"I've always heard," he said, "that Injuns north, south, east, an' west belonged to the four main totems, the Bear, the Wolf, the Snake, an' the Eagle, but I never believed it before to-day. That old tattoo-mark, boy," he went on, turning to Joe, "certainly came in right handy."
"He gone off with my good tie," returned Joe, sorrowfully.
"And a good job, too, I call it," remarked Will, who had never approved his friend's taste in neckwear.
It was the Maya's present which most interested Pinto and Professor Ditson. The Mundurucu Indian sidled up close to Joe and stared at the glittering skin with all his eyes, but without attempting to touch it.
"It's the sacred snake that in the old days only kings and gods could wear," he murmured.
"He's right," said Professor Ditson, raising the gleaming, golden skin reverently from Joe's neck. "It's the skin of the Yellow Snake which the Aztecs used to wind around the forehead of Atapetl, their terrible goddess of war. Only her priests knew where to find these snakes, and it was death for any one else even to look at the skin except at the annual sacrifices of the goddess. This one," he went on, "will be a safe-conduct for the whole party all the way to Peru—and ought to be a lesson to you," he continued severely, turning to Jud, "never to speak against snakes again."
[CHAPTER VIII]
The Man-Eaters
Five days later they came to a great lake which seemed to stretch away through the depths of the forest interminably, with the trail following its winding shores.