364 TRAVELS THROUGH 



an excellent unguent for the rheumatic pains -, 

 this unguent penetrates into the body, to the very 

 bones. 



It is generally believed that the number of 

 vertehrce in the rattle encreafes with the age of the 

 fnake -, I have feen fome rattle-fnakes fo big, as 

 to be able to eat a whole roe-deer, by fucking it 

 little by little. 



There is another kind of ferpent, which they 

 call the \N\{\^^tv^ fouetteur '^ it, is red on the belly 

 and black on the back •, it is fomctimes about 

 twenty feet long, and when it finds any body in 

 the water, it twines round him fo violently as to 

 |:ake aw<iy his breath, and drown him,* 



That fnake which is called the whiftler is 

 about two feet long, but is fo much more dan- 

 gerous, becaufe it is not fo eafily' feen, being very 

 little ; fo that the Indians and negroes often tread 

 Upon and are bitten by it: it has a prodigious wide 

 mouth and when angry, it whillles at a terrible 



rate. 



'^ This fnake is reprefented by Catejby nat, hijl, of Carol, 

 II. 46. It might be called coluber erythrogajler, for Catefby 

 calls it the copper-bellied-fnake. The circumllance here me«- 

 tioned, relative to its twilling round people in the water, 

 and its enormous fize are both new. F. 



