his evening," I answered.

Gringalet, who with generous confidence was lying down a few steps
behind us, and had not seen his enemies creeping slyly over him, got up
and began howling.

"Will you never be prudent?" cried l'Encuerado.

[Illustration: "It stood up on its hind legs."]

"Any one must be as simple as a new-born infant to squat on an anthill.
This is the second time you have done it."

Here the advice-giver was suddenly interrupted; he made a face, lifted
up one of his legs, and walked away with long strides; then he sat down
on the ground in order to catch the ants which had secreted themselves
under his leathern shirt. I could not help laughing at him.

"Look here, Gringalet's skin is all over lumps!" said Lucien, stroking
the animal.

"They are caused by parasitic insects," said Sumichrast, "called ticks.
In future we must clear Gringalet every evening of these inconvenient
visitors."

"But they won't come off."

"Pull them suddenly; their mouth is a kind of disk armed with two hooks,
which, if once buried in an animal's skin, are difficult to extract."

"How hideous they look with their little legs placed close to their
heads; here is one which is quite round, like a pea."

"It is because it has begun its meal."

"Does the tick only attack dogs?"

"The dog has his own peculiar species; other kinds lodge under birds'
feathers, and some birds have two or three sorts of parasites. There is
one belonging to the turkey, to the peacock, to the sparrow, to the
vulture, to the magpie, etc. I don't think there is a bird or animal
which does not, like Gringalet, possess its own peculiar parasite."

We had started off again, and another glade led us towards a field
extensively ploughed up by moles.

Sumichrast led the way, and conducted us towards the lake I had
mentioned to him the day before. L'Encuerado caught hold of my arm to
call my attention to an enormous animal moving about in the midst of the
foliage.

The animal came down slowly, and we could only see it indistinctly. At
last it reached the lower branches. It was an ant-eater (_Myrmecophaga
jub[=a]t[=a]_). It remained motionless for an instant, moving its
enormous muzzle, and darting out its flat tongue, which, being covered
with a slimy coating, enabled it to catch up the ants with facility. At
length the "bear," as it is called by the Indians, slid down the trunk,
hanging on to it with its enormous claws, its prehensile tail strongly