16 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



handled steel hook. All that is necessary to do is to in- 

 sert this under the snake and lift him off the ground. He 

 is not only unable to escape, but he is unable to strike, for 

 he cannot strike unless coiled so as to give himself support 

 and leverage. The table on which the snakes are laid is 

 fairly large and smooth, differing in no way from an ordi- 

 nary table. 



There were a number of us in the room, including two 

 or three photographers. The doctor first put on the table 

 a non-poisonous but very vicious and truculent colubrine 

 snake. It struck right and left at us. Then the doctor 

 picked it up, opened its mouth, and showed that it had 

 no fangs, and handed it to me. I also opened its mouth 

 and examined its teeth, and then put it down, whereupon, 

 its temper having been much ruffled, it struck violently 

 at me two or three times. In its action and temper this 

 snake was quite as vicious as the most irritable poisonous 

 snakes. Yet it is entirely harmless. One of the innumer- 

 able mysteries of nature which are at present absolutely 

 insoluble is why some snakes should be so vicious and 

 others absolutely placid and good-tempered. 



After removing the vicious harmless snake, the doctor 

 warned us to get away from the table, and his attendant 

 put on it, in succession, a very big lachecis — of the kind 

 called bushmaster — and a big rattlesnake. Each coiled 

 menacingly, a formidable brute ready to attack anything 

 that approached. Then the attendant adroitly dropped 

 his iron crook on the neck of each in succession, seized 

 it right behind the head, and held it toward the doctor. 

 The snake's mouth was in each case wide open, and the 

 great fangs erect and very evident. It would not have 



