The next few nights, all camped out on the Llano, and by the end of the week, were ready to start for the camp with fully three thousand horses. South American ways with animals are not our ways, and Indian methods of taming and transporting horses are not such as English readers love to hear of;[5] it will be sufficient to say that, for transport, the captives were yoked up in long teams, each horse being thong-hobbled on his fore-legs. [5] A full account of wild horse-taming will be found in the writer's "Adventures among the Wild Beasts." Horse-hunting was not the only species of sport which Don Paez witnessed among the Caribs. On the journey to the camp, it became necessary to replenish the food-supply, and he accompanied six of the Indians on one of their curious deer-hunts. As a preliminary, the hunters made a call at a native village and each returned with a small bundle in his hand. "They are our masks," said the cacique, who was of the party. "Some of our people hunt with an ox, but you will see that the mask is as effective. I have brought one for you, Señor Commandante. Will you put it on?" [Illustration: CRANE STALKING-MASKS On the llanos the Indians use masks made of the head and feathers of the crane, then, imitating the actions of the bird searching for snakes and other reptiles among the reeds and grasses of the river bank, wait until the unsuspecting deer come down to drink, when they form an easy target for their arrows.] Paez had already humoured the Indians by leaving his gun at the camp and bringing a bow and arrows, about which he knew as little as they of gunpowder. But when the cacique produced a not too sweet-smelling head-dress of brown and white feathers, adorned with the bill of a _cariama_ (a species of crane), he thought the good man was rather overstraining his willingness to become a savage. However, he put it on, and took up his bow and arrows, but so awkwardly that the cacique hinted that, on this occasion, he might like to be a mere spectator. The masks, as worn by men who knew the workings thereof, were very satisfactory disguises; when the Indians had fallen on their knees with their heads bent, they might easily be mistaken in the distance for cranes feeding; and in this guise they crawled down towards the edge of the river just before the deer came down to drink. Paez, concealed in the long grass, had an excellent view of the proceedings, and could well understand, at that distance, how the unsuspecting game might fall into the snare. The "cranes," with their backs to the water and their heads bobbing so as to make the pendent bill move as if in search of the small snakes or other reptiles beloved of such birds, waited till a good-sized herd came within range; then the six bow-strings twanged, and six deer lay dead or helpless, while their startled brethren fled across the plain; and six more of these were brought down by a second volley before they could get out of reach. THE END.