Down the echoing channels, through the endless gloomy forests, the cadence of the song rose and fell.
Suddenly, in the still moonlight from the river-bank came a single low note of ethereal beauty and unutterable sorrow. Slowly it rose and swelled, keeping its heartbreaking quality and exquisite beauty. At the sound the men stopped singing, and it seemed as if an angel were sobbing in the stillness. On and on the song went, running through eight lonely, lovely notes which rose and swelled until there seemed to be nothing in the world except that beautiful voice, finally ending in a sob which brought the tears to Will"s eyes. Then out into the moonlight flitted the singer, a quiet-colored little brown-and-gray bird, the celebrated solitaire, the sweetest, saddest singer of the Brazilian forest.
After all this music, supper was served. It began with a thick, violet-colored drink in long gla.s.ses filled with cracked ice. The boys learned from Professor Ditson that this was made from the fruit of the a.s.sai-palm. It was strangely compounded of sweet and sour and had besides a fragrance and a tingle which made it indescribably refreshing.
This was followed by an iced preparation made from the root of the manioc, whose juice is poisonous, but whose pulp is wholesome and delicious. Before being served it had been boiled with the fruit of the miriti-palm, which added a tart sweetness to its taste which the Northerners found most delightful. The next course was a golden-yellow compound of a rich, nutty flavor, the fruit of the mucuju-palm, which has a yellow, fibrous pulp so full of fat that vultures, dogs, and cats eat it greedily. For dessert, there was a great basket of sweet lemons, mangos, oranges, custard-apples, and other fruits.
After supper they all grouped themselves in the bow and there, in comfortable steamer-chairs, watched the steamer plow its way through a river of ink and silver. That day, Jud, while in his hammock, had seen, to his horror, what seemed to be a slender vine, dangling from one of the trees, change into a pale-green snake some eight feet long, whose strange head was prolonged into a slender, pointed beak. Even as the old man stared, it flashed across the deck not two feet away from him and disappeared in another tree. So perfectly did its color blend with the leaves that the instant it reached them it seemed to vanish from sight.
"It was the palm-snake," said Professor Ditson, after Jud told them of his experience. "It lives on lizards, and, although venomous, has never been known to bite a human being. If you had only been brave enough," he went on severely, "to catch it with your naked hand, we might even now have an invaluable record of the effects of its venom."
"What is the most venomous snake in the world?" broke in Will, as Jud tried to think of words strong enough to express what he thought of the scientist"s suggestion.
"The hamadryad or king cobra," returned the professor. "I once secured one over fourteen feet long."
"How did you catch it?" queried Will.
"Well," said the professor, "I came across it by a fortunate accident. I was collecting b.u.t.terflies in India at a time of the year when it is especially pugnacious, and this particular snake dashed out of a thicket at me. It came so unexpectedly that I had to run for my life. It seems ridiculous that I should have done so," he went on apologetically, "but the bite of the hamadryad is absolutely fatal. This one gained on me so rapidly that I was at last compelled to plunge into a near-by pond, since this variety of snake never willingly enters water."
"What happened then?" inquired Will, as the scientist came to a full stop.
"When I reached the opposite sh.o.r.e, a quarter of a mile away, and was about to land," returned the professor, "out of the rushes this same snake reared up some six feet. With the rare intelligence which makes the hamadryad such a favorite among collectors, it had circled the lake and was waiting for me."
"Snappy work!" said Jud, shivering. "I can"t think of any pleasanter finish to a good swim than to find a nice fourteen-foot snake waitin"
for me. What did you do then?"
"I floated around in deep water until my a.s.sistant came and secured the snake with a forked stick. It is now in the New York Zoological Gardens at the Bronx," concluded the professor.
Jud drew a deep breath. "That reminds me," he said at last, "of a time I once had with a pizen snake when I was a young man. I was hoein" corn up on a side hill in Cornwall when I was about sixteen year old," he continued. "All on a sudden I heard a rattlin" an" down the hill in one of the furrows came rollin" a monstrous hoop-snake. You know," he explained, "a hoop-snake has an ivory stinger in its tail an" rolls along the ground like a hoop, an" when it strikes it straightens out an"
shoots through the air just like a spear."
