28 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



excite in us is due to this resemblance;, what he 

 failed to see was that it is the expression rather 

 than the shape that horrifies. For in these crea- 

 tures it simulates such expressions as excite fear 

 and abhorrence in our own species, or pity so 

 intense as to be painful ferocity, stealthy, watch- 

 ful malignity, a set look of anguish or despair, or 

 some dreadful form of insanity. Some one has 

 well and wisely said that there is no ugliness in 

 us except the expression of evil thoughts and 

 passions ; for these do most assuredly write them- 

 selves on the countenance. Looking at a serpent 

 of this kind, and I have looked at many a one, the 

 fancy is born in me that I am regarding what 

 was once a fellow-being, perhaps one of those 

 cruel desperate wretches I have encountered on 

 the outskirts of civilization, who for his crimes has 

 been changed into the serpent form, and cursed 

 with immortality. 



As a rule the deceptive resemblances and self- 

 plagiarisms of nature, when we light by chance on 

 them, give us only pleasure, heightened by wonder 

 or a sense of mystery; but the case of this ser- 

 pent forms an exception: in spite of the tender- 

 ness I cherish towards the entire ophidian race, 

 the sensation is not agreeable. 



To return. My friend made a fire to boil water, 

 and after we had had some breakfast, he galloped 

 off once more in a new direction; he had at last 

 remembered that on our side of the river there 



