114 THE ADVENTURES OF 



after a few minutes' delay it seized its victim by the head, 

 —by degrees the little feathered innocent disappeared, and the 

 snake remained motionless as though exhausted by the exertion. 



" Is it a rattle-snake % " asked Lucien, astonished. 



" No ; it is a common snake, that is, a reptile which is not 

 venomous. This one is called by the Indians the yellow-snake, 

 and, from ignorance, they are in very great dread of them. It is 

 in the habit of climbing trees with great activity, and hunts 

 birds. The statues of the Aztec god of war, the terrible Huit- 

 zilipochtli, to whom thousands of men were offered as living 

 sacrifices, had their foreheads bound with a golden snake, and 

 we have every reason to believe that the reptile which we have 

 just seen is that which the Indians thus honoured." 



A little farther on, Lucien fancied that he saw, stretched out 

 upon the grass, a long white snake. Gringalet, much bolder than 

 usual, seized the reptile in his mouth and brought it to us. But 

 it was nothing but a serpent's skin : I then told the child that 

 all reptiles of this kind change their skin twice a year, and that 

 they get out of it as if from a sheath. 



We continued our descent, and I'Encuerado, who had taken 

 the lead, suddenly turned back to us with his head covered with 

 an immense vegetable helmet. I at once recognised it to be the 

 flower of a plant I had met with in the neighbouring mountains. 

 Nothing could be more splendid than this blossom, which, before 

 it is full blown, looks like a duck sitting on the water. In a 

 single morning, the enormous corolla opens out and changes into 

 a form resembling a helmet surmounted by a crest, the interior 

 of it, lined with yellow velvet, almost dazzles the eyes. The seed 

 of this creeper, the Indian name of which I forget, is flat, and of 

 a heart-like shape, having depicted on one of its faces a Maltese 

 cross. 



Even Sumichrast for a moment forgot his injuries while ex- 

 amining this wonderful flower, and Lucien, finding a second, very 

 soon covered his head with it ; but the poisonous and penetrating 

 odour exhaled from the corolla made him feel sick, so he soon 

 relinquished this novel head-dress. 



A few more steps brought us to the bottom of the ravine, and 



