Then, just where the banks
plunged beneath the waters, there were clumps of _"mucumus,"_ reeds
with large leaves, whose elastic stems bend to give passage to the
pirogues and close again behind them. There was there what would
tempt any sportsman, for a whole world of aquatic birds fluttered
between the higher clusters, which shook with the stream.
Ibises half-lollingly posed on some old trunk, and gray herons
motionless on one leg, solemn flamingoes who from a distance looked
like red umbrellas scattered in the foliage, and phenicopters of
every color, enlivened the temporary morass.
And along the top of the water glided long and swiftly-swimming
snakes, among them the formidable gymnotus, whose electric discharges
successively repeated paralyze the most robust of men or animals, and
end by dealing death. Precautions had to be taken against the
_"sucurijus"_ serpents, which, coiled round the trunk of some tree,
unroll themselves, hang down, seize their prey, and draw it into
their rings, which are powerful enough to crush a bullock.
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