Martin Rattler

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER XV

  THE GREAT ANACONDA'S DINNER--BARNEY GETS A FRIGHT--TURTLES' EGGS, OMELETSAND ALLIGATORS' TAILS--SENHOR ANTONIO'S PLANTATION--PREPARATIONS FOR AGREAT HUNT

  The object which called forth the cry from our Irish friend, as relatedin the last chapter, was neither more nor less than a serpent ofdimensions more enormous than Barney had ever before conceived of. It wasupwards of sixteen feet long, and nearly as thick as a man's body; butabout the neck it was three times that size. This serpent was not,indeed, of the largest size. In South America they grow to nearly fortyfeet in length. But it was fabulously gigantic in the eyes of ouradventurers, who had never seen a serpent of any kind before.

  "Oh!" cried Martin, eagerly, "that must be an anaconda. Is it not?" heinquired, turning to the old trader.

  "Yees; it dead," was the short reply.

  "So it is!" cried Martin, who, on a nearer approach, observed that thebrute's body was cut in two just below the swelling at the neck.

  "Now, did ye iver," cried Barney with increased surprise, "see a sarpintwith a cow's horns growin' out at its mouth? Put ashore, old boy; we musthave a Vestigation o' this remarkable cratur."

  The canoe was soon aground, and in another minute the three travellersbusily engaged in turning over the carcass of the huge reptile, whichthey found, to the amazement of Martin and Barney, had actuallyswallowed an ox whole, with the exception of the horns, which protrudedfrom its mouth!

  After much questioning, in bad Portuguese, broken English, and remarkablesigns, Martin succeeded in drawing from the old trader the informationthat anacondas of a large size are often in the habit of thus boltinghorses and oxen at a mouthful.

  There is not the slightest exaggeration in this fact. Readers who areinclined to disbelieve it may refer to the works of Wallace and Gardneron Brazil,--authorities which cannot be doubted.

  The reptile commences by patiently watching until an unfortunate animalstrays near to where it is lying, when it darts upon it, encircles it inits massive coils, and crushes it to death in an instant. Then itsqueezes the body and broken bones into a shapeless mass; after which itlicks the carcass all over, and covers it with a thick coating of saliva.Having thus prepared its mouthful, the andaconda begins at the tail andgradually engulfs its victim, while its elastic jaws, and throat, andstomach are distended sufficiently to let it in; after which it lies in atorpid state for many weeks, till the morsel is digested, when it isready for another meal. A horse goes down entire, but a cow sticks at thehorns, which the anaconda cannot swallow. They are allowed to protrudefrom its mouth until they decay and drop off.

  They were at a loss at first to account for the creature being killed;but the old trader suggested that it had been found in a torpid state,and slain by the Indian whom they had seen a short time ago enjoying hissiesta among the trees.

  Having cut it open, in order to convince themselves beyond a doubt thatit had swallowed an entire ox, Martin and the old trader re-embarked inthe canoe, and Barney was on the point of joining them when the bushesclose beside him were slightly stirred. Looking quickly round, he beheldthe head and the glittering eyes of another anaconda, apparently as largeas the dead one, ready to dart upon him,--at least so he fancied; but hedid not wait to give it a chance. He fled instantly, and sprang towardsthe boat, which he nearly upset as he leaped into it, and pushed out intothe stream. On reaching the middle of the river they looked back, but theanaconda was gone.

  Soon after this they came to a long sandbank, where the old trader saidthey should find as many turtles' eggs as they wished for, although toBarney and Martin there seemed to be nothing on the bank at all. Thefresh-water turtle of the Amazon, of which there are various species, isone of the most useful of reptiles. Its flesh supplies abundance of goodfood; and the eggs, besides being eaten, afford an excellent oil. Thelargest species grow to the length of three feet, and have a flattishoval shell of a dark colour, and quite smooth. Turtles lay their eggsabout the beginning of September, when the sand-banks begin to beuncovered. They scrape deep holes for them, and cover them carefullyover, beating down the sand quite flat, and walking across the placeseveral times, for the purpose of concealment. The eggs are then left tobe hatched by the heat of the sun. But, alas for the poor turtles! menare too clever for them. The eggs are collected by the natives inthousands, and, when oil is to be made of them, they are thrown into acanoe, smashed and mixed up together, and left to stand, when the oilrises to the top, and is skimmed off and boiled. It keeps well, and isused both for lamps and cooking. Very few of the millions of eggs thatare annually laid arrive at maturity.

