CHAPTER XXIX.

MORE ON THE SAME SUBJECT; AND RESPECTING OTHER INSECTS.

The Jesuit Eusebius Nierenberg speaks of a stupid snake, which, from the description, I take to be the same as the Ampalaba. "It is the thickness of a man," says he, "and twice as long. It inhabits rocks and caves, (perhaps when rivers and pools are wanting,) and feeds upon animals, which it attracts with its breath. Some Indians, in travelling, sat down upon it, taking it for the trunk of a tree; and it was not till the snake began to move that they perceived what an unstable and terrific seat they had chosen. It is however reputed harmless. These snakes are of such vast size, that eighteen soldiers sat down upon one, thinking it to be a log of wood. They lie in wait for stags, which they attract by the force of their breath, a power they do not possess over men. After squeezing the stag to death, they lick it all over from head to foot, in order that they may swallow it more easily; but suffer the head, which the horns prevent them from swallowing, to remain in their mouth till it putrefies. Ants sometimes enter the open mouth of this snake and kill it."

I must not omit to mention an immense snake, which the Guaranies call Moñay̆. In its vast size, wide mouth, sparkling eyes, row of threatening teeth, and spotted scaly skin, it resembles a dragon. Father Manuel Guttierrez, when he travelled through the Tarumensian wilds, saw a monster of that kind in passing the banks of the river Yuquiry̆. An Indian, his companion, threw a thong used for catching horses round the animal's neck and strangled it. The Indians of St. Joachim were not so courageous, for when sent forwards by me to prepare the way for the royal governour, who was coming that day, they returned home in great trepidation, because they had seen the Moñay̆ snake lurking in a very thick grove at the banks of a rivulet. Being asked the cause of their alarm, they described the horrible spectacle they had seen. A few days after I had an opportunity of witnessing the truth of the matter myself. A report being spread that the governour was coming next day, we went out to meet him, and as soon as ever I approached the rivulet where the snake had lately been seen, my horse suddenly began to foam, kick, and run away. The Indians were all of opinion that he perceived the monster lurking in its cave by the scent. The reason why the Moñay̆ does so little mischief is because it generally inhabits hidden groves, solitary shores, or caves far from human sight.

Though serpents of every kind wander up and down, yet some seek lurking-places under the water, some amongst grass and trees, and others only within the walls of houses and hollow places. The Mboy̆quatia inhabits the chinks of ruinous walls. Numbers of these snakes were killed in the church at St. Joachim, but as fresh ones grew up, they were never entirely got rid of. I would advise you never to sit down incautiously in fields, woods, and banks of lakes, without first examining the place. The Indians, who neglect this precaution, are often bitten by lurking serpents. Fatigued by a journey which I and my companions had taken on foot through the woods of Mbaeverà, they had lain down at evening in a place where I observed decayed posts of palms, and the remains of huts scattered up and down the ground. I advised them to examine the spot with care, and to remove the hewn palms, the receptacles of noxious reptiles, for the safety of their lives. They followed my injunctions. Under the first stake they discovered an immense serpent sitting upon seventeen eggs, and on that account the more dangerous. Presently another, and then more, appeared in sight. The eggs consist of a thin white skin, instead of a shell, and resemble an acorn in shape, though larger.

I have often wondered that certain of the ancients recommended fire to keep off serpents, having found them, on the contrary, to be attracted by it. We continually see them creep to the fire, and steal into warm apartments for the sake of the heat. Virgil has justly given snakes the epithet of _frigid_. The more copious and virulent their poison is, the intenser is the cold they labour under. Hence, in persons bitten by serpents, the blood congeals, and the extremities of the body stiffen and grow cold, as the circulation cannot reach them. That serpents love heat we know from daily experience. In the deserts we often were obliged to pass the night in the open air: on these occasions, no sooner was the fire kindled than we saw the snakes concealed in the vicinity approach to warm themselves. Whenever the south wind renders the nights rather cold, they creep under the horse-cloths lying on the ground. When the earth is chill, serpents climb on to the roofs of houses to bask in the sun, and thence are induced by the sharp night-air to slip into the apartments below, to the imminent danger of the occupants. When lights are brought into a room of an evening, the doors should be carefully shut; for the serpents in the neighbourhood, spying the light, immediately enter the house. These animals suddenly make their appearance in apartments built of brick or stone, and covered with tiles, when the door and windows are close shut, and not a chink is left unstopped. One of my companions had such a dread of serpents, that he never dared take any sleep till he had examined every corner of his apartment. There are some snakes which leap at all they meet, and bite ferociously. Paraguay also produces some harmless ones, which are either devoid of poison, or the desire to use it, unless they be offended.

