Guanaco

Another moment, and she left the place, going in mighty leaps, her bow and arrow in her hand, and soon from the top of a hill she saw the boy and girl as they stood looking at the smiling valley.

Now that valley was the valley of the Huanacos, wherein the witch was powerless, and that she knew well.

Did the two once gain shelter of the mountains, all her witcheries would be of no avail.

Indeed, that very thing, the sentinel Huanaco, was telling the children at that very moment the witch caught sight of them, and the animal bade them haste lest the witch touched them before they crossed the plain.

So hand in hand the boy and girl ran, seeing them so near safety the witch went over the ground like a horse, bounding over bush and stone, taking five yards at each stride.

Then to help them from the right and from the left came Huanacos, by tens and twenties and hundreds, their proud hearts held high, their soft eyes full of loving kindness, and they ran by the side of the two who fled, and some formed in a body behind them so that the arrows shot by the witch could not touch boy or girl, though many a good Huanaco laid down his life, thus shielding them.

Seeing the past to which things had come, the old witch bethought her of another plan, and taking her magic arrow, she shot it high in the air so that it passed over the herd of Huanacos and fell to the earth far in front of the boy and girl.

As soon as the shaft touched the ground, it split into a thousand pieces, each no thicker than a spider's silk, and each fragment took root and became a tree, and in a single moment the whole plain was covered with a thick, solemn tangle of forest through which no living creature could hope to pass, and sadly enough, boy and girl turned to behold the witch coming toward them fast, but all about her feet were the animal friends of the boy and girl, foxes and small creatures, while about her head flew many tinamou partridges, so that soon she was forced to slacken her pace.

The faunas of the plains and mountain regions differ more widely than do the floras, for in each are found species wanting in the other.

The most striking and most abundant mammals met with over the plains are the Guanaco and two species of dogs, sometimes erroneously called foxes, Canis azare and Canis magellanicus.

The former species is much the smaller, is of a light gray color with a black spot at the base of the tail, and is quite tame and exceedingly common everywhere on the plains.

The second and much larger species is rather shy and is found only in the mountains.