i85i.] 



ARRIVAL AT J A VITA. 



171 



here, deadly serpents were plentiful, and at every step I almost 

 expected to feel a cold, gliding body under my feet, or deadly 

 fangs in my leg. Through the darkness I gazed, expecting 

 momentarily to encounter the glaring eyes of a jaguar, or to 

 hear his low growl in the thicket. But to turn back or to stop 

 were alike useless : I knew that we could not be very far from 

 the village, and so pressed on, with a vague confidence that 

 after all nothing disagreeable would happen, and that the next 

 day I should only laugh at my fears overnight. Still the sharp 

 fangs of the dried snake's head at Pimichin would come across 

 my memory, and many a tale of the fierceness and cunning of 

 the jaguar were not to be forgotten. At length we came to 

 the clearing I had reached two days before, and I now knew 

 that we had but a short distance to go. There were, however, 

 several small streams to cross. Suddenly we would step into 

 water, which we felt but could not see, and then had to find 

 the narrow bridge crossing it. Of the length of the bridge, its 

 height above the water, or the depth of the stream, we were 

 entirely ignorant ; and to walk along a trunk four inches wide 

 under such circumstances, was rather a nervous matter. We 

 proceeded, placing one foot before the other, and balancing 

 steadily, till we again felt ourselves on firm ground. On one 

 or two occasions I lost my balance, but it was luckily only a 

 foot or two to the ground and water below, though if it had been 

 twenty it would have been all the same. Some half dozen of 

 brooks and bridges like this had to be passed, and several 

 little up and downs in the road, till at length, emerging from 

 the pitchy shade upon an open space, we saw twinkling lights, 

 which told us the village was before us. 



In about a quarter of an hour more we reached it, and, 

 knocking at a door, asked where the Commissario lived. We 

 were directed to a house on the other side of the square, where 

 an old man conducted us to the " Casa de nagao (a shed with 

 a door), in which were all my goods. On asking him if he 

 could furnish me something for supper, he gave us some 

 smoked turtles' eggs and a piece of salt fish, and then left 

 us. We soon made a fire with some sticks we found, roasted 

 our fish, and made a supper with the eggs and some farinha ; 

 I then hung up my hammock, and my companion lay on the 

 ground by the side of the fire ; and I slept well, undisturbed 

 by dreams of snakes or jaguars. 



