BOA-CONSTRICTORS 



67 



not far from my door. He had cut it nearly in two 

 with a large knife, as it was making its way down the 

 sandy street. Sometimes the native hunters capture 

 boa-constrictors alive in the forest near the city. We 

 bought one which had been taken in this way, and kept 

 it for some time in a large box under our verandah. This 

 is not, however, the largest or most formidable serpent 

 found in the Amazons region. It is far inferior, in these 

 respects, to the hideous vSucuruju, or Water Boa (Eunectes 

 murinus), which sometimes attacks man ; but of this I 

 shall have to give an account in a subsequent chapter. 



It frequently happened, in passing through the thickets, 

 that a snake would fall from the boughs close to me. 

 Once I got for a few moments completely entangled in 

 the folds of one, a wonderfully slender kind, being nearly 

 six feet in length, and not more than half an inch in 

 diameter at its broadest part. It was a species of Dry- 

 ophis. The majority of the snakes seen were innocuous. 

 One day, however, I trod on the tail of a young serpent 

 belonging to a very poisonous kind, the Jararaca (Cras- 

 pedocephalus atrox). It turned round and bit my 

 trousers ; and a young Indian lad, who was behind me, 

 dexterously cut it through with his knife before it had 

 time to free itself. In some seasons snakes are very 

 abundant, and it often struck me as strange that accidents 

 did not occur more frequently than was the case. 



Amongst the most curious snakes found here were the 

 Amphisbaense, a genus allied to the slow-worm of Europe. 

 Several species occur at Para. Those brought to me 

 were generally not much more than a foot in length. 

 They are of cylindrical shape, having, properly speaking, 

 no neck, and the blunt tail which is only about an inch 

 in length, is of the same shape as the head. This peculiar 

 form added to their habit of wriggling backwards as well 

 as forwards, has given rise to the fable that they have 

 two heads, one at each extremity. They are extremely 

 sluggish in their motions, and are clothed with scales 

 that have the form of small imbedded plates arranged 

 in rings round the body. The eye is so small as to be 

 scarcely perceptible. They live habitually in the sub- 

 terranean chambers of the Saiiba ant ; only coming out 

 of their abodes occasionally in the night time. The 

 natives call the Amphisbaena the ' Mai das Saiibas or 

 Mother of the Saiibas, and believe it to be poisonous, 



