66 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



warmly received by the worthy Padre, who had 

 heard of what he considered the wonderful cure of 

 the snake-bite ; but when I told him all the circum- 

 stances, and especially that Chumbi had been bitten 

 when on my errand, he looked very grave. "If 

 Chumbi had died," said he, " I should never have 

 seen you more. Chumbi's relatives would have 

 poisoned you. I in vain preach to them," he con- 

 tinued, " of what the Bible tells us about the 

 entrance of sin and death into the world, and 

 appeal to their reason to note how the body wears 

 out wich age, and how it is constantly exposed to 

 accidents which may suddenly bring its machinery 

 to a dead stop ; they still in their inmost hearts 

 believe as their pagan ancestors believed that 

 death is in every case the work of an enemy." 



Chumbi himself was very grateful to me, and 

 during the remainder of my stay at Tarapoto often 

 sent me little presents, especially of cakes of 

 chancaca or uncrystallised sugar, the produce of 

 his chacra ; and he told to all the passers-by the 

 story of his narrow escape from death by a snake- 

 bite, through the skill (as he was pleased to say) of 

 an Englishman. 



Venomous snakes become rarer in the Equatorial 

 Andes when we ascend beyond 3000 feet, and at 

 about 6000 feet disappear altogether at least I 

 never saw or heard of one above that height. The 

 natives believe the snakes of the sierra to be just 

 as venomous as those of the plains, and that it is 

 the cold that renders them bobas (stupid) - - of 

 course a mistaken notion, like most other popular 

 beliefs. 



The superstition that it is unlucky for a woman 



