The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-05

the next morning, and so could not go
back into the forest by daylight to
learn the result of the battle. Manu-
ell told me that he should go out in the
morning with gun, expecting to find
one or both of the fighters dead or dis
abled near the path. The puma, II 1T
had gone away, he would not follow.
He was our friend he said. But the
jaguar, if not dead in the path, he
would track and kill, feeling sure of
finding him in hiding at no great dis
lance away.
when l returned to Santa Catalina,
a month later Manuel showed me the
jaguar's skin. With two companions
he had gone the next day to the scene
of the fight and had tracked the jag
uar from the spot to where it lay, bad
ly lacerated by the puma's teeth and
claws, at the foot OF an uprooted tree,
and there had shot the creature with
out difficulty. The puma had gone
back the way he had come and was
not seen, but the tufts of his hair in
the place where the two had fought
and the blood drops along his tracks
that led from the place showed that he
This was my personal experience of
the coming together of the puma and
the jaguar 1t led to my learning some
curious things about these two great
cats in their relations to man and each
other. While the jaguar is regarded as
| implacably hostile to human beings,
the belief is general in Venezuela, as
| in several other South American coun-
| tries which visited, that the customa-
| ry disposition of the puma toward man
| is gentle and even friendly. He is
| fierce and powerful beast, destruc-
| tive of sheep and young colts and cat
| tie, and in the pairing season or in case
| of the female puma with her whelps,
or when unusually deep snow in the
mountains compels the great lion of
the Andes to descend into the lower
valleys for food, he will not hesitate to
attack man: but in general his dispo
sition is such that among the llaneros
and other people of the lower levels he
| often is styled the friend of man.. 1t
| is said of the puma that he will pursue
| and attack the jaguar when the latter
| is following his human prey, and my
experience which l have just related
certainly would give color to this be-
| lief In Venezuela I heard several sto-
ries which would go to prove this the
DRY. In the case of two of these ma
ratives ! personally met the persons
concerned, and their accounts We're
confirmed by people living about them.
1t is, of course, entirely possible In ev-
cry instance that the belief that the
puma attacked the iaguar in order to
save a human being from peril was a
purely fanciful one. Nevertheless, it
existed with the persons most con-
cerned.
ION the Azure river, near it's head,
| 1ives-or did live there, five years ego
woman of mixed Spanish and Indian
4 race named Maria Padilla. the wife Of
the mayordomo, or foreman, of a cat
tie ranch. have talked with her and
heard from her lips the account Of the
strange adventure she had when a
child of seven years. Her parents with
their children were making a journey
over trail that led along the foothills
of the Maritime Andes. They had en-
camped for the night, and the child,
while her parents attention was occu-
pied, started into the forest to gather
firewood as she had often seen her
mother do. Her absence was not no.
ticed until she had been gone some
time from the camp. AS she gathered
dry sticks into bundle she saw a
large, spotted animal stealing swiftly
toward her. Every South American
country girl of seven 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 riveted
on the iaguar she did not see where
they came from, but, of sudden, she
perceived that he was savagely fight
ing with two huge, tawny animals that
had sprung upon him. The fight
seemed to her to last long time, and
once The brutes in their struggles came
very near to where she stood. The
pumas that had attacked him killed
the jaguar at last, and after standing
over body few minutes as if to as
sure themselves that he would not re-
their gaze toward the child who had
been too much terrified to improve her
chance to run away while the beasts
were fighting. They favored her with
long stare, and then, not offering to
approach or harm her, turned delibe-
rately away and trotted into the
depths of the forest. They scarcely
had disappeared when her father, hay
ing missed the child and guided by the
sounds of the fight, came running tC
the place with a gun and machete ano
found her safe. He got jaguar Skin
,, as a trophy, though 1t was cut toe
nearly into ribbons by the puma's
claws to be of value.
"In the Guarico country, at a village
called Paraya, near the Merida TRAIL
, saw an Indian named Jose Lobado
whose face and head were deeply
SCARED and whose body was a net
work of similar scars from wounds re
ceived through being carried away b.
, | a jaguar when an infant in arms. O.
, | course he could not remember the oc
currence but his mother, who had res
, | cued him, described it to me. She hat
, gone to a mata, or wooded spot, on tn,
. pampas for firewood, carrying he
, child, after the fashion of Venezuelan
women of humble station in a shaw
+ Iooped from her shoulder. This shaw
! with the small boy in It she slung to ;
| low traa bra pob while she gathered he