Who does not know that some serpents lay eggs, whilst others produce a numerous living offspring? The Americans believe that young serpents grow from the dead bodies of the old ones. Hence, whenever they kill any serpents they remove them to a great distance from their houses, and do not throw them on the ground, but hang them on trees or hedges. In Brazil, two Jesuit missionaries found a horrid-looking dead snake to which a young live one was clinging, and, on their shaking the carcass with sticks, eleven little serpents crawled from it. This account of serpents is closed by three insects, akin to each other in the quality of their venom. The Scolopendra, which has a smooth cylindrical body a span long, twice as thick as a man's thumb, and covered with a hard, cinereous skin, approaching to a cartilage, abounds with legs from head to foot, which I neither had power nor inclination to count. It contains a poison almost equal to that of a serpent, and its bite causes much both of pain and danger. After spending eighteen years in Paraguay, I at length saw and felt an animal till then known to me only by name. It bit me as I was asleep, and on waking, I perceived that the space between the little and ring-finger, first looked red, and afterwards began to swell and grow painful. The tumour and inflammation hourly increasing, I could no longer doubt but that some venomous little animal had bitten me. Early in the night I heard an unusual noise amongst some tools that were lying under a bench in my room. Bringing a light, I discovered and killed the Scolopendra which had bitten me, and next day suspended it in our court-yard, and showed it to the Indians, who all declared that they had often seen and dreaded that animal in houses, fields, and banks of rivers. Do not confound the Scolopendra with the Oniscus, which is a dusky round worm, two inches in length, and scarce thicker than a goose's quill. The body is covered with rough yellow hairs. On the head you see here and there a double row of white spots. It has eight short thick feet. Whichever part of the body it touches it violently inflames, which certainly proves it to be venomous. The Paraguayrian scorpions are said to differ nothing from those of Europe in appearance, but their poison is milder and more easily cured. I think that scorpions must be very rare in Paraguay, since, after spending eighteen years there, and traversing greatest part of the province, I never saw one, nor heard of any person's being bitten by one. I remember that a Spaniard appointed to guard the cattle in the town of Concepcion, when lying sick at our house, was frightened by a scorpion, which put out its head two or three times from the wall, and that he passed a sleepless night in consequence, always keeping a knife in his hand against the threatening animal. Spiders of various forms and sizes are every where to be met with. Venomous ones with flat bodies may be seen creeping along the walls. You should take the greatest care to avoid that very large kind, which the Spaniards call _arañas peludas_, hairy spiders. The body of this insect, which is about three inches in length, is composed of two parts. The fore-part is larger than the other, almost two inches long, an inch and a half wide, and somewhat compressed. The hind-part is more spherical, and in size and form resembles a nutmeg. A hole in the back supplies the place of a navel. It has two sparkling eyes: its long, and very sharp teeth, on account of their beauty, are set in gold by many persons, and used as toothpicks. The whole skin of this spider is covered with short blackish hairs, but as smooth and soft as silk. It has ten long legs divided by more or fewer joints, and entirely hairy, each of which ends in a forceps, like that of a crab. When angry, the insect bites. The bite, though scarce visible to the eye, is discovered by a certain moisture, a livid tumour, and the severe pain it causes. We have found the venom of spiders prove not only dangerous but mortal: remedies efficacious in cases of serpent-wounds have scarce saved the lives of persons bitten by this large spider. These insects lurk chiefly in hedges, hollow trees, and ruined walls.