196 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



while tlie other end of the sticks expanded at equal 

 distances round the rope, thus — 



Xow, it is evident that if the cayman swallowed this 

 (the other end of the rope, which was thirty yards long, 

 being fastened to a tree), the more he pnUed, the faster 

 the barbs would stick into his stomach. This wooden 

 hook, if you may so call it, was well baited with the 

 flesh of the acouri, and the entrails were twisted round 

 the rope for about a foot above it. 



I^early a mile from where we had our hammocks the 

 sand-bank was steep and abrupt, and the river very 

 still and deep ; there the Indian pricked a stick into 

 the sand. It was two feet long, and on its extremity 

 was fixed the machine ; it hung suspended about a foot 

 from the water, and the end of the rope was made fast 

 to a stake driven well into the sand. 



The Indian then took the empty shell of a land- 

 tcrtoise, and gave it some heavy blows with an axe. I 

 asked why he did that. He said it was to let the 



