509 



and lift up the head, opening their wide jaws. 

 They turn continually, though slowly, toward 

 their enemy, to show him their teeth, which, 

 even when the animal is recently come out of 

 the egg, are already very long and sharp. Often 

 while one of the zamuroes attracts the whole at- 

 tention of a young crocodile, another seizes so 

 favourable an opportunity for an unforeseen at- 

 tack. He pounces on the crocodile, grasps it by 

 the neck, and bears it off to the higher regions 

 of the air. We had an opportunity of observing 

 this manoeuvre during several mornings, at the 

 town of Mompex where we had collected more 

 than forty crocodiles, that had been fifteen or 

 twenty days hatched, in a spacious court sur- 

 rounded by a wall. 



We found among the Indians assembled at 

 Pararuma some white men, who had come from 

 Angostura to purchase the manteea de tortuga. 

 After having wearied us for a long time with 

 their complaints of the fC bad harvest," and of 

 the mischief done by the tigers among the tur- 

 tles, at the moment of laying their eggs, they 

 conducted us beneath an ajoupa, that rose in the 

 centre of the Indian camp. We there found the 

 missionary-monks of Carichana and the Cata- 

 racts seated on the ground, playing at cards, 

 and smoking tobacco in long pipes. From their 



* On the borders of the river Magdalena. 



