312 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS 



several miles apart, whence they gradually approximated, 

 searching all the little inlets on both sides the river. The 

 reptile was found at last sunning itself on a log at the 

 mouth of a muddy rivulet, and despatched with harpoons. 

 I saw it the day after it was killed : it was not a very 

 large specimen, measuring only eighteen feet nine inches 

 in length and sixteen inches in circumference at the widest 

 part of the body. I measured skins of the Anaconda 

 afterwards, twenty-one feet in length and two feet in 

 girth. The reptile has a most hideous appearance, owing 

 to its being very broad in the middle and tapering abruptly 

 at both ends. It is very abundant in some parts of the 

 country ; nowhere more so that in the Lago Grande, near 

 Santarero, where it is often seen coiled up in the corners 

 of farm-yards, and detested for its habit of carrying off 

 poultry, young calves, or whatever animal it can get 

 within reach of. 



At Ega a large Anaconda was once near making a meal 

 of a young lad about ten years of age belonging to one of 

 my neighbours. The father and his son went one day in 

 their montaria a few miles up the TefEe to gather wild 

 fruit ; landing on a sloping sandy shore, where the boy 

 was left to mind the canoe whilst the man entered the forest. 

 The beaches of the Teffe form groves of wild guava and 

 myrtle trees, and during most months of the year are partly 

 overflown by the river. Whilst the boy was playing in 

 the water under the shade of these trees a huge leptile 

 of this species stealthily wound its coils around him, un- 

 perceived until it was too late to escape. His cries brought 

 the father quickly to the rescue ; who rushed forward, 

 and seizing the Anaconda boldly by the head, tore his 

 jaws asunder. There appears to be no doubt that this 

 formidable serpent grows to an enormous bulk and lives 

 to a great age, for I heard of specimcDS having been killed 

 which measured forty-two feet in length, or double the 

 size of the largest I had an opportunity of examining. 

 The natives of the Amazons country universally believe 

 in the existence of a monster water-serpent said to be 

 many score fathoms in length, which appears successively 

 in different parts of the river. They call it the Mai d'agoa 

 — the mother or spirit of the water. This fable, which 

 was doubtless suggested by the occasional appearance 

 of Sucurujus of unusually large size, takes a great variety 

 of forms, and the wild legends form the subject of con- 



