196 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



The traveller into the interior hears many stories of great 

 serpents and their doings; for instance, the story of the 

 horned snake is famous all over South America, and while 

 the details may vary, the main features are always the same. 

 It is the tale of a person (usually the one telling the story) 

 who came suddenly upon an enormous snake with a long 

 horn on either side of the head. Of course, the reptile was 

 immediately killed, sometimes with a rifle or revolver, or 

 occasionally with a knife, after a desperate struggle. As 

 the slain monster writhed its last, the heroic hunter made 

 a startling discovery; the snake did not actually have horns; 

 it had merely swallowed an ox, which feat it performed 

 without difficulty until the head was reached; this refused 

 to go down on account of the spreading horns lodging cross- 

 wise in the corners of the snake's mouth. Hence the old, 

 old story of the horned snake. 



Another favorite anecdote which I have heard repeated a 

 number of times is that of the man who with his wagon, to 

 which two oxen were hitched, attempted to ford a stream; 

 suddenly an anaconda of enormous size emerged from the 

 water and, enveloping both animals in its coils, crushed them 

 to death. I never encouraged those telling this story to 

 continue, because I was afraid that they might say the 

 snake had swallowed both oxen and perhaps even the 

 wagon at the same time ! 



Not many years ago a South American explorer brought 

 back photographs of the "trail" made by a huge snake in 

 crawling along the sand. It would be easy to manufacture 

 such a trail by dragging a bag full of sand along the ground, 

 and while it is impossible to say that this was really done, 

 such a photograph would be of no value, anyway, as it 

 would be impossible to determine the size of the reptile 

 from such a picture. 



In this way the evidence of the existence of gigantic 

 snakes gradually dwindles away, and we are compelled to 

 look for material on which we can lay our hands, whereon 

 to base our knowledge. That is, the stories of the average 



