354 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XXI.—B. P. 
ever, after shouting for some time with no effect, we 
took to throwing stones and sticks at it, upon which 
its great coils deliberately opened out, and it slowly 
glided into the forest. 
On another occasion I saw a smaller hut no less 
deadly member of the same species; it was on the 
hanks of the San Juan, in the hands of my faithful 
Simon (a Carih), who had just landed from my canoe 
to make a fire and cook our breakfast. Simon allowed 
the creature to coil round him, and commenced talk¬ 
ing to it in his musical language, holding the head 
close to his face. Presently he put it gently on the 
ground, when it slowly made its way into the adja¬ 
cent undergrowth. I gave Simon a good blowing-up 
for letting the brute escape, but he told me that he 
was a snake doctor, and that had he inflicted the 
slightest injury on it, his influence would have been 
at an end for ever. 
I was once very considerably startled through a 
snake, though not by the reptile itself. Seated on a 
log, weary and hungry, waiting for my dinner, at the 
Machuca Rapid, I observed a most repulsive-looking 
negro, with scarred and seamed face, his eyeballs start¬ 
ing out of his head, stealthily creeping towards me, 
with his machete (short sword) in his hand. I was 
quite unarmed, but most fortunately did not stir, and 
as he approached, I luckily noticed that he was not 
looking at me, but downwards on the ground. My 
eyes involuntarily followed his, and there was a snake, 
which had just passed over my boot, leisurely wrig¬ 
gling away. Quick as thought the negro gave two 
