirus Indicus_) ofSumatra, which has but lately become known to naturalists. The latter,in fact, is a near congener, and very much, resembles the tapir of SouthAmerica.
"The tapir is amphibious--that is, it frequents the water, can swim anddive well, and generally seeks its food in the water or the soft marshysedge; but when in repose, it is a land animal, making its haunt inthick coverts of the woods, and selecting a dry spot for its lair. Hereit will remain couched and asleep during the greater part of the day.At nightfall, it steals forth, and following an old and well-used path,it approaches the bank of some river, and plunging in, swims off insearch of its food--the roots and stems of several species ofwater-plants. In this business it occupies most of the hours ofdarkness; but at daybreak, it swims back to the place where it enteredthe water, and going out, takes the `backtrack' to its lair, where itsleeps until sunset again warns it forth.
"Sometimes during rain, it leaves its den even at midday. On suchoccasions, it proceeds to the river or the adjacent swamp, where itdelights to wallow in the mud, after the manner of hogs, and often forhours together. Unlike the hog, however, the tapir is a cleanly animal.After wallowing, it never returns to its den until it has first plungedinto the clear water, and washed the mud thoroughly from its skin.
"It usually travels at a trot, but when hard pressed it can gallop. Itsgallop is peculiar. The fore-legs are thrown far in advance, and thehead is carried between them in a very awkward manner, somewhat afterthe fashion of a frolicsome donkey.
"The tapir is strictly a vegetable feeder. It lives upon flags androots of aquatic plants. Several kinds of fruits, and young succulentbranches of trees, form a portion of its food.
"It is a shy, timid animal, without any malice in its character; andalthough possessed of great strength, never uses it except for defence,and then only in endeavours to escape. It frequently suffers itself tobe killed without making any defence, although with its great strengthand well-furnished jaws it might do serious hurt to an enemy.
"The hunt of the tapir is one of the amusements, or rather employments,of the South-American Indians. Not that the flesh of this animal is soeagerly desired by them: on the contrary, it is dry, and has adisagreeable taste, and there are some tribes who will not eat of it,preferring the flesh of monkeys, macaws, and the armadillo. But thepart most prized is the thick, tough skin, which is employed by theIndians in making shields, sandals, and various other articles. This isthe more valuable in a country where the thick-skinned andleather-yielding mammalia are almost unknown.
"Slaying the tapir is no easy matter. The creature is shy; and, havingthe advantage of the watery clement, is often enabled to dive beyond thereach of pursuit, and thus escape by concealing itself. Among most ofthe native tribes of South America, the young hunter who has killed atapir is looked upon as having achieved something to be proud of.
"The tapir is hunted by bow and arrow, or by the gun. Sometimes the`gravatana,' or blow-tube, is employed, with its poisoned darts. In anycase, the hunter either lies in wait for his prey, or with a pack ofdogs drives it out of the underwood, and takes the chances of a `flyingshot.'
"When the trail of a tapir has been discovered, its capture becomeseasy. It is well-known to the hunter that this animal, when proceedingfrom its lair to the water and returning, always follows its old trackuntil a beaten-path is made, which is easily discernible.
"This path often betrays the tapir, and leads to its destruction.
"Sometimes the hunter accomplishes this by means of a pitfall, coveredwith branches and palm-leaves; at other times, he places himself inambuscade, either before twilight or in the early morning, and shootsthe unsuspecting animal as it approaches on its daily round.
"Sometimes, when the whereabouts of a tapir has been discovered, a wholetribe sally out, and take part in the hunt. Such a hunt I myselfwitnessed on one of the tributaries of the Amazon.
"In the year 18--, I paid a visit to the Jurunas up the Xingu. Their_Malaccas_ (palm-hut villages) lie beyond the falls of that river.Although classed as `wild Indians,' the Jurunas are a mild race,friendly to the traders, and collect during a season considerablequantities of _seringa_ (Indian-rubber), sarsaparilla, as well as rarebirds, monkeys, and Brazil-nuts--the objects of Portuguese trade.
"I was about to start back for Para, when nothing would serve the_tuxava_, or chief of one of the maloccas, but that I should stay a dayor two at his village, and take part in some festivities. He promised atapir-hunt.
"As I knew that among the Jurunas were some skilled hunters, and as Iwas curious to witness an affair of this kind, I consented. The huntwas to come off on the second day of my stay.
"The morning arrived, and the hunters assembled, to the number of fortyor fifty, in an open space by the malocca; and having got their arms andequipments in readiness, all repaired to the _praya_, or narrow beach ofsand, which separated the river from the thick underwood of the forest.Here some twenty or thirty _ubas_ (canoes hollowed out of tree-trunks)floated on the water, ready to receive the hunters. They were ofdifferent sizes; some capable of containing half a dozen, while otherswere meant to carry only a single person.
