224 



STAY AT MORRO d'aRARA, 



be supposed. The horror and fear of serpents felt by the inhabi- 

 tants is excessive; the common people entertain various and partly 

 ridiculous prejudices respecting their nature: thus for instance, 

 they believe that there are serpents with two heads ; that others are 

 attracted by light or fire, and that the venomous kinds of these 

 animals spit out their poison when they are going to drink. 



Some days afterwards I obtained another, quite harmless, but re- 

 markably beautiful serpent*, in the skin of which vermilion, black, 

 and greenish rings, alternate; it has some resemblance in figure to 

 the coral serpent ( cobra coraes ), but is very different from it. 



In these solitary wildernesses the chace was our most agreeable, 

 most useful, and indeed only occupation ; and though the insecurity 

 of the forests laid us under many restraints, and obliged us to make 

 it a rule never to go out, except in sufficiently numerous parties, yet 

 we always procured abundance of game. Whenever we went out of 

 our huts in the morning, we heard the loud drum-like voice of the 

 barbados (mycetes) and the hoarse growl of the gigo-f, another hi- 

 therto nondescript monkey ; the maccaws, which flew loudly scream- 

 ing over our huts, in pairs, threes, or fives, joined in this noisy 

 concert, which re-echoed through the woods; and we were in like 

 manner surrounded by flocks of parrots, of scha'iias, maitacas, jurus, 

 (psittactis pulverulentus, Linn.) curicas, and many other kinds. 



* Coluber formosus, a nondescript species ; 32 inches 7 lines long, including the tail, 

 which is 7 inches : head of a bright orange colour ; iris vermilion ; in the mouth are 76 teeth ; 

 the fore half of the body, with alternate black and pale yellow green transverse stripes ; the 

 hinder alternating with black and broad vermilion stripes. It is an incomparably beautiful 

 animal. 



t Callithrix melanochir, 35 inches 10 lines long, including the tail, which is 21 inches 10 

 lines ; the hair long, thick, and soft ; face and four feet black ; the hair blackish and whitish 

 mixed, so that it appears ash grey ; back reddish chesnut brown ; the tail is whitish, often 

 nearly white and sometimes yellowish. 



