CnAi". III. MOTHER OF THE SAUBAS. 101 



to me were generally not much more than a foot in 

 length. They are of cylindrical shape, having, properly 

 speaking, no neck, and the blunt tail which is only about 

 an inch in length, is of the same shape as the head. 



Ampliisbaina. 



This peculiar form added to their habit of wiiggiing 

 backwards as well as forwards, has given rise to the 

 fable that they have two heads, one at each ex- 

 tremity. They are extremely sluggish in their motions, 

 and are clothed with scales that have the form of 

 small imbedded plates arranged in rings round the 

 body. The eye is so small as to be scarcely perceptible. 

 They live habitually in the subterranean chambers of 

 the Saiiba ant ; only coming out of their abodes occa- 

 sionally in the night time. The natives call the 

 Amphisbsena the " Mai das Salibas," or Mother of the 

 Saiibas, and believe it to be poisonous, although it is 

 perfectly harmless. It is one of the many curious 

 animals which have become the subject of mythical 

 stories mth the natives They say the ants treat it with 

 great affection, and that, if the snake be taken away 

 from a n^t, the Saiibas will forsake the spot. I once took 

 one quite whole out of the body of a young Jararaca, 

 the poisonous species already alluded to, whose body 

 was so distended with its contents that the skin was 

 stretched out to a film over the contained Amphis- 



