198 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



the idea than the taste that caused the stomach to 

 rebel. 



Time and experience have convinced me that 

 there is not much danger in roving amongst 

 snakes and wild beasts, provided only that you 

 have self-command. You must never approach 

 them abruptly; if so, you are sure to pay for 

 your rashness; because the idea of self-defence 

 is predominant in every animal, and thus the 

 snake, to defend himself from what he considers 

 an attack upon him, makes the intruder feel the 

 deadly effect of his poisonous fangs. The jaguar 

 flies at you and knocks you senseless with a 

 stroke of his paw: whereas, if you had not come 

 upon him too suddenly, it is ten to one but that 

 he had retired, in lieu of disputing the path with 

 you. The labarri snake is very poisonous, and I 

 have often approached within two yards of him 

 without fear. I took care to move very softly and 

 gently without moving my arms, and he always 

 allowed me to have a fine view of him, without 

 showing the least inclination to make a spring at 

 me. He would appear to keep his eye fixed on 

 me, as though suspicious, but that was all. Some- 

 times I have taken a stick ten feet long, and 

 placed it on the labarri 's back. He would then 

 glide away without offering resistance. But when 

 I put the end of the stick abruptly to his head, 

 he immediately opened his mouth, flew at it, and 

 bit it. 



One day, wishful to see how the poison comes 

 out of the fangs of the snake, I caught a labarri 

 alive. He was about eight feet long. I held him 

 by the neck, and my hand was so near his jaw. 



