OF THE MORE REMARKABLE SERPENTS.
Paraguay contains full twenty kinds of serpents, all differing in name,
colour, size, form, and the nature of their poison. Those most commonly
known are the Mboy̆tiñi, or Mboy̆chiñi, the Quiririò, the Yacaninà, the
Mboy̆hobĭ, the Mboy̆quatia, the Mboy̆pe-guazù, or Cucurucù, the
Mboy̆pe-mir̂i, the Yboyà, the Tarey̆mboyà, the Mboy̆guazù, or Yboyà, the
Mboy̆roy̆, the Curiyù, the Ybibobocà, the Yacapecoayà, the Yararacà, the
Cacaboyà, &c. The Mboy̆chiñi, or Rattle-snake, which is remarkable for
its venom and the tinkling appendage to its tail, is about the thickness
of a man's arm at the elbow, and often as much as five feet in length.
It has a forked tongue, a flat head, little blackish eyes, four teeth in
the upper jaw, besides other unusually acute and incurvated ones, from
the hollows of which it darts poison at all it meets. Some lesser teeth
are visible when the animal opens its mouth. The colour of the back,
which is much deeper at the sides, is a dusky yellow, varied with yellow
lines intersecting one another at the spine. It is covered with dusky
scales, like those of a crocodile, but softer. The belly is of a
yellowish colour, with rather large and almost parallelogram scales: at
the extremity of the tail is situated that rattle from which it takes
its name, and which is composed of a smooth, dry, cinereous material,
the breadth of a man's thumb. Here and there it has a small hollow cell
divided in the midst by a thin membrane, containing a little ball not
perfectly round, which, being agitated by every motion of the serpent,
and shaken against its receptacle, makes a sound like the wooden rattle
which children use. Every year a fresh joint grows on to the rattle, as
in stags-horns, connected with vertebræ, like the chains of a ring. From
the joints of the rattle you may tell the age of the serpent, as you may
that of a stag from the branches of his horns. Hence the older the
serpent the more it rattles. This snake when angry coils itself up; when
purposing an attack it moves along the ground so swiftly that it almost
seems to fly. Providence has fastened that tinkling appendage to its
tail in order to warn others from approaching it, for its poison is
justly accounted the most virulent of any; the remedies which prove
efficacious against the bites of other serpents, have been found
unavailing against those of the rattle-snake, which causes certain but
slow death, the deadly poison gradually diffusing itself through all the
members. It takes away the use of the foot, arm, ear, and eye on that
side which has been bitten, and presently, passing to the other, causes
extreme torture, continual delirium, and acute pains, especially at the
extremity of the feet and hands, which contract a cadaverous paleness
from being deserted by the blood, which is rendered torpid by the
coldness of the venom. All this I observed in two Guarany youths who
were bitten by a rattle-snake. Both were under eighteen years of age,
both were robust and of strong constitutions. The first struggled with
his pains twelve days, the other fourteen, at the expiration of which
period they both died, the strength of the poison baffling the virtue of
the most established remedies. Whenever I heard of any person's being
bitten by a rattle-snake I immediately prepared him for death, by
administering the sacrament to him, before the delirium began. An Indian
woman, in the flower of her age and strength, was reduced to the last
extremity by the pestilential bite of one of these rattle-snakes.
However, to the astonishment of all, she escaped death, but having lost
the use of her limbs, dragged on a miserable existence for many years.
A letter dated Williamsburg, a town of Virginia, September the 28th,
1769, and published in the German newspapers of the 6th of Jan. 1770,
tends greatly to confirm the virulence of the poison of the
rattle-snake: the contents are as follows. "In Johnston county, North
Carolina, at the latter end of June, a rattle-snake crept into a house,
where four children were lying on the ground, the youngest of which it
bit with its poisoned teeth. The father, awakened by the screams of the
child, ran to render it assistance, and was at the same moment wounded
by it himself. Meantime, whilst he was seeking some weapon to slay the
deadly animal, the other three children were also wounded. With the
utmost haste and diligence all sorts of remedies were applied to the
wounded, but in vain, for the father and his four children expired next
day." Has not then nature, you ask me, supplied a remedy powerful enough
to expel this deadly poison? She may perhaps have afforded many which
human ingenuity has not yet discovered, but which are at any rate
unknown to the Paraguayrians. I am not ignorant that books do speak of
medicines for this purpose, which they extol as divine, but all who have
used them have found them of no avail. The Brazilians make use of little
gourds, by which the poisoned wound is enlarged and dried. Sometimes
they bind the wounded member with the rush Jacapè to prevent the poison
from spreading. They sometimes cauterize the wounded part. Before the
poison reaches the heart the sick man is induced to sweat by drinking
Tipioca. Some Indians place much faith in the bruised head of a noxious
serpent applied to the wound, which they also bathe in fasting saliva.
