Gerald Durrell - THREE SINGLES TO ADVENTURE

So we set off through the deserted streets, leaving the capybara in the garden. Eventually, after losing our way once or twice, we found the slaughterhouse, and to our joy there was a light in one of the upper windows.

"Ahoy!" I shouted, "night-watchman, ahoy!"

Silence.

I tried again, with the same result.

"He's probably asleep," said Smith sourly.

I found a small pebble which I threw at the window, shouting meanwhile. After a very long pause the window was pushed open and a very old negro poked his head out and peered down at us.

"Ah! night-watchman," I said cheerfully, "sorry to disturb you, but could you look after a capybara for us, just for the night?"

The old negro stared at us.

"What's dat?" he inquired.

"Could you look after a … a … a water haas for us?"

"A water haas asked the watchman, taking a firmer grip on the window in case we tried to climb up and bite him.

"Yes, a water haas

We all stood and looked at one another. I was getting a crick in my neck from staring up at the window.

"A water haas repeated the negro ruminatively, looking to see if we were frothing at the mouth, you all got a water haas?"

Smith groaned.

"Yes, that's the idea. We want you to keep him for us."

"A water haas?"

Trying to stifle hysterics I could only nod. The old man looked at us for a long time, repeating water haas vaguely.

Then he leant out of the window.

"I come down," he said, and disappeared.

Presently the massive front door opened and his head reappeared round the edge.

"Where dis water haas?" he asked.

"Well, we haven't got it with us," I said, feeling rather foolish, "but we can go and get it, if you'll take it for us, will you?"

"Waterhaas," said the old man, evidently fascinated by the word, "what kind of animal dat"

"A rodent," snapped Smith, before I could stop him.

"A rodent," said the old man reflectively.

"Can you keep it for the night?" I asked.

"Dis place is abattoir," said the watchman, "dis place for cowses. I don't tink rodents allowed here."

With a tremendous effort I conquered my laughter and explained to the old man that the capybara would not hurt the cowses; in fact, I went on, the creature was edible and so, gastronomically if not zoologically, it could be classified with cowses. After a long argument he reluctantly agreed to house it for the night, and we set off on the long road back to the boarding house. I laughed all the way back, but Smith, who was tired and irritable, refused to see anything funny about the whole affair. When we at last reached the boarding house, footsore and weary, we found the moonlit garden quiet and peaceful; in one corner of his cage lay the capybara, slumbering like the dead. He did not wake up again that night and looked much refreshed in the morning when we descended, baggy-eyed and yawning, to begin the day's work.

This, then, had been my introduction to capybara, and this the reason why I greeted with gloom and foreboding the three babies Francis had brought. They settled down very well after the first day and proceeded to eat vast quantities of greens and fruit and to squeak at one another.

Another day Francis turned up with a wonderful haul, consisting of four armadillos and five big Brazilian tortoises. The armadillos were all babies, each measuring about a foot long, with blunt pig-like snouts and great pink ears like arum lilies. They were charming little animals and gave no trouble, feeding on the same substitute food as the anteater, guzzling it up eagerly with much squelching and snorting. The tortoises were a handsome species with an elongated shell, and the legs and heads decorated with red spots like blobs of sealing-wax. Shortly after this another Amerindian brought us seven river turtles, of the kind whose eggs we had so much enjoyed, and the largest of them took two of us to lift it. They were vicious creatures, always ready to snap, and the largest could quite easily have taken off a finger if it had had the chance.

McTurk's orchard was now beginning to look as though it was the haunt of a giant spider that had constructed an enormous web out of ropes and string. Entangled in it were the capybara, the anteater, the armadillos, the tortoises, and turtles. I was getting increasingly worried about our lack of cages, for when the plane arrived to take us back to Georgetown I felt that they would not be keen to offer space to a lot of animals rather insecurely tied with ropes and string. At McTurk's suggestion I put in a radio-telephone call to Smith and asked him to send some boxes by the plane which was to bring us back, and this he promised to do.

Having disposed of this question Smith then asked me if there were any large cayman in the Rupununi, as we had just had a letter from a zoo in England asking for a large specimen if we could get one. I replied airily that there were plenty of large cayman in the river below the house and that it should be an easy matter to catch one. On this optimistic note I rang off and went to discuss the matter with Me Turk. He suggested that we should try and lure a cayman within reach of a noose with the aid of a rotting fish, a delicacy which, he assured me, they found it difficult to resist.

So that afternoon we made a fishing trip up the creeks and returned laden with piranha, which we laid out in the sun to hasten the process of decomposition. By the next morning the fish were definitely making their presence felt, and even the anteater, who was tethered in a direct line with them, started to sneeze in an irritated manner. In the evening Bob and I went to examine them.

"Dear Heaven! Are you sure cayman have such depraved tastes?" asked Bob, holding a handkerchief over his nose.

"McTurk says they like their fish this way, and he ought to know. I must say they do seem a trifle high."

"D'you want me to sit up all night over one of these, in the hopes of catching a cayman?"

"That's the idea. They won't smell so much in the river."

"I trust you're right," said Bob, "and now, if you've finished, I'd like to get a breath of fresh air."

When it grew dark we gingerly carried the fish down to the river and prepared our trap. Three of the long boats had been tied stern to stern, and by leaping from one to another we found ourselves quite far out from the bank. The fish were hung over the side of the boat on a string, a thick rope attached to one of the seats, and a noose made at the other end. This was then dangled out over the water on the end of a forked stick. We seated ourselves and prepared to wait. We could not smoke, and, as the air was laden with the smell of rotting fish, the atmosphere became very oppressive after about twenty minutes. The moon glittered on the water, a group of sand flies discovered us with zinging cries of joy, and the smell of fish got stronger and stronger, until the whole landscape was sodden in it.

"Reminds me of a holiday I spent in Margate ," whispered Bob.

"It's not so bad now."

"Less vivid, perhaps, but much more subtle. I dread to think what sort of state my nasal membranes will be in tomorrow."

We sat and glared at the opposite bank until our eyes ached and we could see cayman in every ripple. Three hours later a real cayman did show itself, even swam to within thirty feet of us, but we must have moved, for it sheered off, and we saw it no more. We retired at dawn, bitten and tired and cursing all reptiles. When we told McTurk about our failure he looked very thoughtful, then, saying he would see what he could do, he wandered off in the direction of the river.

Later we followed him to see what he was doing, and we found he had constructed a trap of great simplicity and ingenuity.

My spirits rose on seeing it. He had dragged two of the long boats half out of the water, leaving a narrow gap between them. This channel was spanned by a noose, so that anything swimming up it would have to push its head through to get at the bait, a rotten fish on a stake. As soon as the fish was touched it released a cord which was holding a sapling bent like a bow, and as the sapling whipped up it pulled the noose tight. The end of the rope with the noose on was attached to a branch of a tree that stood on top of the small cliff above the bay.