This fateful Lachesis of South America has been as perplexingly described by unscientific travellers as the Jararaca, and as hard to identify. It has been a stumbling-block and a snare ever since the time of Waterton, who thus wrote of it:[117]—‘Unrivalled in the display of every lovely colour of the rainbow, and unmatched in the effects of his deadly poison, the counacouchi glides undaunted on, sole monarch of these forests. He sometimes grows to the length of fourteen feet. He is commonly known by the name of Bushmaster. Man and beast fly before him,’ etc. Waterton ‘wandered’ between the years 1812-1824, making several journeys to South America, primarily with the view to ascertain the composition and effects of the Wourali poison, and on this subject his information was of value. But his descriptions of serpents partook of the prejudices of that date, and were more picturesque than zoological. What he saw and wrote of possessed the charm of novelty in those days, and Sir Joseph Banks addressed a letter to him expressing ‘abundant thanks for the very instructive lesson you have favoured us with, which far excels in real utility anything I have yet seen.’
Endorsed by such an authority, what wonder that fourteen feet of radiantly splendid ‘Bushmaster’ should figure in the encyclopedias of the day, and be copied by book-makers and magazine contributors for years and years—even to the recent date of 1874! Hartwig, 1873,[118] gives Waterton’s ‘rainbow hues’ nearly word for word, with the addition of one of the scientific names, Lachesis rhombeata. Kingston, 1874,[119] aided by his imagination, improves on Waterton. The Curucucu, or Couanacouchi, ‘sometimes fourteen feet, is the largest known poisonous snake. It is remarkable for the glowing radiance of its fearful beauty, displaying all the prismatic colours. It mounts trees with the greatest ease,’ etc. (It lies half concealed under the trees among dead leaves.) Another writer of Travels round the World (meaning the British Museum Reading-room) contents himself with simply a ‘rainbow-coloured’ Bushmaster; so now in imagination we add indigo, blue, green, etc., to the ‘fearful beauty.’ Meanwhile other writers on Brazil introduce it as the Surucuru, Sorococo, Couroucoucou, Souroucoucou, Surukuku, and similar names, varied only by a transposition of letters and the addition of accents. Tschudi mentions it under its scientific name, Lachesis rhombeata, the ‘Flammon’ in Peru.[120] Sulivan,[121] who, like Waterton, rambled in South America, tells us ‘the Couni Couchi or Bushmaster is the most dreaded of all the South America serpents; and, as his name implies, he roams absolute master of the forest. They do not fly from man, but will even pursue and attack him. They are fat, clumsy-looking animals, about four’ (not fourteen) ‘feet long, and nearly as thick as a man’s arm. They strike with immense force.’ A man had been bitten in the thigh and died, and ‘the wound was as if two four-inch nails had been driven into the flesh. So long are the fangs, and so deep the wounds, that there is no hope of being cured.’ P. H. Gosse quotes Sulivan regarding the enormous fangs, both of these latter writers judiciously omitting the ‘rainbow’ colouring.
Most snakes, even the dingiest, occasionally display an iridescence which is certainly beautiful; and Waterton may have seen his Counicouchi when the sun lighted up the recently-renewed epidermis and showed him off in unusual brilliance; only, unfortunately, the copyists have imagined the greens and crimsons and blues of the rainbow, and rendered it a tedious business to poor patient plodders to arrive at the truth. In the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, 1845, we find another clue to identification. ‘Trigonocephalus mutus, a native of the Brazils and Guiana, and from six to seven feet long, is known to the Brazilians as Surukuku, and is probably the Boschmeester of the Dutch and the Cœnicoussi of the native inhabitants.’
Many writers of travels give the vernacular names only, while the more scientific who do give generic and specific names, may each give a different one and perhaps omit the vernaculars; and in none of the authorities does one discover the name ‘Bushmaster’ at all; while as to colour and the true size we can be sure of nothing.
Presenting these complications to Dr. Stradling, whose kindly proffered co-operation I had gladly accepted, he wrote: ‘The vulgar names are often local in a limited area, so that the same snake may be known by half-a-dozen different synonyms in as many different provinces—not only that, but these names are often applied to other snakes; and thus, while some species are blended together, many imaginary ones are created.’
This in part explains the varieties of spelling seen above; the two names couanacouchi and curucoocu being applied to one snake by different tribes of the native races extending over a rather wide area.
Further confirmation of these indiscriminate terms we find in three other writers, viz.:—First, Dr. Dalton:[122] ‘The boa constrictor is known as “Bushmaster” by the colonists. “Camoudi” is a name indiscriminately applied to all large snakes. There is the land Camoudi, and the water Camoudi, while the Kunikusi or Courracouchi of the Indians is Crotalus mutus, which is termed “Bushmaster” in the forests.’ Secondly, H. W. Bates[123] says: ‘The natives called Trigonocephalus atrox the Jararaca.’ Thirdly, Dr. Otho Wucherer[124] affirms that a ‘venomous tree snake (Craspedocephalus bilineatus) is called Surucucu patyoba, from the palm on which it is found, and another tree snake is Suru. Uricana, from another palm in which it resides; while the Surucucu (Lachesis mutus) lives in holes in the ground. It is about ten feet long.’ This latter is called Suru. bico di jacca, from the resemblance of its strongly-keeled scales to the prominences on the ‘jack fruit;’ Xenodon rhabdocephalus is also surucucu, while the true ‘Jararaca’ is Craspedocephalus atrox.
Here are contradictory Curucucus and Jararacas in plenty, all impressing upon us the importance of comparing evidence if we wish to arrive at a truth.
‘Why spend so much time about a mere name?’ Well, as in the solution of a problem, you desire to ‘get it right.’ Besides, you ask, ‘Why so many names to one snake?’ and in sifting out this Curucucu and the Jararaca, we discover reasons for the many synonyms.
A. R. Wallace once more presents a clue:[125] ‘At Säo Gabriel I saw on the rocks asleep one of the most deadly serpents in South America, the “Surucurú” (Lachesis mutus). It is very handsomely marked with rich amber brown, and armed with terrific poison fangs, two on each side.’ Here we are enabled to associate a scientific and a vernacular name with a ‘handsome,’ though not a ‘rainbow-coloured’ serpent. Sir J. Fayrer describes the Ophiophagus as the largest known venomous serpent ‘except the Bushmaster, which is said to attain fourteen feet.’