Swiss Family Robinson

the feet appeared to be armed with strong claws. This great bird guarded the entrance to the cave, occasionally retiring into it himself for a few minutes; but as soon as the other birds came pressing in after him, he hurried out again and they were forced to retire.
    We stopped to observe this curious scene, and were startled suddenly by a mighty rush of wings in the air above us. We looked up; at the same moment Fritz fired, and an enormous bird fell heavily head foremost on the rocks, by which its neck was broken, while blood flowed from a wound in the breast.
    We had been holding back the dogs, but they, with Fritz, now rushed towards the cave, the birds rising around them and departing with heavy ungainly flight, leaving only Fritz's prize, and one of the other birds, killed by the large one in its fall.
    With the utmost caution I entered the cave, and rejoiced to find that the tongue and eyes only of the bears had been devoured: a little later and we should have had the handsome skins pecked and torn to rags, and all chance of steaks and bears'-paws gone.
    On measuring the wings of the large bird from tip to tip, I found the length exceeded eleven feet, and concluded it to be a condor; it was evidently the mate of the `Watcher', as Fritz called the first we saw.
    To work we now went on the bears, and no slight affair we found it to skin and cut them up, but by dint of perseverance we at last succeeded in our object.
    Determining to smoke the meat on the spot, we cut magnificent hams, and took off the rest of the meat in slices after the manner of the buccaneers in the West Indies, preserving the paws entire to be cooked as a delicacy, and obtaining from the two bears together a prodigious supply of lard, which my wife gladly undertook to melt and prepare for keeping.
    The bones and offal we drew to some distance with the help of our cattle, and made the birds of the air most welcome to feast upon it. This, with the assistance of all sorts of insects, they did so effectually that before we left the place the skulls were picked perfectly clean, the sun had dried them, and they were ready for us to carry off to our museum.
    The skins had to be very carefully scraped, washed, salted, cleansed with ashes and dried, which occupied fully two days.
    I was lamenting our distance from the rascusara * tree, the leaves of which had flavoured our roast peccary so nicely, when I observed among the brushwood which the boys had brought from the thickets around us, a climbing plant, whose leaves had a very strong smell; the stem resembled a vine, and the fruit grew in clusters like currants. Some were red, and some of a green colour , which I supposed to denote various degrees of ripeness. They were hard, and the outer skin was quite thin. I recognized in this the pepper plant, a discovery particularly agreeable at this moment.
    * Previously he called it ravensara .
    The boys soon gathered a large supply; the red berries were soaked in salt and water for several days, then washed and rubbed, and finally, becoming perfectly white, were dried in the sun. The treatment of the green berries was simple; they were merely exposed to the sun's heat for a day or two, and then stored: in this way we obtained enough, both of black and white pepper, to last us a very long time.
    I took also a number of young plants, that we might have pepper growing at Rockburg and our various settlements. Some roots of another plant were also taken, which, from the pods, appeared to be a kind of bean.
    We were glad of this occupation during the tedious business of smoking the bears' meat, and availed ourselves of the leisure time by also preparing for stuffing the condor and the turkey buzzard, urubu or black vulture--for I could not determine to which species the smaller bird belonged.
    The four boys at length became so weary of inaction, that I determined to let them make an excursion alone on the savannah.
    Three of them received this permission with eager delight, but Ernest said he would prefer to remain with us; to which, as the expedition was to be entirely one of pleasure, I could make no objection.
    Little Franz, on the other hand, whom I would willingly have kept with us, was wild to go with his brothers, and I was obliged to consent, as I had made the proposal open to all, and could not draw back.
    In the highest spirits they ran to bring their steeds (as we were fain to call the cattle they rode) from their pasturage at a short distance.