2382 MARTIN RATTLER.

sometimes pleasantly, and at other times with more
or less discomfort ; subsisting on game which he shot
with his arrows, and on wild fruits. He met with
many strange adventures by the way, which would
fill numerous volumes were they to be written every
one; but we must pass over many of these in silence,
that we may recount those that were most interesting.

One evening, as he was walking through a very
beautiful country, in which were numerous small
lakes and streams, he was suddenly arrested by a
crashing sound in the underwood, as if some large
animal were coming towards him; and he had barely
time to fit an arrow to his bow when the bushes in
front of him were thrust aside, and the most hideous
monster that he had ever seen appeared before his
eyes. It was a tapir; but Martin had never heard
of or seen such creatures before, although there are a

good many in some parts of Brazil.

 

The tapir is a very large animal—about five or six
feet long and three or four feet high. It is in appear-
ance something between an elephant and a hog. Its
nose is very long, and extends into a short proboscis ;
but there is no finger at the end of it like that of the
elephant. Its colour is a deep brownish -black, its
tough hide is covered with a thin sprinkling of strong

hairs, and its mane is thick and bristly. So thick is