XVI 
RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 
67 
to kill a S7take I have found among the native races 
all the way across Souj:h America, but nowhere so 
strong as in the roots of the Andes. A woman 
must never kill a snake when she can get a man or 
boy to do it for her. In some places it must not 
only be killed but buried. When among the wild 
Jibaro and Zaparo Indians in the Forest of Canelos, 
I have sometimes had to kill two or three snakes 
a day for the women. How is it that the woman 
and the serpent are in mysterious relation in the 
early traditions of many civilised nations, and in 
the actual customs of savage nations even at the 
present day } 
[It may be as well to continue here Spruce's 
experience of the results of the bites and stings of 
venomous insects, especially as they include one 
during his residence at Tarapoto which had results 
as bad as those of his Indian host above described.] 
After snakes, the venomous animals most to be 
dreaded are the large hairy spiders, especially the 
species of Mygale, of whose bird-hunting propen- 
sities Mr. Bates and others have told us. I never 
saw a case of their sting, and all I ever heard of 
proved fatal except one, and that was of a woman 
at San Carlos, who was bitten in the heel and im- 
mediately dropped, with a shriek, as if shot. She 
lay at the point of death for ten days, but finally 
recovered. I have been bitten by spiders, but 
never seriously. At Tarapoto a smallish green 
spider abounded in the bushes, and would some- 
times be lurking among my fresh specimens. It 
bit furiously when molested, with an effect about 
equal to the sting of a bee. At the same place, 
cockroaches were a great pest in the houses, and 
