Marcgrave’s book is embellished with marvellous pictures which are not likely to enlighten us much; but through him we are enabled to identify some of his serpents with the vernaculars, for, like the Pilgrim Purchas, the vernaculars were all he had to guide him. Authorities recognise six or seven species of _Craspedocephalus_, presumably all having the easily distinguishable edge like a thin cord round their heads, and which doubtless were the ‘prominent Veines’ described by Purchas in the Brazilian species, now generally recognised as ‘_the_ Jararaca.’ I will invite my readers to ‘co-operate’ and call no harmless little snakes by this name, which originally implied something terrible. ‘And what is the outcome of all this etymological jumble?’ ‘Well, we at least learn that as in English the words snake, adder, serpent, have a somewhat general signification, so have some of the Brazilian vernaculars. But I cannot help thinking that many of these names had more of natural history in them than we are apt to suspect, though no doubt the original meaning has become much corrupted during three hundred years’ colonization. The native races knew quite well that some snakes were dangerous and some harmless, which is more than can be said for the present occupiers of South America, who think all venomous as a matter of a course. The differences in spelling the same word may guide us in the pronunciation of it; as, for example, the _c_ sometimes as _k_, in Camoudi, or Kamoodi, and as _s_ in Curucoocu or Sooroocoocoo. In these latter words we also find the _u_ identical with _oo_, as in the Hindû or Hindoo words. Again, the _j_ is as _i_ in _Jararaca_ or _Iararacca_, or more probably a sound with which we are unfamiliar, as the word is sometimes _Shiraraca_. The frequent transposition of syllables hints at a meaning which may be worth seeking by a philologist, should he be also an ophiophilist. Some local information on these points I much hoped to obtain; but alas! (_for this chapter_) the trips to Brazil of my excellent ally came to an end! Independently of which, the native dialects could only be studied in the far interior, where, here and there, some tribes may still be found in their pristine simplicity, though it is very doubtful whether their dialects to-day are those from which the first European settlers obtained their _Curucucus_ and _Jararacas_.