The company of women is attended by a vast number of dogs. As soon as they are mounted, they all look round, and if one be missing out of the many which they keep, begin to call him with their usual _nè nè nè_ repeated as loud as possible a hundred times, till at last they see them all assembled. I often wondered how, without being able to count, they could so instantly tell if one were missing out of so large a pack. Nor should they be censured for their anxiety about their dogs; for these animals, in travelling, serve as purveyors, being employed, like hounds, to hunt deer, otters, and emus. It is chiefly on this account that every family keeps a great number of dogs, which are supported without any trouble; plenty of provender being always supplied by the heads, hearts, livers, and entrails of the slaughtered cattle; which, though made use of by Europeans, are rejected by the savages. The fecundity of these animals in Paraguay corresponds to the abundance of victuals. They scarce ever bring forth fewer than twelve puppies at a birth. When the period of parturition draws nigh, they dig a very deep burrow, furnished with a narrow opening, and therein securely deposit their young. The descent is so artfully contrived with turnings and windings, that, however rainy the weather may be, no water can penetrate to this subterranean cave. The mother comes out every day to get food and drink, when she moans and wags her tail as if to excuse her absence to her master; at length, at the end of many days, she shows her whelps abroad, though she certainly cannot boast of their beauty: for the Indian dogs have no elegance of form, they are generally middle-sized, and of various colours, as with us. They are neither so small as the dogs of Malta and Bologna, nor so large as mastiffs. You never see any of those shaggy curly dogs, which are so fond of the water, and so docile, except amongst the Spaniards, who have them sent over in European ships. But though the Indian dogs do not excel in beauty, they are by no means inferior to those of Europe in quickness of scent, in activity, vigilance, and sincere affection for their masters. In every Abiponian colony, some hundred dogs keep continual watch, and by the terrible howling and barking which they nightly utter in chorus, at the slightest motion, perpetually disturbed our sleep, but never secured us from being surprized by the enemy; a troop of whom would often steal into the colony, whilst the whole of the dogs maintained a profound silence. Yet none of the Abipones ever blamed them, foolishly imagining them bewitched by the magic arts of the enemy's jugglers. It may be reckoned amongst the blessings of Paraguay, that it is unacquainted with madness in dogs, or any kind of cattle, and that hydrophobia is unknown here. This must be accounted a singular benefit of Providence, and one of the wonders of nature in a country where beasts are frequently distressed