But whether these remedies ever saved the life of any one who has been
bitten by this most venomous snake I must be allowed to doubt. However
destructive the teeth of these serpents are when employed to bite, they
become salutary when used as medicine: for they say that the Brazilians
prick their necks with them to ease the pain of the head-ache. They
think it useful to anoint the loins, and other parts of a sick person's
body, as well as swellings, with the fat of this snake. Its head also,
when tied to the neck of the sick man, is said to cure pains in the
throat. This method of healing was unknown to us in Paraguay.
The next to this in noxious qualities is a snake twelve, and sometimes
fifteen feet long, with a large body the colour of ashes, varied with
little black spots, yellowish under the belly, and formidable on account
of a peculiar poison it contains and introduces with its bite. The
Brazilians call it Cucurucù, the Guaranies Mboy̆pè guazù; and from its
effects I guess it to be the same as that which Pliny calls Hæmorrhoam,
and others Hæmorrhoida. This snake is most abundant where heat and
moisture, the generators of serpents, predominate. Its poison heats the
veins, and expels the ebullient blood from the mouth, nose, ears, eyes,
finger-nails, in a word from all the outlets and pores of the body. This
is related by Patricio Fernandez, who asserts that few persons are
killed by this serpent, because most part of the poison flows out with
the blood itself. For my part I never saw any serpent of that kind, nor
any person that had been bitten by one, though I understand that they
are not unfrequent in Brazil, where the Indians apply the head of the
serpent to the wound it has inflicted, by way of a cataplasm; fresh
tobacco leaves slightly burnt are used for a cautery. The roots also of
the Caapia, Jurepeba, Urucù, Jaborandy̆, &c. are used to create
perspiration. They say that, when the head of this serpent, in which
greatest part of the poison lies, is cut off, the flesh is eaten by the
savages of Brazil. In Paraguay, besides the Mboy̆pè guazù, you meet with
the Mboy̆pè mir̂i, which is scarce thicker than a quill. Though smaller,
it is more poisonous than the larger serpent of the same name.
The Yacaninà is to be reckoned amongst the larger and more dangerous
serpents. It is two, sometimes three ells long, and as thick as a man's
arm. It raises itself upon the last joint of its tail, and leaps upon
people almost as if it were flying. The Quiririô terrifies the bravest
with its very aspect. The size and colours of its body, and the strong
poison it contains, are the occasion of this terror. The Mboy̆hobĭ, of a
dark green colour, spotted with black, very large both as to length and
breadth, and pregnant with the most noxious poison, infests all the
plain country. On the other hand, the Mboy̆quatia is chiefly found
within the walls of houses. It has obtained its name from the beautiful
variety of its colours. It is middle-sized, but of a very virulent
poison. In the rivers and lakes water-snakes of various shapes and
monstrous size wander in great numbers. They are thought not to be
venomous, though formidable to swimmers; for their horrid teeth never
leave loose of any thing they have once got hold of. They squeeze
animals to death with the folds of their bodies. Of the number of these
is the Mboy̆roy̆, called by the Guaranies the cold serpent, because it
loves cold places and shade. Another is the Curiyù, eight, and often
nine ells long, and of breadth corresponding to such great length. This
water-snake affords the Indians a dainty repast. Remarkable above the
rest is a serpent of enormous size, but perfectly innocent in its
nature. The Ampalaba is thicker than a man's breast, and larger than any
water-snake. It is of a light reddish colour, and resembles the trunk of
a very large tree covered with moss. As I was travelling through the
territory of St. Iago, at the banks of a lake near the river Dulce, my
horse suddenly took fright. Upon my enquiring of my companion the
occasion of the animal's terror, he replied, "What, Father! did you not
see the Ampalaba snake lying on the shore?" I had seen him, but had
taken him for the trunk of a tree. Fearing that the horse would be
alarmed and throw me, I did not think proper to stay and examine the
great sparkling eyes, short but very acute teeth, horrid head, and
many-coloured scales of the monster. These serpents live under water,
but come frequently on shore, and even climb lofty trees. They never
attack men, and it is most likely that they are devoid of poison. All
however agree that Ampalabas are fond of rabbits, goats and does, which
they attract with their breath, and swallow whole. As it must require an
enormous throat to swallow a doe, you will perhaps think an equal
facility of mind necessary to believe the fact. I candidly own that I
never saw it done, but should not venture to doubt the truth of a thing
that has been affirmed by creditable authors, and eye-witnesses.