Martin Rattler

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER XII

  A HUNTING EXPEDITION, IN WHICH ARE SEEN STONES THAT CAN RUN, AND COWSTHAT REQUIRE NO FOOD--BESIDES A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER WITH A JAGUAR, ANDOTHER STRANGE THINGS

  For many weeks Martin Rattler and his friend Barney O'Flannagan continuedto dwell with the hermit in his forest-home, enjoying his entertainingand instructive discourse, and joining with him in the huntingexpeditions which he undertook for the purpose of procuring fresh foodfor his table. In these rambles they made constant discoveries ofsomething new and surprising, both in reference to the vegetables andanimals of that extraordinary region of the earth. They also had manyadventures,--some amusing and some terrible,--which we cannot enlarge onhere, for they would fill ten volumes such as this, were they to be allrecorded in detail.

  One day the hermit roused them earlier than usual and told them to getready, as he intended to go a considerable distance that day, and hewished to reach a particular spot before the heat of noon. So Martin andBarney despatched breakfast in as short a time as possible, and thehermit read them a chapter out of his large and well-thumbed Bible, afterwhich they equipped themselves for the chase.

  When Martin and his friend escaped from the pirates and landed on thecoast of Brazil, they were clothed in sailor-like costume, namely, whiteduck trousers, coloured flannel shirts, blue jackets, round straw hats,and strong shoes. This costume was not very suitable for the warm climatein which they now found themselves, so their hospitable friend the hermitgave them two loose light cotton coats or jackets, of a blue colour, andbroad brimmed straw hats similar to his own. He also gave them twocurious garments called _ponchos_. The poncho serves the purpose of cloakand blanket. It is simply a square dark-coloured blanket with a hole inthe middle of it, through which the head is thrust in rainy weather, andthe garment hangs down all round. At night the poncho is useful as acovering. The hermit wore a loose open hunting coat, and underneath it agirdle, in which was a long sharp knife and a brace of pistols. Histrousers were of blue-striped cotton. He usually carried adouble-barrelled gun over his shoulder, and a powder-horn and bullet-bagwere slung round his neck. Barney now procured from this hospitable man asupply of powder and shot for his large brass-mounted cavalry pistol. Thehermit also made him a present of a long hunting-knife; and he gave oneof a smaller size to Martin. As Martin had no weapon, the hermitmanufactured for him a stout bow and quiver full of arrows; with which,after some practice, he became reasonably expert.

  Thus armed they sallied forth, and, following the foot-path thatconducted from the door of the hut to the brow of the hill opposite, theywere soon buried in the shades of the great forest. On this particularmorning Barney observed that the hermit carried with him a stout spear,which he was not usually in the habit of doing. Being of an inquisitivedisposition, he inquired the reason of his taking it.

  "I expect to find a jaguar to-day," answered the hermit. "I saw himyesterday go down into the small valley in which my cows grow. I willshow you my cows soon, Martin."

  The hermit stopped short suddenly as he spoke, and pointed to a largebird, about fifty yards in advance of them. It seemed to bear aparticular ill-will to a round rough stone which it pecked mostenergetically. After a few minutes the bird ceased its attacks and flewoff; whereupon the rough stone opened itself out, and, running quicklyaway, burrowed into a little hole and disappeared!

  "That is an armadillo," remarked the hermit, continuing to lead the waythrough the woods; "it is covered with a coat of mail, as you see; andwhen enemies come it rolls itself up like a ball and lies like a hardstone till they go away. But it has four little legs, and with them itburrows so quickly that we cannot dig it up, and must smoke it out ofits hole,--which I do often, because it is very good to eat, as you verywell know."

  While they continued thus to walk through the woods conversing, Martinand Barney were again interested and amused by the immense number ofbrilliant parrots and toucans which swooped about, chattering from treeto tree, in large flocks. Sometimes thirty or forty of the latter wouldcome screaming through the woods and settle upon the dark-green foliageof a coffee-tree; the effect of which was to give the tree the appearanceof having been suddenly loaded with ripe golden fruit. Then the birdswould catch sight of the travellers and fly screaming away, leaving thetree dark-green and fruitless as before. The little green parrots werethe most outrageously noisy things that ever lived. Not content withscreaming when they flew, they continued to shriek, apparently withdelight, while they devoured the seeds of the gorgeous sun-flowers: andmore than once Martin was prompted to scatter a handful of stones amongthem, as a hint to be less noisy; but this only made them worse,--like abad baby, which, the more you tell it to be quiet, sets to work the moreearnestly to increase and add to the vigour of its roaring. So Martinwisely let the parrots alone. They also startled, in passing throughswampy places, several large blue herons, and long-legged cranes; and onmany of the trees they observed the curious hanging nests of a bird,which the hermit told them was the large oriole. These nests hung in longstrings from the tops of the palm-trees, and the birds were very activelyemployed moving about and chattering round their swinging villages: onseeing which Martin could not help remarking that it would astonish thecolony not a little, if the top house were to give way and let all themansions below come tumbling to the ground!

