occupied in satisfying their hunger. Some had got broken basins or
pumpkin-gourds before them, in which they kneaded up with their
hands boiled beans and manioc flour; this thick and disgusting-
looking mess they devoured with avidity. Others were eating pieces
of meat, which they likewise tore with their hands, and threw into
their mouths alternately with handfuls of manioc flour. The
children, who also had their gourds before them, were obliged to
defend the contents valiantly; for at one moment a hen would peck
something out, and, at the next, a dog would run off with a bit, or
sometimes even a little pig would waggle up, and invariably give a
most contented grunt when it had not performed the journey for
nothing.

While I was making these observations, I suddenly heard a merry cry
outside the court-yard; I proceeded to the place from which it
issued, and saw two boys dragging towards me a large dark brown
serpent; certainly more than seven feet long, at the end of a bast-
rope. It was already dead, and, as far as I could learn from the
explanations of those about me, it was of so venomous a kind, that
if a person is bitten by it, he immediately swells up and dies.

I was rather startled at what I heard, and determined at least not
to set out through the wood just as evening was closing in, as I
might have to take up my quarters for the night under some tree; I
therefore deferred my visit to the savages until the next morning.
The good people imagined that I was afraid of the savages, and
earnestly assured me that they were a most harmless race, from whom
I had not the least to fear. As my knowledge of Portuguese was
limited to a few words, I found it rather difficult to make myself
understood, and it was only by the help of gesticulations, with now