INNOCENCE.

It is an old opinion, that the most savage beasts were innoxious to man in his state of innocence.

Nay, it was even a received opinion in remote times, that a virgin or an infant were safe from the assaults of the most ferocious.

The following anecdote, from Humboldt's Travels in South America, is certainly in consonance with that belief.

He says:

"The tigers, or jaguars, which are less dangerous for the cattle than the bats, (a species of vampire), come into the village of 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 so 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 the facts, which are not without interest in the history of the manners of these 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 have 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 sprung forward, his back beat, 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 several 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 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."