  They were disappointed, however, in not seeing monkeys gambolling amongthe trees, as they had expected.

  "Ah! my friends," said the hermit, "travellers in my country are veryoften disappointed. They come here expecting to see everything all atonce; but although there are jaguars, and serpents, and bears, andmonkeys, plenty of them, as your ears can tell you, these creatures keepout of the sight of man as much as possible. They won't come out of thewoods and show themselves to please travellers! You have been very luckysince you arrived. Many travellers go about for months together and donot see half so much as you."

  "That's thrue," observed Barney, with his head a little on one side, andhis eyes cast up in a sort of meditative frown, as if he were engaged insubjecting the hermit's remarks to a process of severe philosophicalcontemplation; "but I would be very well plazed av the wild bastes wouldshow themselves now and then, for--"

  Martin Rattler burst into a loud laugh, for Barney's upward glance ofcontemplation was suddenly transformed into a gaze of intenseastonishment, as he beheld the blue countenance of a large red monkeystaring down upon him from amid the branches of an overhanging tree. Themonkey's face expressed, if possible, greater surprise than that of theIrishman, and its mouth was partially open and thrust forward in a sortof threatening and inquiring manner. There seemed to be some bond ofsympathy between the monkey and the man, for while _its_ mouth opened_his_ mouth opened too.

  "A-a-a-a-a--ah!" exclaimed the monkey.

  A facetious smile overspread Barney's face--"Och! be all manes; the sameto you, kindly," said he, taking off his hat and making a low bow.

  The civility did not seem to be appreciated, however; for the monkey puton a most indignant frown and displayed a terrific double-row of longbrilliant teeth and red gums, while it uttered a shriek of passion,twisted its long tail round a branch, and hurled itself, with a motionmore like that of a bird than a beast, into the midst of the tree anddisappeared, leaving Martin and Barney and the hermit each with a verybroad grin on his countenance.

  The hunters now arrived at an open space where there were several largeumbrageous trees, and as it was approaching mid-day they resolved to resthere for a couple of hours. Birds and insects were gradually becomingmore and more silent, and soon afterwards the only sounds that broke upontheir ears were the curious metallic notes of the urupongas, orbell-birds; which were so like to the rapid beating of a smith's hammeron an anvil, that it was with the greatest difficulty Barney wasrestrained from going off by himself in search of the "smiddy." Indeed hebegan to suspect that the worthy hermit was deceiving him, and was onlyfully convinced at last when he saw one of the birds. It was pure white,about the size of a thrush, a
nd had a curious horn or fleshy tubercleupon its head.

  Having rested and refreshed themselves, they resumed their journey ashort time before the noisy inhabitants of the woods recommenced theiractive afternoon operations.

  "Hallo! what's that?" cried Barney, starting back and drawing his pistol,while Martin hastily fitted an arrow to his bow.

  Not ten paces in front of them a frightful monster ran across their path,which seemed so hideous to Martin that his mind instantly reverted to thefable of St. George and the Dragon, and he almost expected to see fireissuing from its mouth. It was a huge lizard, with a body about threefeet long, covered with bright scales. It had a long, thick tail. Itshead was clumsy and misshapen, and altogether its aspect was veryhorrible. Before either Martin or Barney could fire, the hermit droppedhis gun and spear, sprang quickly forward, caught the animal by the tail,and, putting forth his great strength to the utmost, swung it round hishead and dashed its brains out against a tree.

  Barney and Martin could only stare with amazement.

  "This we call an iguana," said the hermit, as he piled a number of heavystones on the carcase to preserve it from other animals. "It is very goodto eat,--as good as chicken. This is not a very big one; they aresometimes five feet long, but almost quite harmless,--not venomous atall; and the only means he has to defend himself is the tail, which isvery powerful, and gives a tremendously hard blow; but, as you see, ifyou catch him quick he can do nothing."

