THE ANACONDA. 519 



as when they were swallowed — a proof that they had been 

 captured within a short time. Bates relates that an Indian 

 father with his son went one day in their montaiio to gather 

 fruit a short distance from Egga, when, landing on a sloping, 

 sandy shore, the boy was left to take care of the canoe while 

 the man entered the forest. The boy was playing in the 

 water under the shade of some myrtle and wild guava trees, 

 when a huge reptile stealthily wound its coils round him. His 

 cries brought the father to the rescue, who, rushing forward, 

 seized the anaconda boldly by the head, and tore its jaws 

 asunder. 



This formidable serpent lives to a great age ; and Bates heard 

 of a specimen being killed which measured forty-two feet in 

 length. Those he measured were only twenty-one feet long, 

 and two feet in girth. He was a sufferer, on one occasion, 

 from one of these. While on a voyage up the river, his canoe 

 being moored alongside the bank, the neighbourhood of which 

 had been haunted for some time past by one of the creatures, 

 he was awoke a little after midnight, as he lay in his cabin, by 

 a heavy blow struck at the side of the canoe, close to his head. 

 It was succeeded by the sound of a heavy body plunging into 

 the water. When he got up all was again quiet, except the 

 cackle of fowls in the hen-coop, which hung at the side of the 

 vessel, about three feet from the cabin door. In the morning 

 the poultry were found loose about the canoe, two of the fowls 

 being missing ; while there was a large rent in the bottom of 

 the hen-coop, raised about two feet from the surface of the 

 water. The Indians went in search of the reptile, which, 

 being found sunning itself on a log at the mouth of a muddy 

 rivulet, was despatched with harpoons. 



It is extremely tenacious of life ; and though the head may 



