The moth, however, though stunned, was not killed. On taking it to the hut I compared it with her tame pet, and was struck by the remarkable similarity in the shape of the head and position of the eye. The extended proboscis represented the long beak of the bird, while at the end of the moth’s body was a brush of long hairs, which, as it flew along, being expanded, looked very much like the feathers of the bird’s tail. Oria, when she saw the moth, told Ellen that it would some day turn into a bird; and Ellen, I believe, did not succeed in persuading her that such would certainly never happen. The resemblance, of course, is merely superficial, their internal construction being totally different. I have not as yet described nearly all Ellen’s new pets; but just then, as I was very hungry, I had something else to think of.
Chapter Seventeen.
Our Voyage Recommenced.
I was awoke the following morning by an unusual commotion among our four-footed and feathered friends. The monkeys were chattering away and running along the rafters, up and down the posts; the parrots were talking energetically together; while True every now and then ran to the door and gave a peculiar bark, coming back again under my hammock. John and Domingos were quickly aroused by his barks. “What can be the matter!” I exclaimed. “Some animal is outside,” answered John, springing out of his hammock. “It has probably been trying to find an entrance into our hut. If a puma or jaguar, we will soon settle him.”
“Oria thinks it is some big serpent, from the way the animals are frightened,” said Ellen, from her room.
“Whether big serpent or savage beast, we need not fear it, my sister,” answered John, going to the door, which we always kept closed at night for safety’s sake.
What was our dismay to see a huge serpent coiled round the post of the verandah, with its head moving about as if in March of prey. Duppo sprang forward and shut to the door, exclaiming, “Boiguaeu!” Even True ran behind us, not liking to face the monster. From the glimpse we got of it, it seemed of enormous size, and might readily have crushed two or three people together in the folds of its huge body. John and I went back and got our guns ready, while Domingos and Duppo kept guard at the door.
“I said those pets of Ellen’s would serve as baits some day for one of those creatures!” exclaimed John. “However, if we can hit it in the head, we need not fear its doing us any harm.”