186 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



it was then lying on his stomach, and that 

 he had seen part of a Coral. He was naked, 

 except a very short loose pair of drawers and 

 a coarse poncho over his head, but the form 

 of the snake was very visible under the 

 drawers. Having dismounted, the travellers 

 put on thick gloves, and taking a pair of 

 scissors from the saddle-bags, cut through the 

 drawers carefully until the head of the snake 

 was seen fast asleep, when one of them seized 

 him by the neck and drew him off the poor 

 man's stomach. The Coral was a large-sized 

 one, nearly three feet in length, and of the 

 uniform thickness from head to tail of a stout 

 walking-stick. Colour, coral red with yellow 

 rings : the only danger was, the animal biting 

 the man, for there was none to the other two, 

 as the Coral cannot strike half his own length, 

 and that very slowly. 



The poor fellow said, that he had passed 

 two or three hours that had appeared to him 

 longer than two or three weeks of any tem- 

 poral (set-in rain and storm) he had ever 

 been in ; and that he had called to one or 

 two passers by, but they had all avoided him, 

 thinking he was a decoy for marauding In- 

 dians. He was completely prostrated in 

 mind and body, and it was some minutes be- 



