The fiercest inhabitants of the Amazon, and of its large and numerous
tributaries, are the _lagartos, caimanes_, or alligators. In some parts
they are seen basking in the sun, like logs of wood thrown up by the
tide, with their enormous mouths kept open ready to catch the flies
which settle on their lower jaw. Alligators lay eggs, and it is said
that as soon as they are hatched the young ones try to run on to their
mother's back, and that the male alligator, who has come for no other
purpose, eats all which fail to take refuge there, aided by the
gallinasos and other birds of prey. Their natural food appears to be
fish; and the Indians say that they will make a party of twelve or more,
and that while one division blockades the entrance of a creek, the other
will swim down, flapping their tails, and drive the fish into the jaws
of their devourers. When they cannot procure fish, they will land and
destroy calves and young foals, dragging them to the water's edge to eat
them. When once they have tasted human flesh, it is asserted that they
will take great pains to obtain it, upsetting canoes, and seizing people
asleep near the banks, or floating on their balsas. I have seen an
Indian attack and kill an alligator in the water with a sharp knife.
The Indian in one hand took a a fowl, and in the other his knife. He
swam till it got opposite the alligator, when it made a spring at the
fowl. On this he left the fowl floating, and diving below the surface,
cut the belly of the monster open with his knife. I have seen one
twenty feet long; and what with his enormous head, and horrid eyes
almost projecting out of his head, the impenetrable armour which covers
his body, the red colour of his jaws, his sharp teeth, and his huge paws
and tail, make him certainly a very hideous monster.

The most deadly weapon the Indian of the Pampas uses is his _pacuna_ or
blow-pipe, out of which he sends his arrows, dipped in the fatal
_wourali_ poison. The poison takes its name from the wourali vine, the
scraped wood of which, and some bitter roots, form the chief
ingredients, boiled together. The rites and incantations employed, and
the numerous other articles added to the poisonous cauldron, may remind
one of the weird sisters' concoction in Macbeth. The _pacuna_ is
composed of a very delicate thin reed, perfectly smooth inside and out,
which is encased in a stouter one. The arrows are from nine to ten
inches long, formed of the lea