The jaguar flies at you, and knocks you senseless with a stroke of
his paw; whereas, if you had not come upon him too suddenly, it is ten to
one but that he had retired in lieu of disputing the path with you. The
labarri-snake is very poisonous, and I have often approached within two
yards of him without fear. I took care to move very softly and gently,
without moving my arms, and he always allowed me to have a fine view of him
without showing the least inclination to make a spring at me. He would
appear to keep his eye fixed on me as though suspicious, but that was all.
Sometimes I have taken a stick ten feet long and placed it on the labarri's
back. He would then glide away without offering resistance. But when I put
the end of the stick abruptly to his head, he immediately opened his mouth,
flew at it, and bit it.
One day, wishful to see how the poison comes out of the fang of the snake,
I caught a labarri alive. He was about eight feet long. I held him by the
neck, and my hand was so near his jaw that he had not room to move his head
to bite it.
Pages:
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241