Pictures of life in Mexico/Volume 2/Chapter 31
CHAPTER XXXI.
SNAKE-HUNTING.
Having become quite careless and thoughtless on the subject of snakes I wandered through forests and brakes beside tufted rocks, and over trunks of fallen trees, just as if there were no such dreaded animals in existence; but chanced, however, about the time that the indifference resulting from long impunity had reached its height, to receive a very impressive reminder of the dangerous power of these reptiles.
Passing through a forest, in the vicinity of a small hamlet called Suera, in the tierra caliente, at an early hour in the morning, and finding it excessively hot, though the sun had not long risen, I was glad to loiter along a narrow path in the shade of the overhanging trees; my mule walked lazily a few paces before me stopping from time to time to insert his nose in a tuft of grass or a heap of dried leaves upon the ground. Proceeding in this manner for some distance, I at last began to see the sunlight on the other side of the wood, and to think of the heated atmosphere into which we were about to emerge again.
I stepped aside for a moment to admire a rich tuft of large purple flowers, my mule having plodded on about eight or ten yards ahead, when as I turned from the flowers towards the path, a sensation as of a flash of lightning struck my sight, and I saw a brilliant and powerful snake winding its coils round the head and body of the poor mule. It was a large and magnificent boa of a black and yellow colour, and it had entwined the poor beast so firmly in its folds, that, ere he had time to utter more than one feeble cry, he was crushed and dead. The perspiration broke out on my forehead as I thought of my own narrow escape; and only remaining a moment to view the movements of the monster as he began to uncoil himself, I rushed through the brushwood, and did not consider myself safe until I was entirely free of the forest.
I had occasion to return by the same road in the evening; but on arriving at the wood, I turned into a different path from the one we had taken before; and kept an eager watch on the surrounding trees and bushes. Having almost reached the middle of the wood, I heard a number of voices chanting a wild air, and on turning an angle of the road saw a troop of figures—Indians and Mestizoes—advancing armed with long poles and flexible steel wands, which they flourished in the air as an accompaniment to their song. On their first appearance I thought them robbers and grasped the old leathern purse in my pocket as I would have done the hand of a departing friend; but a nearer approach satisfied me as to their avocation: they were snake-hunters. Their long poles were used for the purpose of starting their prey, and overpowering them when discovered, and the flexible steel rods in their hands were still more characteristic of their vocation, being often used so dexterously as to cause instant death to a serpent of the largest size.
These quaint sportsmen trailed behind them a huge snake which they had recently killed. I eyed it with some attention as they came up, and discovered that it was very like the monster who had devoured my mule in the morning: there were the same head and eyes; the same black and yellow scales, and it was of similar proportions. I raised the skin of the throat, which had been cut, half expecting to perceive the shaggy ears of a mule remaining there undigested; but no such appearance could I discern: he might have been my enemy of the forenoon notwithstanding, and I tried to persuade myself that he was so. I regarded the group, as they retreated, with mingled feelings of satisfaction for the justice they had done, and of sympathy for the risks they must encounter in their dangerous pursuit.
The songs often indulged in on these excursions are generally rude, unmeaning, and untranslatable; but the following is an English imitation of one of the least barbarous:—
"Come brothers away! to the far, wild brake,
Where the snaky tribes their pleasure take;
Where they slily spring from their greenwood lair,
On the innocent prey that passes there.
Death to the serpent! brothers,
I say. On with me! come away! come away!
"Smoothly and gaily the monster trails,
With his shining spots and golden scales;
Till charm'd with his dazzling-brilliancy,
The victims gaze, and gaze till they die.
Up brothers, on! his pathway trace,
For death lies hid in his vile embrace!
"The forest flowers will more gaily spring,
And the birds aloft the sweeter sing.
And ev'ry beast of the field be glad.
When the foes of all on the earth are laid;
For the birds and beasts, and the flowers fear
The wily serpents who ambush there!
"Soon our hunting-poles shall quickly chase
Their enemy from his lurking-place;
And our trusty knives and steel wands true,
Shall drink the blood of the reptile crew.
Death to the serpent! Brothers, I say,
On with me! come away! come away!"