Chap. IL 
GREAT HEAT. 
121 
stepping out of the bushes I met face to face a huge 
serpent coming down a slope, and making the dry twigs 
crack and fly with his weight as he moved over them. 
I had very frequently met with a smaller boa, the 
Cutim-boia, in a similar way, and knew from the 
habits of the family that there was no danger, so I stood 
my ground. On seeing me the reptile suddenly turned, 
and glided at an accelerated pace down the path. 
Wishing to take a note of his probable size and the 
colours and markings of his skin, I set off after him ; 
but he increased his speed, and I was unable to get 
near enough for the purpose. There was very little of 
the serpentine movement in his course. The rapidly 
moving and shining body looked like a stream of brown 
liquid flowing over the thick bed of fallen leaves, rather 
than a serpent with skin of varied colours. He de- 
scended towards the lower and moister parts of the 
Ygapo. The huge trunk of an uprooted tree here lay 
across the road ; this he glided over in his undeviating 
course, and soon after penetrated a dense swampy 
thicket, where of course I did not choose to follow him. 
I suffered terribly from the heat and mosquitoes as 
the river sank with the increasing dryness of the season, 
although I made an awning of the sails to work under, and 
slept at night in the open air with my hammock slung 
between the masts. But there was no rest in any part ; 
the canoe descended deeper and deeper into the guUey, 
through which the river flows between high clayey 
banks, as the water subsided, and with the glowing sun 
overhead we felt at midday as if in a furnace. I could 
bear scarcely any clothes in the daytime between eleven 