"I know nothing of the kind," broke in Professor Ditson.
"Well," said Jud, unmoved by the interruption, "when I saw this snake a-rollin" an" a-rattlin" down the hill towards me, I dived under the fence an" put for home, leavin" my hoe stickin" up straight in the furrow. As I slid under the fence," he went on, "I heard a thud, an"
looked back just in time to see the old hoop-snake shoot through the air an" stick its stinger deep into the hoe-handle. It sure was a pizen snake, all right," he went on, wagging his head solemnly. "When I came back, an hour or so later, the snake was gone, but that hoe-handle had swelled up pretty nigh as big as my leg."
There was a roar of laughter from Will and Joe, while Jud gazed mournfully out over the water. Professor Ditson was vastly indignant.
"I feel compelled to state," he said emphatically, "that there is no such thing as a hoop-snake and that no snake-venom would have any effect on a hoe-handle."
"Have it your way," said Jud. "It ain"t very polite of you to doubt my snake story after I swallowed yours without a word."
At Manaos they left the steamer, and Professor Ditson bought for the party a _montaria_, a big native boat without a rudder, made of plank and propelled by narrow, pointed paddles. Although Hen and Pinto and the Professor were used to this kind of craft, it did not appeal at all favorably to the Northerners, who were accustomed to the light bark-canoes and broad-bladed paddles of the Northern Indians. Joe was especially scornful.
"This boat worse than a dug out," he objected. "It heavy and clumsy and paddles no good either."
"You"ll find it goes all right on these rivers," Professor Ditson rea.s.sured him. "We only have a few hundred miles more, anyway before we strike the Trail."
Under the skilful handling of Hen and Pinto, the montaria, although it seemed unwieldly, turned out to be a much better craft than it looked; and when the Northerners became used to the narrow paddles, the expedition made great headway, the boys finding the wide boat far more comfortable for a long trip than the smaller, swifter canoe.
After a day, a night, and another day of paddling, they circled a wide bend, and there, showing like ink in the moonlight, was the mouth of another river.
"White men call it Rio Negros, Black River," the Indian explained to the boys; "but my people call it the River of Death."
As the professor, who was steering with a paddle, swung the prow of the boat into the dark water, the Indian protested earnestly.
"It very bad luck, Master to enter Death River by night," he said.
"Murucututu, murucututu," muttered the witch-owl, from an overhanging branch.
Hen joined in Pinto"s protest.
"That owl be layin" a spell on us, Boss," he said. "Better wait till mornin"."
The professor was inflexible.
"I have no patience with any such superst.i.tions," he said. "We can cover fully twenty-five miles before morning."
The Mundurucu shook his head and said nothing more, but Hen continued his protests, even while paddling.
"Never knew any good luck to come when that ol" owl"s around," he remarked mournfully. "It was him that sicked them vampires on to Will here, an" we"re all in for a black time on this black ribber."
"Henry," remarked Professor Ditson, acridly, "kindly close your mouth tightly and breathe through your nose for the next two hours. Your conversation is inconsequential."
"Ya.s.sah, ya.s.sah," responded Hen, meekly, and the montaria sped along through inky shadows and the silver reaches of the new river in silence.
About midnight the forest became so dense that it was impossible to follow the channel safely, and the professor ordered the boat to be anch.o.r.ed for the night. Usually it was possible to make a landing and camp on sh.o.r.e, but to-night in the thick blackness of the shadowed bank, it was impossible to see anything. Accordingly, the party, swathed in mosquito-netting, slept as best they could in the montaria itself.
It was at the gray hour before dawn, when men sleep soundest, that Jud was awakened by hearing a heavy thud against the side of the boat close to his head. It was repeated, and in the half-light the old man sat up.
