growl of the tiger was heard from the top of the trees, followed
immediately by the cries of the monkey tenants of their branches,
which fled the danger by which they were menaced.

"I have painted, feature by feature, these nocturnal scenes on the
Orinoco, because, having but lately embarked on it, we were as yet
unaccustomed to their wildness. They were repeated for months
together, every night that the forest approached the edge of the
river. Despite the evident danger by which one is surrounded, the
security which the Indian feels comes to communicate itself to
your mind; you become persuaded with him, that all the tigers fear
the light of fire, and will not attack a man when lying in his
hammock. In truth, the instances of attacks on persons in hammocks
are extremely rare; and during a long residence in South America,
I can only call to mind one instance of a Llanero, who was found
torn in pieces in his hammock opposite the island of Uhagua.

"When one asks the Indians what is the cause of this tremendous
noise, which at a certain hour of the night the animals of the
forest make, they answer gaily, 'They are saluting the full moon.'
I suspect the cause in general is some quarrel or combat which has
arisen in the interior of the forest. The jaguars, for example,
pursue the pecaris and tapirs, which, having no means of defence
but their numbers, fly in dense bodies, and press, in all the
agony of terror, through the thickets which lie in their way.
Terrified at this strife, and the crashing of boughs or rustling
of thickets which they hear beneath them, the monkeys on the
highest branches set up discordant cries of terror on every side.
The din soon wakens the parrots and other birds which fill the
woods, they instantly scream in the most violent way, and erelong
the whole forest is in an uproar. We soon found that it is not so
much during a full moon, as on the approach of a whirlwind or a
storm, that this frightful concert arises among the wild beasts.
'May heaven give us a peaceable night and rest, like other
mortals!' was the exclamation of the monk who had accompanied us
from the Rio Negro, as he lay down to repose in our bivouac. It is
a singular circumstance to be reduced to such a petition in the
midst of the solitude of the woods. In the hotels of Spain, the
tr