REPTILES. 



113 



There were numbers of jacares or alligators* 

 in this lake, which rendered it dangerous to 

 work in cutting away the rushes, which it was 

 necessary to do, for the purpose of forming an 

 open space in which the horses could be watered 

 and washed, and indeed the grass was eaten by 

 them when other kinds failed in the dry season. 

 I may here mention some others of the lizard 

 tribe. The camaleam (Jacerta Iguana) is often 

 to be met with ; also the tijuagu, which is, I 

 believe, the lacerta teguixin ; this is very com- 

 mon. There is likewise the calango y which is 

 smaller than the other two ; these three species 

 are all of them eaten by the lower orders of 

 people. The vibra and the lagartixa are two 

 small species of lizard, which are continually to 

 be seen in all situations ; in and upon the 

 houses, in the gardens and in the woods ; they 

 do good rather than harm, for they eat flies, 

 spiders, &c. and they are to my eyes very pretty 

 creatures ; their activity, and at the same time 

 their tameness, made me fond of them. 



* I have been much blamed by one of my friends for not 

 having eaten of the flesh of the jacarl ; and indeed 1 felt a 

 little ashamed of my squeamishness, when I was shown by 

 the same friend, a passage in a French writer, whose name 

 I forget, in which he speaks favourably of this flesh. How- 

 ever, if the advocate for experimental eating had seen an 

 alligator cut into slices, he would, I think, have turned from 

 the sight as quickly as I did. The Indians eat these crea- 

 tures, but the negroes will not, no, not even the gabam 

 negroes, who are said to be cannibals. 

 VOL. II. I 