Once again came the heavy thud, and then, seemingly suspended in the air above the side of the boat close to his head, hung a head of horror.
Slowly it thrust itself higher and higher, until, towering over the side of the boat, showed the fixed gleaming eyes and the darting forked tongue of a monstrous serpent. Paralyzed for a moment by his horror for all snake-kind, the old man could not move, and held his breath until the blood drummed in his ears. Only when the hideous head curved downward toward Joe did Jud recover control of himself. His prisoned voice came out then with a yell like a steam-siren, and he fumbled under his left armpit for the automatic revolver which he wore in the wilderness, night and day, strapped there in a water-proof case.
"Sucuruju! Sucuruju! Sucuruju!" shouted Pinto, aroused by Jud"s yell.
"The Spirit of the River is upon us!" And he grasped his machete just as Jud loosened his revolver.
Quick as they were, the huge anaconda, whose family includes the largest water-snakes of the world, was even quicker. With a quick dart of its head, it fixed its long curved teeth in the shoulder of the sleeping boy, and in an instant, some twenty feet of glistening coils glided over the side of the boat. The scales of the monster shone like burnished steel, and it was of enormous girth in the middle, tapering off at either end. Jud dared not shoot at the creature"s head for fear of wounding Joe, but sent bullets as fast as he could pull the trigger into the great girth, which tipped the heavy boat over until the water nearly touched the gunwale. Pinto slashed with all his might with his machete at the back of the great snake, but it was like attempting to cut through steel-studded leather. In spite of the attack, the coils of the great serpent moved toward the boy, who, without a sound, struggled to release his shoulder from the terrible grip of the curved teeth. The anaconda, the sucuruju of the natives, rarely ever attacks a man; but when it does, it is with difficulty driven away. This one, in spite of steel and bullets, persisted in its attempt to engulf the body of the struggling boy in its coils, solid ma.s.ses of muscle powerful enough to break every bone in Joe"s body.
It was Hen Pine who finally saved the boy"s life. Awakened by the sound of the shots and the shouts of Jud and Pinto, he reached Joe just as one of the fatal coils was half around him. With his bare hands he caught hold of both of the fierce jaws and with one tremendous wrench of his vast arms literally tore them apart. Released from their death grip, Joe rolled to one side, out of danger. The great snake hissed fiercely, and its deadly, lidless eyes glared into those of the man. Slowly, with straining, knotted muscles, Hen wrenched the grim jaws farther and farther apart. Then bracing his vast forearms, he bowed his back in one tremendous effort that, in spite of the steel-wire muscles of the great serpent, bent its deadly jaws backward and tore them down the sides, ripping the tough, shimmering skin like so much paper. Slowly, with a wrench and a shudder, the great water-boa acknowledged defeat, and its vast body pierced, slashed, and torn, reluctantly slid over the side of the boat.
As Hen released his grip of the torn jaws, the form of the giant serpent showed mirrored for an instant against the moonlit water and then disappeared in the inky depths below. Joe"s thick flannel shirt had saved his arm from any serious injury, but Professor Ditson washed out the gashes made by the sharp curved teeth with permanganate of potash, for the teeth of the boas and pythons, although not venomous, may bring on blood-poisoning, like the teeth of any wild animal. Jud was far more shaken by the adventure than Joe, who was as impa.s.sive as ever.
"Snakes, snakes, snakes!" he complained. "They live in the springs and pop up beside the paths and drop on you out of trees. Now they"re beginnin" to creep out of the water to kill us off in our sleep. What a country!"
"It"s the abundance of reptile life which makes South America so interesting and attractive," returned Professor Ditson, severely.
It was Pinto who prevented the inevitable and heated discussion between the elders of the party.
"Down where I come from," he said, "lives a big water-snake many times larger than this one, called the Guardian of the River. He at least seventy-five feet long. We feed him goats every week. My grandfather and his grandfather"s grandfather knew him. Once," went on Pinto, "I found him coiled up beside the river in such a big heap that I couldn"t see over the top of the coils."