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.
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