The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1898-07-15
THE VICIOUS JAGUAR
HE FINDS A DEADLY ENEMY IN THE
PLUCKY PUMA.


"Cn the Apure river, near its head,
lives-or did live there five years ago
woman of mixed Spanish and Indian
race named Maria Padilla, the wife Of
the mayordOma, or foreman, Of a cattle
ranch. l lave talked with her and
heard from her lips the account of the
strange adventure she had when a child
of years.
Her parents with their children
were making a journey over q trail that
led along the foothills Of the Maritime
Andes. They had encamped for the
night, and this child, while her parents
attention was occupied, started into the
forest to gather firewOOd as she had Of
ten seen her mother do. Her absence
was not noticed until she had been gone
some time from the camp. AS she gath
| cred dry sticks into bundle she saw a
| large, spotted animal stealing swiftly
toward her.
Every South American country girl
of knows a jaguar when she sees him,
whether she has ever seen one before or
not, for the dread Of these animals is
an instinct among the inhabitants of
regions which they frequent. Overcome
by fear the girl could only stand still
| and await her fate. With her eyes riv-
eted on the jaguar she did not see where
they came from, but Of a sudden she
perceived that he was savagely fighting
with two huge, tawny animals that had
sprung upon him.
1.-The fight seemed to her to last long
time and once the brutes in their strug-
giles came very near to where she stood.
The pumas that had attacked him kill
ed the jaguar at last, and after standing
over the body a few minutes as if to as.
sure themselves that he would not re.
vive they for the first time turned their
gaze toward the child. who had been too
much terrified to improve her chance to
run away while the beasts were fight
ing.
"They favored her with long stare,
and then, not offering to approach or
| harm her, turned deliberately away
and trotted into the depths Of the for
est. They scarcely had disappeared
when her father, having missed the
child and guided by the sounds Of the
fight, came running to the place with
gun and machete and found her safe.
He got a jaguar skin as a trophy, though
it was cut too nearly into ribbons by
the pumas' claws to be of value.
"In the Grarico country, at a village
/ called Paraya, near the Merida trail, 1
saw an Indian named Jose Lobado
whose face and head were deeply scar
red and whose body was a network of
similar scars from wounds received
through being carried away by jaguar
when an infant in arms. OF course he
could not remember the occurrence, but
his mother, who had rescued him, de-
scribed it to me.
''She had gone to q mata, or wooded
spot on the pampas for firewood, carry
ing her child, after the fashion of Ven
| ezuelan women of humble station, III
a shawl looped from her shoulder This
shawl, with the small boy in it, she slung
to a low tree branch while she gathered
her bundle of sticks, and she did not
perceive the approach of a jaguar until
he had seized the child and was carry
ing it away.
1.-THE mother grasped her machete
and ran after the jagUar, shrieking
She managed to keep the beast in sight,
but he was rapidly getting beyond her
view when suddenly the jaguar stopped,
put the child down and bristling for
fight stood with his fOrepaws resting
upon it.
Then the mother saw that a puma
was fronting the jaguar. She hurried
on toward where the two beasts faced
| each other, growing and snarling. Be
fore she got to them the puma sprang
and at once the two were fighting fierce
ly above the child. In the struggle the
| child was rolled to one side, but before
| the mother could get to it the jaguar
broke away from the puma and spring
ing to the boy again CrOLched with his
paws above him as before.
1.-The puma leaped again and the fight
was renewed, but again the jaguar got
clear and jumped to guard his prey be-
fore the mother could get a chance to
snatch her child. Once more the puma
attacked his foe, and this time as the
beasts struggled and tore each other an
accidental kick from one Of them sent
the boy 20 feet away, almost to the
| mothers fCpt.
Catching him up she ran for home
and got safe to the house. The boy,
though covered with claw wounds from
head to foot and bearing deep marks of
the jaguar's teeth in the back, where
the beast had seized him to carry him
away, recovered completely from his in
juries, although bearing the scars for
biS lifetime The T,r77,,~ 01,I tho Cr17a7-