234 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMEEICA. 



young gnibs in the comb and eat them. I tried them 

 once by way of dessert after dinner, but my stomach was 

 offended at their intrusion ; probably it was more the idea 

 than the taste that caused the stomach to rebel. 



Time and experience have convinced me that there is not 

 much danger in roving amongst snakes and wild beasts, 

 provided only that you have self-command. You must 

 never approach them abruptly ; if so, you are sure to pay 

 for your rashness ; because the idea of self-defence is pre- 

 dominant in every animal, and thus the snake, to defend 

 himself from what he considers an attack upon him, makes 

 the intruder feel the deadly effect of his poisonous fangs. 

 The jaguar flies at you and knocks you senseless with a 

 stroke of his paw : whereas, if you had not come upon 

 him too suddenly, it is ten to one but that he had retired, 

 in lieu of disputing the path with you. The labarri snake 

 is very poisonous, and I have often approached within two 

 yards of him without fear. I took care to move very softly 

 and gently without moving my arms, and he always al- 

 lowed me to have a fine view of him, without showing the 

 least inclination to make a spring at me. He wotdd appear 

 to keep his eye fixed on me, as though suspicious, but that 

 was all. Sometimes I have taken a stick ten feet long, 

 and placed it on the labarri's back. He would then glide 

 away without offering resistance. But when I put the 

 end of the stick abruptly to his head, he immediately 

 opened his mouth, flew at it, and bit it. 



One day, wishful to see how the poison comes out of 

 the fangs of the snake, I caught a labarri alive. He was 

 about eight feet long. I held him by the neck, and my 

 hand was so near his jaw, that he had not room to move 

 his head to bite it. This was the only position I could 

 have held him in with safety and effect. To do so, it only 

 required a little resolution and coolness. I then took a 



