Among the curiosities in the museum they found a fine collection of living and stuffed specimens of the wild animals of Brazil. It included several jaguars and other carnivora from the interior provinces; a large cage filled with monkeys of every sort; another of snakes, among which was an anaconda seventeen feet long--at least, so said the attendant, and they were willing to take his word for it without personally measuring the reptile. There were stuffed humming-birds of many kinds; eagles, and their kindred, the vulture and condor; beautiful specimens of the ibis, which recalled the sacred bird of Egypt; together with many other winged creatures that have no names in our vocabulary. One of the condors had been recently used in a bull-baiting; the attendant narrated, with great animation, how the bird had been chained to the back of a young bull, and then turned into a ring. Bird and beast were maddened by the explosion of fireworks fastened to the animal's head; in his efforts to escape the condor tore great gashes in the flesh of his companion in misfortune. It is pleasant to record that these amusements are every year less and less appreciated in South America, and it is to be hoped the day is not far distant when they will cease altogether. [Illustration: THE CONDOR AND THE BULL.] There was a wooden cannon which was captured from the rebels in one of the northern provinces in the last revolution. It was made of slabs of wood bound together with hoops of iron, and appeared to have been used; it was a type of the earliest known cannon, and carried the thoughts of the spectators back to the days when artillery was first used on the battlefield. Horrible in appearance were embalmed heads from the country of the Tapajos; Dr. Bronson explained that this tribe used to preserve the heads of their enemies, and wear them on their necks as trophies of their valor. A string through the mouth was used for suspending such a prize; the eyes were filled with wax and cement, and the whole face was built out with this material, to make it as lifelike as possible. On the top of the head was a tuft of hair, and the positions of the ears were indicated by rosettes. [Illustration: EMBALMED HEAD.] Close to these preserved heads was a case containing musical instruments resembling flutes and horns, and said to be of great antiquity; they were from the upper part of the Amazon Valley, and coeval with the incas of Peru. One trumpet attracted the attention of the youths; it was about three feet long, tapering regularly from end to end, and provided at the larger extremity with a fringe of feathers, which modulated the sound when the instrument was used. The attendant asked Frank and Fred to guess what it was made of; they named everything they could think of, but without success, and were finally told it was an alligator's tail! [Illustration: ANCIENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.]