Tiger familiarity with infannts.—The tigers or jaguars, which are less dangerous for the cattle than the bats, come into the village at Atures, and devour the pigs of the poor Indians.

The missionary related to us a striking instance of the familiarity of these animals upon the whole not ferocious.

Some months before our arrival, a jaguar, which was thought to be young, though of a large size, had wounded a child in playing with him; I use confidently this expression, which may seem strange, having on the spot verified facts which are not without interest in the history of the manners of animals.

Two Indian children, a boy and a girl about eight and nine years of age, were seated on the grass near the village of Atures, in the middle of a savannah which we had often traversed. At two o’clock in the afternoon, a jaguar issued from the forest, and approached the children, bounding around them; sometimes he hid himself in the high grass, sometimes he sprang forward, his back bent, his head hung down, in the manner of our cats.

The little boy, ignorant of his danger, seemed to be sensible of it only when the jaguar with one of his paws gave him some blows on the head; these blows, at first slight, became ruder and ruder; the claws of the jaguar wounded the child, and the blood flowed with violence.

The little girl then took a branch of a tree, struck the animal, and it fled from her.

The Indians ran up at the cries of the children, and saw the jaguar, which retired bounding, without the least show of resistance.

The little boy was brought to us, says M. Humboldt, who appeared lively and intelligent.

The claw of the jaguar had taken away the skin from the lower part of the forehead, and there was a second scar at the top of the head.— Humboldt’s Personal Narrative.