  When the young turtles issue forth and run to the water, there are manyenemies watching for them. Great alligators open their jaws and swallowthem by hundreds; jaguars come out of the forests and feed upon them;eagles and buzzards and wood ibises are there, too, to claim their shareof the feast; and, if they are fortunate enough to escape all these,there are many large and ravenous fishes ready to seize them in thestream. It seems a marvel that any escape at all.

  In a few minutes the old trader scraped up about a hundred eggs, to theimmense satisfaction of Martin and Barney. Then he took a bow and arrowfrom the bottom of the montaria and shot a large turtle in the water,while his companions kindled a fire, intending to dine. Only the nose ofthe turtle was visible above water; but the old man was so expert in theuse of the bow, that he succeeded in transfixing the soft part of theanimal's neck with an arrow, although that part was under water. It was alarge turtle, and very fat and heavy, so that it was with difficulty thetrader lifted it upon his old shoulders and bore it in triumph to thespot where his companions were busily engaged with their cookingoperations. Turtles are frequently shot with the arrow by the natives;they are also taken in great numbers with the hook and the net.

  Dinner was soon ready. Barney concocted an immense and savoury omelet,and the old trader cooked an excellent turtle-steak, while Martinprepared a junk of jaguar meat, which he roasted, being curious to tasteit, as he had been told that the Indians like it very much. It was prettygood, but not equal to the turtle-eggs. The shell of the egg is leathery,and the yolk only is eaten. The Indians sometimes cat them raw, mixedwith farina. Cakes of farina, and excellent coffee, concluded theirrepast; and Barney declared he had never had such a satisfactory "blowout" in his life; a sentiment with which Martin entirely agreed, and theold trader--if one might judge from the expression of his blackcountenance--sympathized.

  For many weeks our adventurers continued to ascend the Amazon, sometimessailing before the wind; at other times, when it fell calm, pushing themontaria up the current by means of long poles, or advancing more easilywith the paddles. Occasionally they halted for a day at the residence ofa wealthy cacao planter, in order to sell him some merchandise; for whichpurpose the canoe was unloaded, and the bales were opened out for hisinspection. Most of these planters were Brazilians, a few were Yankeeadventurers, and one or two were Scotch and English; but nearly all hadmarried Brazilian ladies, who, with their daughters, proved goodcustomers to the old trader. Some of these ladies were extremely "purtycraturs," as Barney expressed it; but most of them were totallyuneducated and very ignorant,--not knowing half so much as a child ofseven or eight years old in more favoured lands. They were very fond offine dresses and ornaments, of which considerable supplies were sent tothem from Europe and the United States, in exchange for the valuableproduce of their country. But, although their dresses were fine andthemselves elegant, their houses were generally very poor affairs--madeof wood and thatched with broad leaves; and it was no uncommon thing tosee a lady, who seemed from her gay dress to be fitted for adrawing-room, seated on an earthen floor. But there were all sorts ofextremes in this strange land; for at the next place they came to,perhaps, they found a population of Negroes and Indians, and most of thegrown-up people were half naked, while all the children were entirely so.

  At one plantation, where they resolved to spend a few days, the owner hada pond which was much frequented by
alligators. These he was in the habitof hunting periodically, for the sake of their fat, which he convertedinto oil. At the time of their arrival, he was on the eve of starting ona hunting expedition to the lake, which was about eight miles distant; soBarney and Martin determined to go and "see the fun," as the latter said.

  "Martin, lad," remarked Barney, as they followed the Negro slave who hadbeen sent by Senhor Antonio, the planter, to conduct them to the lake,while he remained behind for an hour or two to examine the bales of theold trader; "this is the quarest country, I believe, that iver was made;what with bastes, and varmints, and riptiles, and traes, and bushes, andrivers, it bates all creation."

  "Certainly it does, Barney; and it is a pity there are so few people init who know how to make use of the things that are scattered all aroundthem. I'm inclined to think the hermit was right when he said that theywanted the Bible. They are too far sunk in laziness and idleness to beraised up by anything else. Just look," continued Martin, glancing round,"what a wonderful place this is! It seems as if all the birds and curioustrees in Brazil had congregated here to meet us."

