, 1888-06-03

mOlulhR Vi inc tnlru uay, eaVlng our
horses and n of our dogs that hadIbpen
disabled. with our mountaineer friends
plunged into a tlackless Cuban forest.
Contrary to my expectation, the deep
wood soil is barren of low vegetation. |
can perhaps best describe it as almost a
counterpart of the shadowy cOverts of
of Maine pine woods. The earth is bare,
brown black, soft and still as a CARPET of
velvet. And the ~silences have a deeper
and intenser solemnity. You never see
the sky. At long intervals, away up
there a hundred feet or more, may be
discovered a sheen like a delicate mist of
saffron, but this never pierces the won
orOus foliage. In time ones eyes become
accustomed to the weird cleaning, and
the senses painfully acute to every dis
torted sound or seeming.
One OF our first experiences was a
thrilling one one to me, and cost the life
of our two remaining dogs. These forests
abound in the hutia, a lazy animal similar
In appearance to our gray squirrel, but
with a rabbit like face and muskrat's tail.
They feed upon nuts, buds and tender
twlgs, and are priced for food-indeed.
the insurgents Of '6S fairly subsisted upon
them. A tremendous stupid and f%angless
snake from ten TO fifteen feet in length,
called the maia, also feeds upon it, as was
demonstrated to our sorrow.
Several hutias had been shot. Tumb-
ling to the ground like a ball of lead,
the dogs, which were a cross between
the Newfoundland and the Spanish mas
tiff, would grab them and with one whirl
fling them ten feet into the air. They
were fairly wild with sport. Another
hutia had been freed. The dogs, stand
ing at the foot OF q slender mahogany,
were springing and whirling in delirious
expectancy. Suddenly there was a ter
rifle commotion in the top of the tree,
and following this, with a fearful crash
through the leaves and limbs, a huge
maia, writhing and fioundering in the air,
fell TO the earth, breaking the back of a
dog which had seemed unable to move In
its excited fascination. We dispatched
both the poor brute and the ~loathsome
serpent, which, stunned by its own fall,
laid limp within the hole in the soft earth
its W weight had forced. 1t had climbed
the mahogany by coiling, and in %springing
upon its victim, the little butia, had over
leaped its distance.
The woodcraft of our vaquero, Jose,
had many extraordinary illustrations.
Striking his machete into a beautiful tree,
he brought it forth calculating most dra-
matlcally: Mira! la sangre de Ia Don
c%ellal" c'Seel the blood Of the virginr')
The blade was dripping with blood red
sap OF a red wood known as came de dom
celia, or virgin flesh. Again when we had
become thirsty and could find no water,
Jose knew aback door out of this dilemma.
Here Is Aaron's rod said he. 81 will
give you water. With this he struck a
large vine twice. severing a piece as big
as ones arm from the para cimarona or
wild grape, and from the mouth of the
hanging tube we drank our fill of winey,
refreshing sap.
SO, too, his seductive calls of the wild
pigeon, Of which WI found four varieties,
were astounding. He would first with
his hands make sharp, loud clippings,
grading these down to sounds as low
as the soft Tapping of wings. This
would be followed by a vocal call so like
that Of the wild pigeon, that one
seemed nesting there above our heads.
To these would come low, half doubling
answers from all about US, and, finally,
the scurrying and r~ustling of the deluied
birds above.
Discouraged in our quest for wild
boar, we retraced our way toward the
mountaineers' cabins. All the afternoon
Jose had at intervals Embossed our re-
naming dog and, giving a grunt in imi.
tatlon to the wild hog, the wise animal
had bounded out of sight, ventior legos-
or with nose appraised and smelling far"
as the Cubans have it, but had invariably
returned without trace of our sought for
game. But suddenly when, not a mile
distant from the mountaineers', he left us
with a yelp and spring, and away we all
went pell-mell after him, myriads of dis
turbed owls splitting and shrieking above.
A run OF twenty rods brought us to the
dog and a huge black boar, thirty feet
away, which had turned to protect the
retreat behind. "Aqui esta un baraco
cinaro1l' ('Here is a wild boarl'')
shouted Jose, wild as the dog with de-
light. There stood the savage fellow, all
head, bristling shoulders, legs. tail with
plumy trembling end. Jaws and tusks,
champing and cracking 'his jaws, from
which great rolls of foam were already
working, with a hidious sucking sound,
a splendid picture of ferocious brute
bravery.
10 one side and another he sprang as
the dog crowded him. Then he would
charge the dog and whirl in the air, scat
tering the earth like an exploding shell.
Closer and closer crowded the two brutes,
in air half the time, each bent on death,
the dog frequently clearing the boar at a
bound, and maddening him with savage
%snappings and decorations of shoulders or
hams. Over and over went the dog with
marvellous agility, frequently sending the
boar four feet into the air; but every
charge from the dog brought a still more
savage counter charge from the boar. ]
believe no such agile and ferocious move
mentl were ever elsewhere seen. For
forty feet in every direction the forest
ground looked like a freshly ploughed
field and it seemed to my startled eyes as
though a cyclone of dog, boar, mud, bark
and froth had descended into the darken-
ing covert, | frankly confess TO fight to
a near fallen tree upon which, to escape
less than hanging, / do not believe |
could have ordinarily vaulted. The Don
and Jose became apparently a part of the
cyclone, though no mortal eyes could have
followed their movements or gymnastics.
do not know how long this lasted. |
saw a flash of fire and through the roar of
It all heard Il shot. Then the whirlwind
fell upon Jose. | saw the CLEAN of his
machette somewhere in its very core,
Then a Cuban yell went up that set the