430 SNAKES. 



undoubtedly Elaps Jcmiiiscatus ; while Ibiboboca, ^ ainsi 

 iioDime par sa graudc beaute\' is ^ Jiannlessc' Peba as a 

 termination may imply danger ; as there is the Jararac/^/^^?, 

 * most venomous,' and a ' very venomous ' rattlesnake, 

 Boicininin/^'^^?. The curious repetition of in in Boycininga^ 

 rattlesnake (p. 272), seems to hint at the length of its rattle and 

 the degree of crepitation it produces, especially as we find the 

 substitution of^ for c in some of these words, and the soft^/ 

 rapidly repeated is not unlike the true sound. 



There is a long and slender tree snake * that eateth eggs, 

 and goeth faster on the trees than any man can runne on the 

 ground, with a motion not unlike swimming.' Its correspon- 

 dingly long name is Ginaranpiaqumia ! Vain indeed would 

 be any speculation as to what that may mean. Vain also, 

 and I fear tedious, may all this guess-work be to discover 

 -meaning and poetry in what may probably be dead languages. 

 Who shall say how many thousand years ago these singular 

 repetitions conveyed to the savage mind (but zvas it savage }) 

 an idea of the creatures around them } 



'^'^'^^^^'i^i^^^'SWr'k^j.x'-,,^. 







