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the threshold of the door, and, missing him in 

 the impetuosity of his spring, ran toward the 

 beach to attain the river. On examining the 

 spot where the barbacon, or bedstead, was placed, 

 the cause of this strange adventure was easily 

 discovered. The ground was disturbed to a 

 considerable depth. It was dried mud, that had 

 covered the crocodile in that state of lethargy, 

 or summer sleep, in which many of the species 

 lie during the absence of the rains amid the 

 Llanos. The noise of men and horses, per- 

 haps the smell of the dog, had awakened the 

 crocodile. The hut being placed at the edge of 

 the pool, and inundated during part of the 

 year, the crocodile had no doubt entered, at 

 the time of the inundation of the savannahs, by 

 the same opening by which Mr. Pozo saw it go 

 out. The Indians often find enormous boas, 

 which they call Uji, or water-serpents*, in the 

 same lethargic state. To reanimate them, they 

 must be irritated, or wetted with water. Boas are 

 killed, and immersed in the streams, to obtain, 

 by means of putrefaction, the tendinous parts of 

 the dorsal muscles, of which excellent strings for 

 the guitar are made at Calabozo, preferable to 

 those furnished by the intestines of the alouate 

 monkeys. 



* Culebras de agua, traga-venado, " swallower of stags." 

 The word nji belongs to the Tamanack language. 



