RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 65 
excretions. To remedy this, I prepared a decoction 
of an aromatic pepper (a species of Artanthe) that 
I had seen growing close by, and knew to be a 
powerful diuretic, and made him drink largely of it. 
In twelve hours the skin and the excretions were 
restored to their normal state. 
On the second day he could take a little broth, 
and on the third he again ate heartily. For a 
month afterwards he had occasional acute pains in 
the arm and about the region of the heart, but at 
the end of two months he was quite restored, and 
avowed that his arm was as strong as it had ever 
been. 
Chumbi had caught a glimpse of the snake, and 
recognised it as the Urrito-machacui or Parrot 
snake, so called from being coloured like the com- 
mon green parrot, and thus rendered scarcely dis- 
tinguishable from the foliage among which it lurks. 
It grows to a yard or more long, and its bite is con- 
sidered incurable. Several fatal cases had occurred 
in the country adjacent to the river Mayo. 
It may well be imagined that until Chumbi was 
fairly out of danger I felt no small anxiety, and it 
was not lessened by gathering from the whispers 
of his relatives that they considered me responsible 
for the accident that had befallen him. / had sent 
him into the forest, and had wished that the snake 
might bite him. If he had died, my life would have 
been in imminent danger. Nelson and I could 
probably have defended ourselves against any open 
attack of the few inhabitants of Lirio-pampa, but 
we could hardly have made head against Chumbi's 
numerous relatives at Tabalosos. 
When I reached Lamas on my way back, I was 
VOL. II F 
