CHAPTER XXX. 



WE BUILD A EAFT— THE HORNED SERPENT — GOOD-BYE TO "PALM-TREE 

 VILLA "—MOSQUITOES AND HORSE-FLIES — THE RATTLESNAKE- -AN 

 OCELOT. 



pHE next day found us at work building our raft, and 

 I'Encuerado went off with Lucien in quest of some 

 flexible creepers, to be used for binding together the 

 various portions of it. When our companions joined us, Sumi- 

 chrast was squaring out the last trunks. Lucien, laden with 

 creepers wound all round his body, carried besides, at the end 

 of his stick, the carcase of a horned snake — Atropos mexicanus — - 

 which has scales standing erect behind its eyebrows, like little 

 horns, which have obtained for it its Indian name of mazacoatl. 

 The reptile was nearly two feet long, and of a grayish colour, 

 and gaped with formidable jaws, more than usually dilated by 

 the blows, I suppose, which I'Encuerado had given it. 



