:;::::::SE THE TROPICS B:""-" 



keen must be the senses of the smaller creatures to 

 take alarm, so long before our dull hearing told of the 

 Boa's approach ! It passed, and, flowing smoothly as 

 a current of water, vanished in the pale moonlight. 

 How lithe and full of subtle, irresistible power it 

 seemed ; one of the masters of the jungle, confident 

 and unafraid ! The Mexicans have an unreasoning 

 terror of these cuJahras, as they call them, attributing 

 to them all manner of terrible characteristics. With 

 the exception of some rattlers which we saw near the 

 Chapala marshes, and those which we heard while 

 riding over the trail, this was the only snake we en- 

 countered in Mexico. No, there was one other, a tiny, 

 slender, tree-snake {Oxj/helis (icu)ninatun), harmless, 

 and of a most delicate tint of green. When he was 

 discovered he was wrapped in deep slumber, the cause 

 of which, as I later found, was his recent dinner, con- 

 sisting of a good-sized lizard (CnemkJojj/torus). 



The terrors of serpents, tropical insect scourges, 

 and other dangers of which we had been forewarned, 

 existed, so far as our experience went, entirely in the 

 minds of our friends in the North. 



The night following the vision of the Boa, we w^ere 

 surprised to hear some creature trot up to the very 

 tent, sniff audibly, and scratch impatiently at the can- 

 vas. It then proceeded to the other tent, some twenty 

 feet away, wherein were our provisions and our young 

 Mexican cook. One glance was enough to know why 



^ 277 #* 



