tles stood up in front of
us. Lucien and Sumichrast sat down, while the Indian and I, by means of
our _machetes_, opened out a narrow path; at last we reached again the
timber land, so we had now almost got out of our difficulties.

The stalks of the nettles, cut off a few inches above the ground, served
to give firmness to our footing. But l'Encuerado, always too confident,
tripped up, and his right cheek was brushed by some of their leaves; it
only needed this to render him perfectly unrecognizable. Although I
pitied him, I could not help smiling at the grimaces produced on his
sun-burnt visage by the painful stings. Even Sumichrast, when looking at
him, forgot his own sufferings.

Under a cypress, we observed five or six snakes, each about a yard and a
half long. One, more courageous than the others, remained under the
trees and steadily surveyed our party. Gringalet, furious in the
extreme, barked and jumped all round the reptile, which, raising its
head from the centre of the coil formed by its body, shot out its
tongue. Its skin was of a golden yellow, dotted with green spots, and
streaked by two almost imperceptible black lines. L'Encuerado called in
the dog; the snake then coiled itself up, slowly turning its head in
every direction, as if to select the best direction for retreat.
Suddenly it unrolled its whole length, exposing to our view an
unfortunate sparrow, which was still breathing. Leaving it unmolested,
after a few minutes' delay it seized its victim by the head, by degrees
the little feathered innocent disappeared, and the snake remained
motionless as though exhausted by the exertion.

"Is it a rattle-snake?" asked Lucien astonished.

"No; it is a common snake--that is, a reptile which is not venomous.
This one is called by the Indians the _Yellow-snake_, and, from
ignorance, they are in very great dread of them. It is in the habit of
climbing trees with great activity, and hunts birds. The statues of the
Aztec god of war, the terrible Huitzilipochtli, to whom thousands of men
were offered as living sacrifices, had their foreheads bound with a
golden snake, and we have every reason to believe that the reptile which
we have just seen is that which the Indians thus honored."

A little farther on, Lucien fancied that he saw, stretched out upon the
grass, a long white snake. Gringalet, much bolder than usual, seized the
reptile in his mouth and brought it to us. But it was nothing but a
serpent's skin