24 THE START [chap, i 



head and neck round so that the lighter - coloured 

 surface was uppermost; and indeed at one time it 

 looked as if it had made almost a complete single spiral 

 revolution of its own body. It never for a moment 

 relaxed its grip except to shift slightly the jaws. 



In a few minutes the jararaca was dead, its head 

 crushed in, although the body continued to move con- 

 vulsively. When satisfied that its opponent ^as dead, 

 the mussurama began to try to get the head in its 

 mouth. 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 dehberately, but v(dth unbroken speed, to 

 devour its opponent by the simple process of crawling 

 outside it, the body and tail of the jararaca writhing and 

 strugghng 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 indiiFerent to 

 our presence, but it was totally indiffisrent to being 

 handled while the meal was going on. Several times 

 I replaced the combatants in the middle of the table 

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

 the photographers 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 certainty with which the terrible 

 poisonous snake was mastered gave me the heartiest 

 respect and liking for the easy-going, good-natured, and 



