26 Through the BraziHan Wilderness 



This was a process of some difficulty on account of the 

 angle at which the lower jaw of the jararaca stuck out. 

 But finally the head was taken completely inside and then 

 swallowed. After this, the mussurama proceeded de- 

 liberately, but with unbroken speed, to devour its oppo- 

 nent by the simple process of crawling outside it, the 

 body and tail of the jararaca writhing and struggling 

 until the last. During the early portion of the meal, the 

 mussurama put a stop to this writhing and struggling 

 by resting its own body on that of its prey; but toward 

 the last the part of the body that remained outside was 

 left free to wriggle as it wished. 



Not only was the mussurama totally indifferent to 

 our presence, but it was totally indifferent to being han- 

 dled while the meal was going on. Several times I re- 

 placed the combatants in the middle of the table when 

 they had writhed to the edge, and finally, when the pho- 

 tographers found that they could not get good pictures, 

 I held the mussurama up against a white background 

 with the partially swallowed snake in its mouth ; and the 

 feast went on uninterruptedly. I never saw cooler or 

 more utterly unconcerned conduct ; and the ease and cer- 

 tainty with which the terrible poisonous snake was mas- 

 tered gave me the heartiest respect and liking for the 

 easy-going, good-natured, and exceedingly efficient ser- 

 pent which I had been holding in my arms. 



Our trip was not intended as a hunting-trip but as a 

 scientific expedition. Before starting on the trip itself, 

 while travelling in the Argentine, I received certain pieces 

 of first-hand information concerning the natural history 



