178 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



food, and thus the only service his teeth have to per- 

 form is to seize his prey, and hold it till he swallows it 

 whole. 



In general, the skins of snakes are sent to museums 

 without the head ; for when the Indians and negroes 

 kill a snake, they seldom fail to cut off the head, and 

 then they run no risk from its teeth. "When the skin 

 is stuffed in the museum, a wooden head is substituted, 

 armed with teeth which are large enough to suit a 

 tiger's jaw ; and this tends to mislead the spectator, 

 and give him erroneous ideas. 



During this fray with the serpent, the old negro, 

 Daddy Quashi, was in George-town procuring provi- 

 sions, and just returned in time to help to take the 

 skin off. He had spent best part of his life in the 

 forest with his old master, Mr. Edmonstone, and 

 amused me much in recounting their many adventures 

 amongst the wild beasts. The Daddy had a particular 

 horror of snakes, and frankly declared he could never 

 have faced the one in question. 



The week following, his courage was put 



Attacks .° r T 



another to the test, and he made good his words. It 

 was a curious conflict, and took place near 

 the spot where I had captured the large snake. In the 

 morning I had been following a new species of paroquet, 

 and the day being rainy, I had taken an umbrella to 

 keep the gun dry, and had left it under a tree ; in the 

 afternoon I took Daddy Quashi with me to look for it. 

 Whilst he was searching about, curiosity took me 

 towards the place of the late scene of action. There 

 was a path where timber had formerly been dragged 

 along. Here I observed a young coulacanara, ten feet 

 long, slowly moving onwards ; I saw he was not thick 



