ch the lithe, active creatures crawled about, or lay coiled up
perfectly at home in their laps. Unwilling to be an eavesdropper, I was
retiring, when I met Fanny and Ellen, and told them what I had seen, and
Duppo's suspicions. Fanny laughed, saying they were perfectly harmless,
and had been tamed by their friends, and returned with me to where the
girls were seated. Duppo, however, beat a retreat, evidently unwilling
to be in such a dangerous neighbourhood. They were highly amused at
hearing of Duppo's alarm, and showed me that the snakes were perfectly
harmless. I took one in my hand, when the creature coiled itself round
my arm, and I could admire at leisure its colour, and the beautiful
topaz yellow of its eyes. The snakes were between two and three feet
long. They were so thoroughly tamed, that though placed on the ground
they did not attempt to escape, but came back immediately they were
called by their young mistresses. So slender were their bodies, that
when coiled completely up I could place one on the palm of my hand.

Though I told Duppo afterwards that I had actually handled the snakes,
he was not convinced of their harmless character, and insisted that it
was another proof that they had been charmed by the white witches, which
he still evidently considered our Brazilian friends. Oria, however, was
far braver; for when she saw Fanny and Ellen play with the creatures,
she without hesitation took one of them up, and allowed it to coil
itself round her neck, where it made a pretty ornament on her dark skin.

Pedro, the son of our host, returned the next day with a boat-load of
turtle and fish which he had caught; as well as a number of birds, some
of them of exquisite plumage. John, Arthur, and I begged to accompany
him the next time he set out on a similar expedition; and we found that
he proposed starting again the following day. Meantime Senhora Josefa,
with the assistance of her slaves, was employed in salting and drying
the fish and fowl she had just received.

We started in the morning with two canoes, equipped with nets, spears,
and lines, bows and arrows, and blow-pipes as well as guns.

The lower portion of the banks of the Amazon were at this time covered
with water on either side, varying in height from one to ten feet, and
in some places reaching twenty. This district, known as the Gapo,
extends from the Napo upwards of seventeen hundred miles, to the very
borders of Peru. It thus bec