Though serpents of every kind wander up and down, yet some seek lurking-places under the water, some amongst grass and trees, and others only within the walls of houses and hollow places. The Mboy̆quatia inhabits the chinks of ruinous walls. Numbers of these snakes were killed in the church at St. Joachim, but as fresh ones grew up, they were never entirely got rid of. I would advise you never to sit down incautiously in fields, woods, and banks of lakes, without first examining the place. The Indians, who neglect this precaution, are often bitten by lurking serpents. Fatigued by a journey which I and my companions had taken on foot through the woods of Mbaeverà, they had lain down at evening in a place where I observed decayed posts of palms, and the remains of huts scattered up and down the ground. I advised them to examine the spot with care, and to remove the hewn palms, the receptacles of noxious reptiles, for the safety of their lives. They followed my injunctions. Under the first stake they discovered an immense serpent sitting upon seventeen eggs, and on that account the more dangerous. Presently another, and then more, appeared in sight. The eggs consist of a thin white skin, instead of a shell, and resemble an acorn in shape, though larger. I have often wondered that certain of the ancients recommended fire to keep off serpents, having found them, on the contrary, to be attracted by it. We continually see them creep to the fire, and steal into warm apartments for the sake of the heat. Virgil has justly given snakes the epithet of _frigid_. The more copious and virulent their poison is, the intenser is the cold they labour under. Hence, in persons bitten by serpents, the blood congeals, and the extremities of the body stiffen and grow cold, as the circulation cannot reach them. That serpents love heat we know from daily experience. In the deserts we often were obliged to pass the night in the open air: on these occasions, no sooner was the fire kindled than we saw the snakes concealed in the vicinity approach to warm themselves. Whenever the south wind renders the nights rather cold, they creep under the horse-cloths lying on the ground. When the earth is chill, serpents climb on to the roofs of houses to bask in the sun, and thence are induced by the sharp night-air to slip into the apartments below, to the imminent danger of the occupants. When lights are brought into a room of an evening, the doors should be carefully shut; for the serpents in the neighbourhood, spying the light, immediately enter the house. These animals suddenly make their appearance in apartments built of brick or stone, and covered with tiles, when the door and windows are close shut, and not a chink is left unstopped. One of my companions had such a dread of serpents, that he never dared take any sleep till he had examined every corner of his apartment. There are some snakes which leap at all they meet, and bite ferociously.