  "So't does," said Barney, stopping to gaze on the scene through whichthey were passing, with an expression of perplexity on his face, as if hefound the sight rather too much even for _his_ comprehension. Besides theparrots and scarlet and yellow macaws, and other strange-looking birdswhich we have elsewhere mentioned, there were long-tailed light-colouredcuckoos flying about from tree to tree, not calling like the cuckoo ofEurope at all, but giving forth a sound like the creaking of a rustyhinge; there were hawks and buzzards of many different kinds, andred-breasted orioles in the bushes, and black vultures flying overhead,and Muscovy ducks sweeping past with whizzing wings, and flocks of thegreat wood-ibis sailing in the air on noiseless pinions, and hundreds ofother birds that it would require an ornithologist to name; and myriadsof insects,--especially ants and spiders, great and small,--that noentomologist could chronicle in a lifetime; all these were heard and seenat once; while of the animals that were heard, but not so often seen,there were black and spotted jaguars, and pacas, and cotias, andarmadillos, and deer, and many others, that would take _pages_ toenumerate and whole books to describe. But the noise was the great point.That was the thing that took Martin and Barney quite aback, although itwas by no means new to them; but they could not get used to it. And nowonder! Ten thousand paroquets shrieking passionately, like a hundredknife-grinders at work, is no joke; especially when their melodies aremingled with the discordant cries of herons, and bitterns, and cranes,and the ceaseless buzz and hum of insects, like the bagpipe's drone, andthe dismal croaking of boat-bills and frogs,--one kind of which latter,by the way, doesn't croak at all, but _whistles_, ay, better than many abird! The universal hubbub is tremendous! I tell you, reader, that you_don't_ understand it, and you _can't_ understand it; and if, after I hadused the utmost excess of exaggerated language to convey a correctimpression of the reality, you were to imagine that you really _did_understand it, you would be very lamentably mistaken--that's all!

  Nevertheless, you must not run away with the idea that the whole empireof Brazil is like this. There are dark thick solitudes in these vastforests, which are solemn and silent enough at times; and there are widegrassy campos, and great sandy plains, where such sounds are absent. Yetthere are also thousands of such spots as I have just described, whereall nature, in earth, air, and water, is instinct with noisy animal life.

  After two hours' walk, Martin and his companion reached the lake, andhere active preparations were making for the alligator hunt.

  "Is that the only place ye have to spind the night in, Sambo?" saidBarney to their conductor, as he pointed to a wooden shed near which somefifteen or twenty Negro slaves were overhauling the fishing tackle.

  "Yis, massa," answered the black, showing his white teeth; "dat is debottle of dis great city." Sambo could speak a little English, havingwrought for several years on the coffee plantation of a Yankee settler.He was a bit of a wag, too, much to the indignation of his grave master,the Senhor Antonio, who abhorred jesting.

  "Ye're too cliver, avic," said Barney, with a patronizing smile; "takecare ye don't use up yer intellect too fast. It hurts the constitution inthe long-run."

  "I say, Barney," cried Martin, who had gone ahead of his companions,"come here, man, and just look at this pond. It's literally crammed fullof alligators."

  "Musha, but there's more alligators than wather, I belave!"exclaimed Barney.

  The pond was indeed swarming with these ferocious reptiles, which wereconstantly thrusting their ugly snouts above the surface and thendisappearing with a flourish of their powerful tails. During the rainyseason this lake was much larger, and afforded ample room for itsinhabitants; but at the height of the dry season, which it was at thistime, there was little water, and it was much overstocked. Whenalligators are thus put upon short allowance of water, they frequentlybury themselves in the wet mud, and lie dormant for a long time, whilethe water continues to retire and leaves them buried. But when the firstshower of the rainy season falls, they burst open their tomb and dragtheir dry bodies to the lake or river on whose margin they went to sleep.

  An hour or two later the Senhor Antonio arrived; but as it was gettingdark, nothing could be done until the following morning; so they slungtheir hammocks under the wooden shed on the margin of the lake, and, inorder to save themselves as much as possible from the bites of thetormenting mosquitoes, went to sleep with their heads tied up in theirhandkerchiefs, and their hands thrust into their breeches pockets! Theoccasional splash and snort of contending alligators, about twenty yardsoff, varied the monotony of the hours of darkness, while the frogs andcranes and jaguars sang their lullaby.