Tiger-Man

GREEN HELL--Julian Duguid--Century ($4)*

Parts of South America are still wild & woolly country. One of them is jungly eastern Bolivia, which natives call the Chaco, which Author Duguid calls Green Hell. Before Duguid and his two companions (J. C. Bee-Mason and Mamerto Urriolagoitia), to their knowledge no white men had penetrated that tract since Nuflo de Chavez in 1557.

Urriolagoitia was Bolivian consul general in London but had never been in the eastern wilds of his own country. Bee-Mason was an Arctic cinematographer. Duguid had never been outside Europe. Luckily for the expedition they had not gone very far into the jungle when they ran into Alexander Siemel (TIME, April 13, et ante) whom Duguid calls Tiger-Man because he is a famed jaguar hunter (South Americans call jaguars tigers). Siemel saw them through many a tight place.

Like many travelers they were ill-prepared for the worst. The worst was not piranhas (carnivorous fish), tarantulas, snakes, jaguars or hostile savages, but lack of water, of food. The stifling, steamy heat was bad but endurable; but once swarms of ihenni flies kept them sleepless for 90 hours. Their mules, exhausted by travel, were nearly finished off by vampire bats. One time Duguid, night-enveloped, riding the trail alone, was halted by two blazing eyes. He was sure it was a jaguar, but Siemel convinced him afterwards it must have been a couple of fireflies; no land animal's eyes are auto-luminous. They met some hostile natives and for a while were surrounded by them, expected to have to fight their way out, but the savages melted away before their watchfulness.

Dominating character in Green Hell is Alexander Siemel. Duguid paints a respectful portrait of him, gives some account of his early life. A Russian, Siemel worked as a printer on a Buenos Aires newspaper, left town when he fell in love with his best friend's wife. He worked in the forests as a woodcutter among the Indians, liked it so much he decided to stay. He learned jaguar-hunting from an Indian spearman, turned hunter himself. He has bayonetted many a "tiger" after cornering it with his dogs. He told Duguid a grim story: Siemel's brother, who lived with his wife and little son in Cuyaba, Brazil, had a German enemy. The German hired a gunman to shoot Siemel's brother in the back; he was a long time dying. Siemel is now with his friend, Capt. Vladimir ("Vovo") Perfilieff on the Matto Grosso Expedition in Brazil, making a cinema of jungle life and taking animals alive for the Chicago Fair (TIME, Aug. 25). He was planning the cinema when he was with Duguid. He was also planning something else. Said he: "When I have finished my film I ... shall find that man and I shall take him aside and I shall shoot him in the stomach. That should give him a good 30 hours to remember my brother. Justice? Not a bit. Revenge."

The Author. Julian Duguid, 29, was too young to fight in the War. After leaving Oxford he went vaguely to London to do something vaguely literary. He tried school-teaching for a few years, then jumped at the chance to go exploring. He is now unofficially visiting the Matto Grosso expedition in order to complete a forthcoming biography of Tiger-Man Siemel. Last month Publisher Century radioed him that Green Hell had sold out three editions (16,000 copies).

*Published April 17.

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