CHAPTER XI 
A Family of Ariranhas — Attacked by them — Three Nasty Rapids 
— Beautiful Sand Beaches — Exciting Experiences — Going 
down a Thundering Cataract — Alcides’ Narrow Escape —A 
Night’s Work in the Midst of a Foaming Rapid in order to 
rescue the Half-submerged Canoe—Filippe’s Courage — Visited 
by a Snake Twenty Feet Long 
W E camped some hundred metres away from the 
spot where we had killed the sucuriu. It was 
getting late. My men did not sleep a wink the 
whole night, as they thought perhaps the mate of the snake 
might come and pay us a visit. We had a lively time 
the entire night, as we had made our camp over the home 
of a family of ariranhas. They had their young in a 
small grotto in the bank, and we heard them all night 
squealing for their mothers, who were grinding their 
teeth and shrieking furiously a little way off from the 
bank, not daring to enter their homes while we were near. 
They were, I think, more frightened of the fire which my 
men had made than they were of us. There were twenty 
or thirty of them, and they made so much noise during 
the night that it was quite out of the question to rest. The 
vegetation was very thick, the damp considerable, and the 
air quite stifling, with a minimum temperature of 60° 
Fahrenheit. Occasionally, when the air moved at all, we 
could smell our friend, the dissected sucuriu. 
We were glad to leave at eight o’clock the next 
morning; we seldom could make an earlier start, owing 
to the slowness of my men in getting their breakfast and 
mine ready, and reloading the canoe, as all the baggage 
was taken out every night. Where we had made camp, 
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