148 
THE STORY OF THE ARMADILLO. 
armadillo is sometimes used as a weapon of attack. I once saw an armadillo 
kill a snake by rushing upon it and using the jagged edge of its armor as a 
saw. The reptile was sawed into pieces. The struggles of the snake were 
all in vain, as its fangs could make no impression upon the panoply, of its 
assailant; and eventually the reptile slowly dropped and died, to be soon 
after devoured by the armadillo, which commenced the meal by seizing the 
snake’s tail in its mouth, and gradually eating forward. 
Despite its diet, the flesh of the armadillo has a pleasant flavor, and the 
natives are very fond of them baked in the shell. 
The armadillo are all small, except the gigantic armadillo, which is but 
rarely found. There was a great commotion in our camp one day and on 
investigating I found that an armadillo of gigantic size had caused the com¬ 
motion. It was lying, a round, misshapen mass, its head partly buried under 
its armor, the feet drawn together, and its body pierced by numerous arrows. 
It offered not the slightest resistance to its tormentors, whom I desired to 
end its sufferings by a heavy stroke of a club. Two men were required to 
carry it. It weighed one hundred and twenty pounds; its height was about 
three feet, its length five and a half. Its tail was about fourteen or sixteen 
inches long, and its root nearly as thick as a man’s thigh, tapering very 
abruptly. The middle one of the five toes' of the fore-foot was seven and a 
half inches in length. In size it greatly surpasses the largest giant armadillo 
known. 
