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.