454 SA'AKES. 



tribes of the aboriginal inhabitants — this serpent is also 

 known under numerous vernaculars, puzzling enough to the 

 reader of travels who does not at first sight realize that the 

 book in which he now reads of the Matatoro describes one 

 region, and the volume in which he has read of the 

 Sjicariuba or of the Jacumama describes another, and that 

 these are one and the same snake. The spelling and 

 pronunciation of even the same word among adjacent tribes 

 add to the perplexity. Among other of Anaconda's familiar 

 vernaculars, which v/e meet with in all South American 

 books of travel, are Abovia, Ciiciiriu or Cuairiiibu, El trago 

 ve?iado, Canwudi or Kamoudi, Sucumjii, and others. The 

 name by which it is now generally known. Anaconda, or 

 Anacondo, v/as fixed by Cuvier in 1817. 



Very exaggerated ideas as to its size have obtained, prob- 

 ably traceable to Waterton, who tells us the Spaniards of the 

 Oroonoque positively affirm that he grows to the length of 

 from seventy to eighty feet ; and that as his name Matatoro 

 implies, he will eat the largest bull. Before yielding full 

 faith to such stories, we must ascertain whether that 'bull' 

 corresponded in dimensions with our Durham prize ox, or 

 the miniature bovines of the Himalayas. Hartwig improves 

 upon Anaconda's dinner capacities in telling us that the 



* Hideous Reptile will engulph a horse and its rider, or a 

 whole ox ' (prize ox, no doubt) * as far as its horns.' 



Turn we to science and to ocular proof of what Anaconda 

 really is — for there are and have been living examples in our 

 zoological collections, and whatever she may have been 



* formerly,' her modern dimensions rarely exceed thirty 

 feet. 