"In a few minutes the ubas were freighted with their living cargoes,consisting not only of the hunters, but of most of the women and boys ofthe malocca, with a score or two of dogs.
"These dogs were curious creatures to look at. A stranger, ignorant ofthe customs of the Jurunas, would have been at some loss to account forthe peculiarity of their colour. Such dogs I had never seen before.Some were of a bright scarlet, others were yellow, others blue, and somemottled with a variety of tints!
"What could it mean? But I knew well enough. _The dogs were dyed_!
"Yes, it is the custom among many tribes of South-American Indians todye not only their own bodies, but the hairy coat of their dogs, withbrilliant colours obtained from vegetable juices, such as the huitoc,the yellow raucau (_annato_), and the blue of the wild indigo. Thelight grey, often white, hair of these animals favours the stainingprocess; and the effect produced pleases the eye of their savagemasters.
"On my eye the effect was strange and fantastical
. I could not restrainmy laughter when I first scanned these curs in their fanciful coats.Picture to yourself a pack of scarlet, and orange, and purple dogs!
"Well, we were soon in the ubas, and paddling up-stream. The tuxava andI occupied a canoe to ourselves. His only arms were a light fusil,which I had given him as a present. It was a good piece, and he wasproud of it. This was to be its first trial. I had a rifle for my ownweapon. The rest were armed variously: some had guns, others the nativebow and arrows; some carried the gravatana, with arrows dipped in curaripoison; some had nothing but machetes, or cutlasses--for clearing theunderwood, in case the game had to be driven from the thickets.
"There was a part of the river, some two or three miles above themalocca, where the channel was wider than elsewhere--several miles inbreadth at this place. Here it was studded with islands, known to be afavourite resort of the tapirs. This was to be the scene of our hunt.
"We approached the place in about an hour; but on the way I could nothelp being struck with the picturesqueness of our party. No `meet' inthe hunting-field of civilised countries could have equalled us in thatrespect. The ubas, strung out in a long irregular line, sprangup-stream in obedience to the vigorous strokes of the rowers, and thesesang in a sort of irregular concert as they plied their paddles. Thesongs were improvised: they told the feats of the hunters alreadyperformed, and promised others yet to be done. I could hear the word`tapira' (tapir), often repeated. The women lent their shrill voices tothe chorus; and now and then interrupted the song with peals of merrylaughter. The strange-looking flotilla--the bronzed bodies of theIndians, more than half nude--their waving black hair--their blue-headbelts and red cotton armlets--the bright _tangas_ (aprons) of thewomen--their massive necklaces--the macaw feathers adorning the heads ofthe hunters--their odd arms and equipments--all combined to form apicture which, even to me, accustomed to such sights, was full ofinterest.
"At length we arrived among the islands, and then the noises ceased.The canoes were paddled as slowly and silently as possible.
"I now began to understand the plan of the hunt. It was first todiscover an island upon which a tapir was supposed to be, and thenencompass it with the hunters in their canoes, while a party landed withthe dogs, to arouse the game and drive it toward the water.
"This plan promised fair sport.
"The canoes now separated; and in a short while each of them were seencoursing quietly along the edge of some islet, one of its occupantsleaning inward, and scrutinising the narrow belt of sand that borderedthe water.
"In some places no such sand-belt appeared. The trees hung over, theirbranches even dipping into the current, and forming a roofed and darkpassage underneath. In such places a tapir could have hidden himselffrom the sharpest-eyed hunters, and herein lies the chief difficulty ofthis kind of hunt.
"It was not long before a low whistle was heard from one of the ubas, asign for the others to come up. The traces of a tapir had beendiscovered.
"The chief, with a stroke or two of his palm-wood paddle, brought ourcanoe to the spot.
"There, sure enough, was the sign--the tracks of a tapir in the sand--leading to a hole in the thick underwood, where a beaten-path appearedto continue onward into the interior of the island, perhaps to thetapir-den. The tracks were fresh--had been made that morning in the wetsand--no doubt the creature was in its lair.
"The island was a small one, with some five or six acres of surface.The canoes shot off in different directions, and in a few minutes weredeployed all around it. At a given signal, several hunters leapedashore, followed by their bright-coloured assistants--the dogs; and thenthe chopping of branches, the shouts of the men, and the yelping oftheir canine companions, were all heard mingling together.
