222 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



where I had captured the large snake. In the 

 morning I had been following a new species of 

 paroquet, and the day being rainy, I had taken an 

 umbrella to keep the gun dry, and had left it 

 under a tree; in the afternoon I took Daddy 

 Quashi with me to look for it. Whilst he was 

 searching about, curiosity took me towards the 

 place of the late scene of action. There was a 

 path where timber had formerly been dragged 

 along. Here I observed a young coulacanara, ten 

 feet long, slowly moving onwards; I saw he was 

 not thick enough to break my arm in case he got 

 twisted round it. There was not a moment to be 

 lost. I laid hold of his tail with the left hand, 

 one knee being on the ground; with the right I 

 took my hat, and held it as you would hold a 

 shield for defence. The snake instantly turned, 

 and came on at me, with his head about a yard 

 from the ground, as if to ask me, what business 

 I had to take liberties with his tail. I let him 

 come, hissing and open-mouthed, within two feet 

 of my face, and then, with all the force I was 

 master of, I drove my fist, shielded by my hat, 

 full in his jaws. He was stunned and confounded 

 by the blow, and ere he could recover himself, I 

 had seized his throat with both hands, in such a 

 position that he could not bite me ; I then allowed 

 him to coil himslf round my body, and marched 

 off with him as my lawful prize. He pressed me 

 hard, but not alarmingly so. 



In the meantime. Daddy Quashi having found 

 the umbrella, and having heard the noise which 

 the fray occasioned, was coming cautiously up. 

 As soon as he saw me, and in what company I 



