SOUTH AMERICA. 217 



to ask me, what business I had to take liberties THI * D 



JOURNEY. 



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 himself round 

 my body, and marched off with him as my lawful 

 prize. He pressed me hard, but not alarmingly so. 



In the mean time, 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 was, he turned about and ran off home, I after 

 him, and shouting to increase his fear. On scold- 

 ing him for his cowardice, the old rogue begged 

 that I would forgive him, for that the sight of 

 the snake had positively turned him sick at 

 stomach. 



When I had done with the carcass of the large 

 snake, it was conveyed into the forest, as I ex- 

 pected that it would attract the king of the 

 vultures, as soon as time should have rendered it 

 sufficiently savoury. In a few days it sent forth 

 that odour which a carcass should send forth, and 

 about twenty of the common vultures came and 

 perched on the neighbouring trees ; the king of 

 the vultures came too ; and I observed that none 



