BOAS.- 



■REPTILKS.- 



-Anaconda. 



57 



Irably more slender 

 Inly about the sixth 

 Che head is heavj'- 

 Inct from the neck, 

 and heart-shaped. Its prominent muzzle and swollen 

 cheeks and region above tlie e3'e, give it an air of fero- 

 city which in reality however does not belong to its 

 character. The eye is small, lateral, and has a ver- 

 tical pupil. The colour of the ground is a rosy purple, 

 varied and marbled with pale brown. On the under 

 surface and towards the tail this passes into white, but 

 on the upper parts, on the contrary, into a pale choco- 

 late brown. A broad brownish-black r.ay runs along 

 the sides of the head to behind the nostrils, and extends 

 in a serpentine form along the neck and along the 

 flanks, enlarging at irregular intervals in order to unite 

 with that of the opposite side. The tip of the tail is 

 generally of a red colour. The scales of the body arc 

 remarkably smooth, and extend also o^'er the wliole 

 head, so that it possesses no plates except those of the 

 lips, which are also smooth, and not pitted. The Boa 

 constrictor is a native of tropical America ; it has 

 been found in Brazil, Para, some of the West India 

 islands, and is particularly abundant in Surinam, where 

 it is known by the name of Papa-serpeiit. Very 

 exaggerated statements have often been made as to 

 the size of the Boa, partly owing to many authors 

 confusing other species of the family with it. Modern 

 travellers have seldom seen it exceeding twelve feet 

 in length, though individuals are mentioned as much 

 surpassing that extent. The specimens sent to Europe 

 from Surinam vary in general from seven to eight feet 

 in length, and in diameter to the circumference of a 

 man's arm. According to the account given to Schlcgel 

 by his correspondent JI. Dieperink, no person in that 

 colony regards the Boa with any feelings of fear. On 

 the contrary, it is often tamed, and it contracts habits 

 so inoffensive, that it holds the rank there of one of the 

 domestic animals with which it frequently lives in per- 

 fect harmony. This gentleman occasionally kept various 

 Boas in the same chamber, without any mischief ever 

 occurring. He fed them upon eggs, of which they 

 appeared to be very fond. Individuals have often 

 been known to have lived without food for six or eight 

 months. The Prince ofNeuwied, during bis travels in 

 South America, had frequent opportunities of seeing 

 and studying the habits of this snake, and his account 

 appears to be both very interesting and trustworthy. 

 He often met with them in various parts of the east 

 coast of Brazil, especially in the country to the south 

 of Rio Janeiro, and near Cape Frio. They appear to 

 prefer the woody parts of the interior to the open 

 places near the coast, and in such places, and in the 

 large forests of that country, they are often to be seen, 

 (either hanging suspended to a branch of a tree waiting 

 for their prey, or retired into holes in the clefts of 

 rocks or under the trunks of old trees, collecting there 

 in small companies of several individuals. Their food 

 consists of the small mammalia of that country, such 

 as rats, mice, agoutis, pacas, and capybaras. The 

 adults, however, are said sometimes to attack goats, 

 and the natives often in consequence call them Cobra 

 de Veada. Nobody, says Prince Neuwied, fears them, 

 Vol. II. 



and the inhabitants ofteti attack and kill them with 

 sticks. The native hunters laugh at the absurd idea 

 so often entertained by strangers, that the Boas ever 

 attack man, but they affirm that they will attack and 

 devour other reptiles, and also dogs. Unlike the 

 Pythons, the Boa never goes into the water, but lies 

 concealed in burrows, the entrance into which is easily 

 recognized by its being regularly, as it were, polished 

 by the rubbing of its huge body against the sides. It 

 is caught by the Brazilians placing nets at the entrance 

 of this burrow, and these serpents are hunted thus for 

 their skin and fat. Of the foi'mer they make boots, 

 saddle-cloths, &c., and the fat is used for anointing 

 painful jouits, &c. 



It was either this snake or an allied species, the 

 EiiPt;ROR Boa [Boa Iirqicrator), that was worshipped 

 in Mexico. At the first discovery of that country by 

 the Spaniards, this " snake-worship" was very com- 

 mon, and the idols have been described by the early 

 historians of the conquest. Southey, in his fine poem 

 of " Madoc," describes this horrid w-orship, the idol, 

 and the priests, and Peter the Martyr gives the following 

 account of the idol found by the Spaniards at Cam- 

 peachy : — 



" Our men were conducted to a broade crosse-way, 

 standing on the side of the towne. Here they show 

 them a square stage or pulpit, four steppes high, partly 

 of clammy bitumen, and partly of small stones, whereto 

 the image of a man cut in marble was joined, two 

 foure-footed unknown animals fastening upon him, 

 which, like madde dogges, seemed they would tear 

 the marble man's guts out of his belly. And by the 

 image stood a serpent, besmeared all with goare bloud, 

 devouring a marble lion, which serpent, compacted of 

 bitumen and small stones incorporated together, was 

 seven and fortie feet in length, and as thick as a great 

 oxe. Next unto it were three rafters or stakes fas- 

 tened to the grounde, wdiich three others crossed 

 under-propped wdth stones ; in which place they pvmish 

 malefi>ct<u-s condemned, for proof whereof they saw 

 innumerable broken arrowes, all bloudie, scattered on 

 the grounde, and the bones of the dead cast into an 

 inclosed courto neere unto it." It was to this idol 

 that the ancient Mexicans offered human victims ; and 

 the priests, taking advantage of the knowdedge they 

 had of the usually gentle habits and docility of these 

 large snakes, always kept one alive to show to the 

 deluded worshippers. 



THE ANACOHDA [Eunectes murimis) — fig. 16 — 

 is the largest, however, of all the serpents belonging to 

 the Boa family. This serpent is perhaps the largest 

 Ophidian of America, and probably surpasses in size all 

 other serpents in the world. It is to this species that 

 we must refer the greater number of the highly exag- 

 gerated tales of travellers, of the enormous size, the 

 ferocious habits, and the extraordinary voracity of 

 those monstrous serpents that have been found in the 

 New World. In reading the accounts of some of our 

 earlier travellers of the vast size of various serpents 

 met with by them, and comparing them with the rela- 

 tions of our modern zoological travellers, wo are often 

 led to pause and ask the qiicstion, How are we to 

 account for such discrepancies? In other matters, 



H 



