DOES THE ANACONDA ATTACK MAN? 
famous snapping-turtle of the Bongaultier ballads, the 
anaconda eats alligators. That this is an actual habit 
of the snake was discovered, to his cost, by a German 
gentleman, who purchased examples of both and left 
them together through stress of accommodation. To 
tackle an alligator, even for an anaconda, is a serious 
matter. Mr. Quelch relates that a fight between the 
two reptiles, ending in victory for the snake, took two 
days. It all depends, as with wrestlers, upon the way 
in which the snake succeeds in laying hold of the alli- 
gator. When in an advantageous position from the 
snake’s point of view, victory is assured. Besides alli- 
gators, the anaconda devours teguexin lizards, for 
which it appears to have a partiality ; it has been known 
to swallow such large beasts as peccaries and wood deer. 
Oddly enough, its specific name of “ murinus ” has been 
given to it on account of the fact that its small young 
eat mice. It is a moot point whether the anaconda will 
attack human beings. There is a general belief that it 
will do so, and a consequent dread of the Ophidian in 
many parts of South America. And there are cases of 
anacondas having seized hold of a human being. A boy 
washing rice in a stream was laid hold of by one of these 
snakes but liberated by his father. In this case it is 
thought that the mere movement of the water led the 
snake to the wrong impression that some convenient fish 
was in the neighbourhood. So bathing where there 
are anacondas is not certainly dangerous, though an 
accidental nip would not be a pleasant thing to occur, 
and is rather uncanny to contemplate. Naturally, the 
anaconda has given rise to legend. Anything big al- 
ways does. Along the Amazons Mr. Bates relates that 
this serpent is the origin of a legend of a huge freshwater 
sea-serpent, to speak Hibernically, named Mai d’Agoa, 
mother or spirit of the water. There is also the Min- 
hocao, an equally fabulous beast who tunnels the mud 
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