24 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



over the knot into which the two serpents were twisted, 

 I saw that the mussurama had seized the jararaca by the 

 lower jaw, putting its own head completely into the wide- 

 gaping mouth of the poisonous snake. The long fangs 

 were just above the top of the mussurama's head; and it 

 appeared, as well as I could see, that they were once again 

 driven into the mussurama; but without the slightest ef- 

 fect. Then the fangs were curved back in the jaw, a fact 

 which I particularly noted, and all effort at the offensive 

 was abandoned by the poisonous snake. 



Meanwhile the mussurama was chewing hard, and grad- 

 ually shifted its grip, little by little, until it got the top 

 of the head of the jararaca in its mouth, the lower jaw of 

 the jararaca being spread out to one side. The venomous 

 serpent was helpless; the fearsome master of the wild life 

 of the forest, the deadly foe of humankind, was itself held 

 in the grip of death. Its cold, baleful serpent's eyes shone, 

 as evil as ever. But it was dying. In vain it writhed and 

 struggled. Nothing availed it. 



Once or twice the mussurama took a turn round the 

 middle of the body of its opponent, but it did not seem 

 to press hard, and apparently used its coils chiefly in order 

 to get a better grip so as to crush the head of its antagonist, 

 or to hold the latter in place. This crushing was done by 

 its teeth; and the repeated bites were made with such 

 effort that the muscles stood out on the mussurama's neck. 

 Then it took two coils round the neck of the jararaca and 

 proceeded deliberately to try to break the backbone of 

 its opponent by twisting the head round. With this pur- 

 pose it twisted its own head and neck round so that the 

 lighter-colored surface was uppermost; and indeed at one 