  "It's all very well for you, or even Barney here, to talk of catching himby the tail," said Martin, smiling; "but it would have puzzled me toswing that fellow round my head."

  "Arrah! ye're right, boy; I doubt if I could have done it mesilf,"said Barney.

  "No fear," said the hermit, patting Martin's broad shoulders as he passedhim and led the way; "you will be strong enough for that very soon,--asstrong as me in a year or two."

  They now proceeded down into a somewhat dark and closely wooded valley,through which meandered a small rivulet. Here they had some difficulty inforcing their way through the dense underwood and broad leaves, most ofwhich seemed very strange to Martin and his comrade, being so gigantic.There were also many kinds of ferns, which sometimes arched over theirheads and completely shut out the view, while some of them crept up thetrees like climbing-plants. Emerging from this, they came upon a moreopen space, in the midst of which grew a number of majestic trees.

  "There are my cows!" said the hermit, pausing as he spoke, and pointingtowards a group of tall straight-stemmed trees that were the noblest inappearance they had yet seen. "Good cows they are," he continued, goingup to one and making a notch in the bark with his axe: "they need nofeeding or looking after, yet, as you see, they are always ready to giveme cream."

  While he spoke, a thick white liquid flowed from the notch in the barkinto a cocoa-nut drinking-cup, which the hermit always carried at hisgirdle. In a few minutes he presented his visitors with a draught of whatthey declared was most excellent cream.

  The masseranduba, or milk-tree, as it is called, is indeed one of themost wonderful of all the extraordinary trees in the forests of Brazil,and is one among many instances of the bountiful manner in which Godprovides for the wants of His creatures. No doubt this might with equaltruth be said of all the gifts that a beneficent Creator bestows uponmankind; but when, as in the case of this milk-tree, the provision forour wants comes in a singular and striking manner, it seems fitting andappropriate that we should specially acknowledge the gift as coming fromthe hand of Him who giveth us all things liberally to enjoy.

  The milk-tree rises with a straight stem to an enormous height, and thefruit, about the size of a small apple, is full of rich and juicy pulp,and is very good. The timber, also, is hard, fine-grained, anddurable,--particularly adapted for such works as are exposed to theweather. But its most remarkable peculiarity is the rich vegetable milkwhich flows in abundance from it when the bark is cut. This milk is solike to that of the cow in taste, that it can scarcely be distinguishedfrom it, having only a very slight peculiarity of flavour, which israther agreeable than otherwise. In tea and coffee it has the same effectas rich cream, and, indeed, is so thick that it requires to be dilutedwith water before being used. This milk is also employed as glue. Ithardens when exposed to the air, and becomes very tough and slightlyelastic, and is said to be quite as good and useful as ordinary glue.

  Having partaken of as much milk as they desired, they continued theirjourney a little further, when they came to a spur of the sierra, ormountain range, that cuts through that part of the country. Here theground became more rugged, but still densely covered with wood, and rockslay piled about in many places, forming several dark and gloomy caverns.The hermit now unslung his gun and advanced to the foot of a cliff, nearthe further end of which there were several caves, the mouths of whichwere partially closed with long ferns and masses of luxuriant vegetation.

  "Now we must be prepared," said the hermit, feeling the point of hisspear. "I think there is a jaguar here. I saw him yesterday, and I amquite sure he will not go away till he tries to do some mischief. Helittle knows that there is nothing here to hurt but me." The hermitchuckled as he said this, and resting his gun against the cliff near theentrance to the first cave, which was a small one, he passed on to thenext. Holding the spear in his left hand, he threw a stone violently intothe cavern. Barney and Martin listened and gazed in silent expectation;but they only heard the hollow sound of the falling stone as it dashedagainst the sides of the cave; then all was still.

  "Och, then, he's off," cried Barney.

  "Hush," said Martin; "don't speak till he has tried the other cave."

  Without taking notice of their remarks, the hermit repeated theexperiment at the mouths of two caverns further on, with the like result.

