i 
"5 
104 THE AMAZON AND MADEIKA RIVERS. 
to night. A temperature of 2° or 3° below freezing point, not nnoommon 
there in Juno and July, did not appear to incommode it in the least. I 
Almost all the larger South American animals are easily tamed ; the 
A\-ild hog, the deer, the guaty, the paca, and even the jaguar, not to spciik 
of the monkeys, parrots, and gallinaceous birds. Indeed, there is scarcely i 
a house or cottage in all the Amazon region, that docs not swarm with ' 
“jerimbabos” (pet animals), such as araras, jieriquitos, marianitas, 
jacamins, jacutiugas, mutuns, tucanoes, cutias, pacas, monkeys, etc. ; which 
sometimes are of the most troublesome and ridiculous tameness. The 
half-caste ladies especially are fond of their favourites, and often woidd 
not part with them for the world. Even the giboia (a sort of American * 
boa-constrictor) is often set free in the houses, to kill rats, mice, and other 
■vermin, of Avhich there is no lack anywhere. Small lizards, bats and 
enormous s])iders are the most harmless of them ; scorpions and lacraias, J 
whose sting is said to be exceedingly painful, being no rare guests, 
especially in old houses. 
Accidents from poisonous snakes are not so frequent as is generally 
siqjposed. The bite of the different species of jararacas (Bot/irops jar- 
tmica) and of coral-snakes will produce serious nflaminations ; but the 
patient usually escapes if properly attended to ; while the rattlesnake of 
the campos ( Crotalus hnrridm) and the surucucu (^Lacliesis mutus) are said 
to cause certain death. Yet I once saAV a negro, at Barbacena in the 
province of Minas, who escaped ■with only a stiff leg after having been 
bitten by a rattlesnake. 
All the animals of these forests, birds included (ndth the single 
exception of the jaguar), cat clay* with great Amracity, and may 
be found peacefully congregated, sometimes in groat numbers, at 
favourably situated spots, on steep broken banlcs, for instance, whose 
reddish yellow Avails often shoAV distinct traces of the teeth of a great 
many species. On moonlight nights particularly, when the whole 
animal Avorld is awake and more restless than usual, these “ barreiros ” 
(clay-pits), easily Ausible from the river, are excellent places for lying in 
ambush for all kinds of game ; and, if he be lucky, the hunter may kill 
* Many, esiiedally cliilJren, in these countries share the same morbid craving; 
n hich oRon readies such a degree tlmt not even the certainty of tire most paiiiMly 
niiscraldo death awaiting them can cure tliom of it. As a desperate expedient, negro 
slaves sometimes are forced to wear iron masks, which are only taken off during the 
meals, when the overseer is by, 
