d: and the fangs, or poisonous teeth, which are placed without
the upper jaw. They live chiefly upon birds and small animals. It is
said that when the piercing eye of the rattlesnake is fixed on an animal
or bird they are so terrified and astonished that they are unable to
escape. Birds, as if entranced, unwillingly keeping their eyes fixed on
those of the reptile, have been seen to drop into its mouth. Smaller
animals fall from the trees and actually run into the jaws open to
receive them. Fatal as is the bite of the rattlesnake to most
creatures, the peccary attacks and eats the reptile without the
slightest hesitation; as, indeed, do ordinary hogs,--and even when
bitten they do not suffer in the slightest degree.

This encounter with the rattlesnake having delayed us for a little time,
we hurried on as rapidly as we could to overtake our companions. We had
gone some distance, and still had not come up with them. I began to be
afraid that we had turned aside from the right path. In some places
even our eyes had distinguished the marks of those who had gone before
us. We had now lost sight of them altogether, and as the wood was
tolerably open, and the axes had not been used, we could only judge by
the direction of the sun how to proceed.

We went on for some time, still believing ourselves in the right
direction; but at last, when we expected to find the marks of the axes
which we had before made, we could discover none. We searched about--
now on one side, now on the other. The forest, though dense, was yet
sufficiently open to enable us to make our way in a tolerably direct
line. Now and then we had to turn aside to avoid the thick mass of
creepers or the fallen trunk of some huge tree. We shouted frequently,
hoping that Domingos and the Indians might hear us. Then John suggested
that they, finding it an easy matter to follow the right track, did not
suppose we could lose it. At last we grew tired of shouting, and agreed
that we should probably fall in with the proper track by inclining
somewhat to the right; and I had so much faith also in True's sagacity
that I had hopes he would find it. However, I gave him more credit than
he deserved. He was always happy in the woods, like a knight-errant in
search of adventures, plenty of which he was indeed likely to meet with.

Still in the belief that we were not far wrong in our course, we walked
briskly forward. We had gone some distance, when True made