WE BUILD A RAFT.--THE HORNED SERPENT.--GOOD-BYE TO
"PALM-TREE VILLA."--MOSQUITOES AND
HORSE-FLIES.--THE RATTLESNAKE.--AN OCELOT.
The next day found us at work building our raft, and l'Encuerado went
off with Lucien in quest of some flexible creepers, to be used for
binding together the various portions of it. When our companions joined
us, Sumichrast was squaring out the last trunks. Lucien, laden with
creepers wound all round his body, carried besides, at the end of his
stick, the carcass of a horned snake--_Atropos Mexicanus_--which has
scales standing erect behind its eyebrows, like little horns, which have
obtained for it its Indian name of _mazacoatl_. The reptile was nearly
two feet long, and of a grayish color, and gaped with formidable jaws,
more than usually dilated by the blows, I suppose, which l'Encuerado had
given it.
Sumichrast, with infinite precaution, showed to his pupil the tubular
fangs, by means of which serpents inoculate the terrible venom with
which some of them have been endowed by nature.
"When the reptile bites," said my friend, "its two fangs press on a
small bladder at their base, and the poison is thus injected into the
wound."
Our naturalist rendered his explanation still clearer by pressing on one
of the fangs, from the end of which oozed out an almost imperceptible
drop of liquid.
"How is it that the serpent does not poison itself?" asked Lucien.
"In the first place, it does not chew its prey; and, secondly, its venom
is only dangerous when it penetrates direct into the blood; and a man,
if there is no scratch in his mouth or in the digestive tube, can
swallow the poison with impunity, although a very small quantity
introduced into his veins would cause immediate death."
After our meal, which consisted of turtle and some palm cabbage, which
in flavor resembles an artichoke, I set the example of commencing work.
In less than two hours the materials for the raft had been carried to
the edge of the stream, and the frail bark which was to carry us down to
the plains was constructed and afloat. A little before sunset,
l'Encuerado, provided with a long pole for a boat-hook, pushed it out on
the water to ascertain its powers of buoyancy; and the trial having been
judged satisfactory, the raft was moored, and we all lay down in front
of our "Villa" to enjoy a siesta.
At last, when every thing was arranged for the voyage, l'Encuerado,
naked down to his waist, went behind as pilot. We gave a farewell salute
to the "Villa," by a loud hurrah, which seemed to frighten our
menagerie, and with a last look at the forest in which I had spent so
many miserable hours the mooring was cut, and the raft floated slowly
and silently down the current.
The raft soon drifted into a lagoon, covered with waders and web-footed
birds, which scarcely moved as we passed them, and some time was lost
before we could regain the course of the stream. At length, guided by
the palm-trees, our skiff glided between two banks bordered by trees,
the high tops of which sheltered us with their shade.
Every thing was calm around us, and we remained silent, awed by the
majesty of nature. The stream flowed on in one single sheet; creepers
hanging from the tree-tops drooped down into the water; while
kingfishers skimmed from one shore to the other, and humming-birds, with
their varied and shining plumage, fluttered about the flowers. Every now
and then a low-hanging tree impeded our passage, and we had to bend down
on the raft to avoid being struck by such obstacles. A mass of
under-wood often hid the interior of the woods from our view; but here
and there a break in the foliage allowed us a glimpse into its depths.
Ebony-trees, cotton-wood, pepper-trees, and palms, were intermixed with
tree-ferns, magnolias, white oaks, and willows. Here and there, too, a
sunbeam marked out a vast circle of light upon the dark water, and
myriads of aquatic insects, gnats, dragon-flies, and butterflies sported
in the air or swam over the glittering surface.
After a time, the state of inaction to which we were doomed, aggravated
by the stings of mosquitoes and large green-eyed flies, became a perfect
torture.
"Those are horse-flies," said Sumichrast to Lucien; "they are very fond
of blood, and are a misery to all kinds of mammals from one end of
America to the other."
[Illustration: "In front of us opened a glade, bordered by tall
palm-trees."]
"Their bite is more painful than that of the mosquitoes," answered
the boy, from whose hand a drop of blood was trickling.
"That is because their proboscis is armed with lancets which are sharp
enough to pierce the hides of bulls and horses."
During this voyage, Lucien amused himself by teaching the two parrots to
repeat the names of his brother and sister; but the birds, with one foot
held up and their heads bent down, although they paid great attention to
the words repeated by the boy, as yet did not profit much by the lesson.
In the course of our voyage we were constantly losing trace of the
current in some vast lagoon, and had often a long search till we found
it. In one of these searches, I caught sight of such a picturesque bay
that I proposed a halt. In front of us opened a tolerably deep glade,
bordered by tall palm-trees. L'Encuerado pushed the raft to land over
the aquatic plants, and I jumped ashore to moor our craft.
A fallen tree tempted us into the forest, and on the damp ground Lucien
caught sight of a magnificent rattlesnake, seemingly torpid. Sumichrast
discharged his gun at the reptile, which reared itself up, and then fell
down dead. A noise immediately resounded in several directions, and two
or three snakes of the same family appeared, one of them followed by
three young ones. The snake killed by my friend measured more than a
yard in length. Its skin was speckled with black, brown, and gray spots,
and its flat, triangular head had a very repulsive look. Lucien, with a
blow from his _machete_, cut off the rattles which give to the reptile
its name. These horny appendages, of which there were seven, were given
to l'Encuerado, who, like all his fellow-countrymen, believed them to be
endued with miraculous virtues--among others, that of tuning guitars
and preventing the strings from breaking.
A shot fired by the Indian led us back to the bivouac; our companion had
just killed an ocelot, called by the Indians _ocotchotli_.
"You see this animal, Chanito?" cried l'Encuerado, who was stroking its
black and brown spotted fur; "well, its tongue is poisonous. When it
kills a stag or peccary, it buries its prey under some leaves, then
climbs the nearest tree, and howls until it attracts all the carnivorous
animals near. When they have feasted, it comes down and devours what is
left."
[Illustration]
"But why does it call the animals?" I asked.
"Didn't I tell you its tongue is poisonous? If it ate first, the venom
would be communicated to the food, and the animals that feasted on the
remains would die."
This fable narrated by Hernandez, and still told by the Indians, must
have originated in some as yet unobserved habit of the _ocotchotli_.
After dinner, when Lucien was going towards his pets to give them some
fruit, he saw an unfortunate tortoise between Master Job's paws. The
monkey was turning it over, smelling at it, and then depositing it on
the ground, persistently poking his fingers into its shell, a proceeding
which by no means tended to enliven the melancholy animal. According to
l'Encuerado's advice, Lucien stuck up some branches near the water, and
put the tortoise into this miniature inclosure.
Night came on, and Lucien was still teaching the birds to say "Hortense"
and "Emile." To our great astonishment, Gringalet went and stretched
himself close to Master Job, who, without hesitation, commenced freeing
him from the vermin which were lodged among his hair; then the two
friends went to sleep side by side. About nine o'clock, when I was
making up the fire before going to rest myself, Janet opened one of her
eyes and chattered a short sentence; but l'Encuerado was much too fast
asleep to answer her.
[Illustration]