"The island was densely wooded. The _uaussu_ and _piriti_ palms grew sothickly, that their crowned heads touched each other, forming a closeroof. Above these, rose the taller summits of the great forest trees,_cedrelas, zamangs_, and the beautiful long-leaved silk-cotton(_bombax_); but beneath, a perfect net-work of sipos or creepers andllianas choked up the path, and the hunters had to clear every step ofthe way with their machetes. Even the dogs, with all their eagerness,could make only a slow and tortuous advance among the thorny vines ofthe smilax, and the sharp spines that covered the trunks of the palms.
"In the circle of canoes that surrounded the island, there was perfectsilence; each had a spot to guard, and each hunter sat, with arms ready,and eyes keenly fixed on the foliage of the underwood opposite hisstation.
"The uba of the chief had remained to watch the path where the tracks ofthe tapir had been observed. We both sat with guns cocked and ready;the dogs and hunters were distinctly heard in the bushes approaching thecentre of the islet. The former gave tongue at intervals, but theiryelping grew louder, and was uttered with a fiercer accent. Several ofthem barked at once, and a rushing was heard towards the water.
"It came in our direction, but not right for us; still the game waslikely to issue at a point within range of our guns. A stroke of thepaddle brought us into a better position. At the same time severalother canoes were seen shooting forward to the spot.
"The underwood crackled and shook; reddish forms appeared among theleaves; and the next moment a dozen animals, resembling a flock of hogs,tumbled out from the thicket, and flung themselves with a splashing intothe water.
"`No--tapir no--capivara,' cried the chief; but his voice was drowned bythe reports of guns and the twanging of bowstrings. Half a dozen of thecapivaras were observed to fall on the sandy margin, while the restplunged forward, and, diving beyond the reach of pursuit, were seen nomore.
"This was a splendid beginning of the day's sport; for half a dozen at asingle volley was no mean game, even among Indians.
"But the nobler beast, the tapir, occupied all our thoughts; and leavingthe capivaras to be gathered in by the women, the hunters got back totheir posts in a few seconds.
"There was no doubt that a tapir would be roused. The island had allthe appearance of being the haunt of one or more of these creatures,besides the tracks were evidence of their recent presence upon the spot.The beating, therefore, proceeded as lively as ever, and the huntersand dogs now penetrated to the centre of the thicket.
"Again the quick angry yelping of the latter fell upon the ear; andagain the thick cover rustled and shook.
"`This time the tapir,' said the chief to me in an undertone, adding thenext moment in a louder voice, `Look yonder!'
"I looked in the direction pointed out. I could perceive something inmotion among the leaves--a dark brown body, smooth and rounded, the bodyof a tapir!
"I caught only a glimpse of it, as it sprang forward into the opening.It was coming at full gallop, with its head carried between its knees.The dogs were close after, and it looked not before it, but dashed outand ran towards us as though blind.
"It made for the water, just a few feet from the bow of our canoe. Thechief and I fired at the same time. I thought my bullet took effect,and so thought the chief did his; but the tapir, seeming not to heed theshots, plunged into the stream, and went under.
"The next moment the whole string of dyed dogs came sweeping out of thethicket, and leaped forward to where the game had disappeared.
"There was blood upon the water. The tapir is hit, then, thought I; andwas about to point out the blood to the chief, when on turning I saw thelatter poising himself knife in hand, near the stern of the canoe. Hewas about to spring out of it. His eye was fixed on some object underthe water.
"I looked in the same direction. The waters of the Xingu are as clearas crystal: against the sandy bottom, I could trace the dark brown bodyof the tapir. It was making for the deeper channel of the river, butevidently dragging itself along with difficulty. One of its legs wasdisabled by our shots.
"I had scarcely time to get a good view of it before the chief spranginto the air, and dropped head foremost into the water. I could see astruggle going on at the bottom--turbi
d water came to the surface--andthen up came the dark head of the savage chief.
"`Ugh!' cried he, as he shook the water from his thick tresses, andbeckoned me to assist him--`Ugh! Senhor, you eat roast tapir fordinner. Si--bueno--here tapir.'
"I pulled him into the boat, and afterwards assisted to haul up the hugebody of the slain tapir.
"As was now seen, both our shots had taken effect; but it was therifle-bullet that had broken the creature's leg, and the generous savageacknowledged that he would have had but little chance of overtaking thegame under water, had it not been previously crippled.
"The hunt of the day proved a very successful one. Two more tapirs werekilled; several capivaras; and a paca--which is an animal much prized bythe Indians for its flesh, as well as the teeth--used by them in makingtheir blow-guns. We also obtained a pair of the small peccaries,several macaws, and no less than a whole troop of guariba monkeys. Wereturned to the malocca with a game-bag as various as it was full, and agrand dance of the Juruna women wound up the amusements of the day."
