either a white or an Indian."

"Ha, ha!" laughed his companion. "You need not flatter yourself on that
score. Bah, man! there's not a tiger in all the State that would be
fool enough to prefer a carcass tough and black as yours, to the flesh
of a young colt or heifer, either of which they can have at any time.
Ha, ha! If the jaguars only heard what you've said, they would shake
their sides with laughter."

The fearlessness exhibited by the Indian himself in regard to the
jaguars is easily explained, since it was by the destruction of these
fierce animals that he got his living. His calling was a peculiar one,
though common enough throughout the tropical regions of America. He
was, in fact, a _tigrero_, or tiger-hunter, a class of men whose sole
occupation consists in pursuing, _a l'outrance_, the different beasts of
prey that ravage the flocks and herds of the great _haciendas de
ganado_, or grazing estates. Among these predatory creatures the jaguar
is the most destructive; and the hunting and slaying of these animals is
followed by many men--usually Indians or half-breeds--as a regular
profession.

As the jaguar (_Felis onca_) in all parts of Spanish-America is
erroneously called the tiger (_tigre)_, so the hunter of this animal is
termed a tiger-hunter (_tigrero_). Many of the more extensive estates
keep one or more of these hunters in their pay; and the Indian we have
introduced to the reader was the _tigrero_ of the hacienda Del Valle.
His name and nation were declared by himself in the speech that
followed--

"Ah!" he exclaimed with an air of savage exultation, "neither tigers nor
men may laugh with impunity at Costal, the Zapoteque. As for these
jaguars," he continued after a pause, "let them go for this night.
There will be nothing lost by waiting till to-morrow. I can soon get
upon their trail again; and a jaguar whose haunt is once known to me, is
a dead animal. To-night we have other business. There will be a new
moon; and that is the time when, in the foam of the cascade, and the
surface of the solitary lake, the Siren shows herself--the Siren of the
dishevelled hair."

"The Siren of the dishevelled hair?"

"Yes; she who points out to the gold-seeker the rich _placers_ of gold--
to the diver the pearls that lie sparkling within their shells at the
bottom of the great ocean."

"But who has told you this?" inquired Clara, with a look of incredulity.

"My fathers--the Zapoteques," replied C