of Serpents and Dragons.

ON EXOTIC VIPERS.

Chiapas nurtures a large variety of vipers that exhale a pestilential breath from four nasal openings. Furthermore, other vipers are found there that can kill a horse within a single day. Some are variegated, while others are black and long; these kill whoever they bite. They become mild as the moon waxes and are provoked when it wanes. Others are pale, marked with black lines and varied with white spots; the flesh of those who have been bitten falls off in chunks. Others possess such potent venom that if they are touched even with a staff, the poison travels up to the hands. There are yet others of such a nature that if they bite in the morning, the victim dies vomiting blood; however, if bitten in the evening, the strikes are not lethal.

There is another genus of serpent related to vipers, which the Indians call *Teuthlaeocauhui*, or the "Lady of Serpents," and the Spaniards call a "Viper," either because of the similarity of its head or its venom. This snake has a viper-like head, a belly turning pale white, and sides covered with glittering white scales, though mixed at intervals with dark bands; its back is brown, with yellow lines crossing one another along the spine. It moves across rocks with a swift pace; for this reason, some of the Mexicans have named it after the wind, calling it *Hoacoatl*. Its eyes are black and of moderate size. It has two curved canine teeth in the upper jaw, through which it pours its venom.

Many who have kept this serpent at home report that it can survive for an entire year without food or drink, and that its severed head continues to move for ten days or more. Anyone bitten by this serpent dies after the space of a natural day, unless remedies are quickly applied. A treatment has been devised where the bitten parts are buried and covered with earth, remaining so until the pain ceases entirely and the illness is cured—usually with a successful outcome. Mexican physicians keep the canine teeth of this animal and, to soothe a headache, they prick the neck and nape. Furthermore, they rub the fat of this otherwise most harmful creature onto the loins to cure pain there, and likewise smear other parts of the body afflicted by pain. The Indians eat the flesh of these animals and testify that it is superior to that of domestic poultry.