AT MUCURI, VICOZA, AND CARAVELLAS, &C. 



223 



By direction of the ouvidor, mimdeos of this kind had been made 

 in two places near Morro d'Arara : they were our chief means of sub- 

 sistence, for though the people here lived principally on fish, we 

 Europeans always preferred fresh meat. The paca ( ccElogenys paca), 

 the aguti ( clasi/procta agiiti), the macuca f tinamus brasiliensisj, and 

 the common tatu (tatoii noir, Azara), the flesh of which is white, 

 tender, and well flavoured, were particularly welcome to us for our 

 table. One day, having gone out to examine the traps, we were 

 on the lagoa, when the Indian who managed my boat suddenly 

 pointed out to us an anta, which was swimming in the lake, and at- 

 tempting to reach the shore. We fired at it from some distance, but 

 most of the shot missed, till at last, the misshapen animal was 

 wounded, but only slightly, because the shot could not penetrate far 

 through its thick skin. We went on shore and followed the bloody 

 track, but soon forgot it entirely, in consequence of the great danger 

 into which my Indian fell. He came too close to a jararacca* five 

 feet long, which lay hid among the dry leaves : it raised itself up, 

 shewed its formidable teeth, and was going to bite at him, when I 

 killed it by a fortunate shot, and saved the terrified hunter. The 

 Indians, and even the Portuguese hunters, always go barefooted to the 

 chace ; shoes and stockings being in this country dear articles for the 

 countryman, and therefore used only on holidays. They are of 

 course more exposed to the bite of the serpents, which often lie hid 

 among the dry leaves ; and yet such cases are more rare than would 



* The jararacca, which is spoken of in our modern travels, is introduced in the systems 

 under the name of viperu atrox ; but it difters from the viper in the opening in the cheeks, 

 which is found in all the venomous serpents of South America, that I had an opportunity to 

 examine. In the Magazine of the Society of Enquirers into Nature, at Berlin, (3d year) j). 85, 

 there is a description of the jararacca, by M. H. Tilesius, if this name has the same meaning 

 at St. Catherine's as on the Continent. The jararaccassu is merely a very large old animal of 

 this kind, which is naturally rather diff'erent in colour from younger ones. 