  "Maybe the spalpeen's hidin' in the little cave where ye laid down yergun," suggested Barney, going towards the place as he spoke. "Och, then,come here, friend; sure it must be the mouth of a mine, for there's twoo' the beautifulest di'monds I iver--"

  Barney's speech was cut short by a low peculiar sound, that seemed likethe muttering of far-distant thunder. At the same moment the hermitpulled him violently back, and, placing himself in a firm attitude fullin front of the cavern, held the point of the spear advanced before him.

  "Martin," he whispered, "shoot an arrow straight into that hole,--quick!"

  Martin obeyed, and the arrow whizzed through the aperture. Instantlythere issued from it a savage and tremendous roar, so awful that itseemed as if the very mountain were bellowing and that the cavern wereits mouth. But not a muscle of the hermit's figure moved. He stood like abronze statue,--his head thrown back and his chest advanced, with onefoot planted firmly before him and the spear pointing towards the cave.It seemed strange to Martin that a man should face what appeared to himunknown danger so boldly and calmly; but he did not consider that thehermit knew exactly the amount of danger before him. He knew preciselythe manner in which it would assail him, and he knew just what wasnecessary to be done in order to avert it; and in the strength of thatknowledge he stood unmoved, with a slight smile upon his tightlycompressed lips.

  Scarcely had the roar ceased when it was repeated with tenfoldfierceness; the bushes and fern leaves shook violently, and an enormousand beautifully spotted jaguar shot through the air as if it had beendischarged from a cannon's mouth. The hermit's eye wavered not; he bentforward a hair's-breadth; the glittering spear-point touched the animal'sbreast, pierced through it, and came out at its side below the ribs. Butthe force of the bound was too great for the strength of the weapon: thehandle snapped in twain, and the transfixed jaguar struck down the hermitand fell writhing upon him!

  In the excitement of the moment Barney drew his pistol from his belt andsnapped it at the animal. It was well for the hermit at that moment thatBarney had forgotten to prime his weapon; for, although he aimed at thejaguar's skull, there is no doubt whatever that he would have blown outthe hermit's brains. Before he could make a second attempt, M
artin sprangtowards the gun which leaned against the cliff, and, running quickly up,he placed the muzzle close to the jaguar's ear and lodged a bullet in itsbrain. All this was done in a few seconds, and the hermit regained hislegs just as the animal fell dead. Fortunately he was not hurt, havingadroitly avoided the sharp claws of his enemy.

  "Arrah! Mister Hermit," said Barney, wiping the perspiration from hisforehead, "it's yersilf that was well-nigh done for this time, an' nomistake. Did iver I see sich a spring! an' ye stud the charge jist like astone wall,--niver moved a fut!"

  "Are you not hurt?" inquired Martin, somewhat anxiously; "your face isall covered with blood."

  "Yes, boy, but it is the blood of the jaguar; thanks to you for yourquick hand, I am not hurt at all."

  The hermit washed his face in the neighbouring brook, and then proceededto skin the jaguar, the carcase being worthless. After which theyretraced their steps through the woods as quickly as possible, for theday was now far spent, and the twilight, as we have before remarked, isso short in tropical latitudes that travellers require to make sure ofreaching the end of the day's journey towards evening, unless they chooseto risk losing their way, and spending the night in the forest.

  They picked up the iguana in passing; and, on reaching the spot where thearmadillo had burrowed, the hermit paused and kindled a small fire overthe hole, by means of his flint, steel, and tinder-box. He thus contrivedto render the creature's habitation so uncomfortable that it rushedhurriedly out; then, observing that its enemies were waiting, it doubledits head and tail together, and became the image of a rough stone.

  "Poor thing," said Martin, as the hermit killed it, "that reminds me ofthe ostrich of the desert, which, I'm told, when it is chased over theplains by men on horseback, and finds that it cannot escape, thrusts itshead into a bush, and fancies, no doubt, that it cannot be seen, althoughits great body is visible a mile off!"

  "Martin," said Barney, "this arth is full o' quare craturs intirely."

  "That's true, Barney; and not the least 'quare' among them is anIrishman, a particular friend of mine."

  "Hould yer tongue, ye spalpeen, or I'll put yer head in the wather!"

  "I wish ye would, Barney, for it is terribly hot and mosquito-bitten, andyou couldn't have suggested anything more delightful. But here we areonce more at our forest home; and now for a magnificent cup of coffee anda mandioca-cake."

  "Not to mintion," added Barney, "a juicy steak of Igu Anny, an' a tenderchop o' Army Dillo."