The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-11-06

Lu6y ldlTly ulu6Tlukno Iu0 WuOl0 sur
face, and it breaks In just like the
| crust of a pie, There's place a little
to the north Of this (well show it you
one Of these days, when we go up the
river In boaC) where you see huge
pit in the ground, full of bushes and
| wild grass, with here and there few
mouldering t;mbers, where a whole
village sank at once, the foundations
| having been fairly honeycombed by
the ants! And thence comes our say
ing that Paraguay has two enemies
foS HtdioS brGrOs y los IadioS hormi-
gdsp the wild Indians and the ant
| Indians).
However, luckily for us, there were
no Indians about there, except the
H1di0S mandOS (tame Indians), who
behaved we'll enough, and used to
bring us food and dried meat in ex-
change for knives and agudrdiente.
And as for the ants, what with poi
soning them, and digging up their
nests, and flooding their galleries with
boiling water, we managed to get the
better Of them at last, though even
| now they sometimes make chacu
| foray) upon us from the woods
around. But after them came another
pest that was far worse - the
snakes. l need hardly tell you, who
have been through the forests your
self, how they swarm there, and for
time I really gave myself up for lost.
My husband used to call them the
tax-gatherers, and really they were
quite as regular; not a day that we
| didn't find one or two about the
4 house. And once - O Santissima
Madre!-what a fright I got! When
Lolita was only few months old,
my husband and his men had gone
out to their work one morning as
usual, and I was busy in the house,
with the child lying asleep on a mat
at the other end of the room, when all
at once l caught sight Of a mouse's
skin on the floor, the body sucked
clean out of it like an orange. 1 knew
at once that there must be snake
somewhere about, for they're mighty
fond of mice, and that's just the way
they deal with them; but, look as I
might, I could see no snake any
where, till suddenly the thought
struck me-could it be under the
child's mat? AS gently as could I
lifted up one corner, and there it was,
the long, Shiny, green and yellow
beast, curled snugly up and fast
asleep. Ay de mi! what a start got!
l knew that could do nothing with
it myself, for it was sort that you
can only kill by shooting them; so I
ran out into the courtyard, and, lucki-
ly, the first thing l saw was our hun
ter Jose, with his gun on his shoulder.
/ called him at once and he settled
the beast with charge Of small-shot.
However, as the work went on,
and we got more and more ground
cleared, our visitors began to forsake
us; for snakes must have thick
cover to burrow in, and when that's
taken from them they soon stink off.
So then I began to hope that we were
fairly at the end Of our troubles; but
we weren't-we were only at the be-
ginning Of them.
"I don't know how it was-perhaps
it may have been that, as the proyerb
says, everything must have it's turn -
but somehow, all through our troub-
les with the ants and serpents, the
bigger beasts had never disturbed us
at all but now, just as we were be-
ginning to have little peace from
our other plaques, the four-footed
gentlemen began to come on the stage
at last.
zone morning, just as were at
breakfast, in came one Of our va
aueros with "ews that our cattle
while feeding among the long grass
on the other side of the river, had
been attacked by jaguar and one Of
them killed.
"The fellow who brought the news
: had had to run for his life, and would
hardly have escaped had there been
anything on him fit to eat, or had
: there not been a fat OK ready to hanC
| instead. As it was, he looked sc
} thoroughly frightened Though he
was brave fellow enough), that il
} made us all rather serious. However
| a week passed without any fresf
7 alarm, and we were beginning to ge
over it, when suddenly in came three
or four Indians in great furry, tx
/ tell us that huge jaguar had broker
, into their encampment and killed {
! woman and one of their dogs.
"When my husband heard thu
, story he made sure that it was th'
, same beast that had fallen upon ou
r cattle; for they described it as being o
very strange color, far lighter thai
: any that had ever been seen in thos
3 parts before, and from that the.
!. had nicknamed it THE Pale Death.
I 50, then, we all thought it full tim
8 to do something; and my HUSBAND
Q called his men together to go out an
Q hunt it down.
4 II remember that morning well
/ though it will be year ago the da