e above everything was the abominable
exhalations from their bodies, an odor like a combination of rank butter
and garlic.

I was getting anxious not only for my baggage, but for the men behind
the fort, who had to cut and thrust like madmen; the excitement was
intense. The strong raw hides were ripped up as though slashed with a
sharp knife, and the bags of beans and farinha were freely streaming
their contents on the ground from innumerable rippings from the keen
sharp tusks.

Although we in the hammocks were quite safe, the fort was trembling;
many of the saddles and bags had been displaced by the sheer pressure of
the enemy. Our few miserable firearms appeared to have no more effect
than so many pop-guns, although the ground was becoming strewn with the
bodies of the slain and disabled. At last I succeeded in getting the men
in the hammocks to fire volleys at a given place, and after a time this
appeared to have an effect, for as suddenly as the attack commenced, so
it ceased; and the animals withdrew simultaneously and in silence.

The Don (his voice chuckling with glee) called to us to get ready again,
as they would probably return. "Ah!" said he to me, in a low voice,
"what a splendid time we are having!" I thought, however, of the men in
the fort, one of whom was stanching blood from his wrist. I told the Don
to go and reinforce them; but suddenly the Don became very deaf; he was
very snug in his hammock and really could not hear me; but Jose, like a
good fellow, got out, ran for the fort, jumped in, and helped the men to
make good the damages. We could still hear the pigs in the bush, and
presently, without a moment's warning, we again heard that diabolical
crash of teeth from a complete circle around us, followed immediately by
another wild charge, and the battle was again renewed with all its
excitement; but then, after the first flush of excitement, we became
cooler, and Jose in the fort was a host in himself; this attack was of
much shorter duration, and the enemy once more suddenly retreated. In
the pause that then ensued I thought of Rodrigues, as it then occurred
to me that I had not hitherto noticed him; his hammock was quite still,
and its edges drawn together over his body, that formed a round,
ball-like protuberance in the centre. I saw it all, and could picture
the poor terror-stricken man, coiled up, with blanched face and bated
breath and making himself as small as possible. The men in the fort