The little peccary that we have been speaking about is the wild boar of America—especially of South America—and though it is tiny compared to the Indian wild boar, and sometimes gets into trouble, as we have seen, yet it is a fierce and dangerous animal, and, generally, knows how to take care of itself. Its principal enemy is the jaguar, the largest, and, perhaps, the most destructive, of the cat tribe, after the lion and tiger of the Old World; feared by every animal that scours the plains, or glides through, or sports amongst, the trees of the great forests, in which it is equally at home with the monkeys; feared, too, by man himself. Except the puma and the great grizzly bear of the north, all living things whose size makes them worthy its attention stand in dread of this ferocious and destructive beast. That is why I have made the peccary swear by the jaguars, instead of by the gods, as people used to once, in the days of old; for what would a pig be likely to know about the gods? No more than the ancient Greeks did. He might swear by the alligators, though, sometimes, but not so often, as, on the whole, wild pigs in America suffer more through jaguars than alligators; so they would think them the strongest, and respect them accordingly. I have said that the peccaries, though small animals—they are not more than about three feet long—are both fierce and dangerous. They are dangerous because they go in herds, and when any animal—such as a puma or a jaguar—threatens them, they form in a semicircle with all their heads turned outwards towards their foe, making an unbroken row of little sharp, curved tusks for him to leap upon, if he is so rash as to attack them. In that case he would, probably, never come from their midst again. They would surround him, squealing with rage, and though several of their number would, no doubt, fall victims to his teeth and claws, the rest—as many as could get near him—would soon have ripped him to pieces with their tusks. This need not be wondered at, since in India one wild boar alone is sometimes a match for the mighty tiger, and the two have been found lying dead together, the tiger almost disembowelled with the terrible slashing cuts delivered by the boar, and the latter with his back or neck broken. True, the Indian wild boar is himself a mighty beast, standing sometimes four feet high or more at the shoulder, and with tusks very much longer, even in proportion to his size, than are those of the peccary. Still, a herd of peccaries is worse than the largest single boar that ever stood, and all their tusks together are more effective still. [Illustration: BESIEGED. The peccaries drove the large jaguar in terror up into the tree trunk.]