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Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1086, 22 August 1912, Page 4

Arriving at a recess in the banks formed by the influence of a small creek called Igarape do Inferno, or the Creek of Hell, he thought that he heard the noise of some game, probably a deer or tapir, drinking, and he silently ran his canoe to the shore, where he fastened it to a branch, at the same time holding his rifle in readiness. Finally, as he saw nothing, he returned to the canoe, and continued his way downstream.

Hardly more than ten yards from the spot he stopped again and listened. He heard only the distant howling of a monkey, this he was used to on his nightly trips. No ! there was something else ! He could not say it was a sound. It was a strange something that called him back to the bank that he had left but a few minutes before. He fastened his canoe again to the same branch, and crept up to the same place, feeling very uneasy and uncomfortable, but seeing nothing that could alarm him—nothing that he could draw the bead of his rifle on. Yet, something there was ! For the second time he left, without being able to account for the mysterious force that lured him to this gloomy, moonlit place on the dark, treacherous bank. In setting out in the stream again, he decided to fight off the uncanny, unexplainable feeling that had called him back, but scarcely a stone’s-throw from the bank he had the same desire to return —a desire that he had never betore experienced. He went again, and looked, and meditated over the thing that he did not understand.

He had not drunk cachassa that day, and was consequently quite sober; he had not had fever tot two weeks, aud was in good health physically as well as mentally ; he had never so much indulged iu the dissipation of civilisation that his uerves had beeu affected ; he had lived all his life in these surroundings, and knew no fear of man or beast.

And now, this splendid type of manhood, free and unbound iu his thoughts aud unprejudiced b' superstition, broke down completely, aud hid his lace in his bauds, sobbing like a child iu a dark room afraid of ghosts. He had been called to the spot three limes without knowing the cause, and now the mysterious force attracting him as a magnet does a piece of iron, he was unable to move. Helpless as a child, h awaited his fate.

Tuckily, three workers from headquarters happened to pass ou their way to their homes, which lay not iar above the “Creek of Hell,’’ aud wheu they heard sobbing from the bank they called out.

The hypnotised seringueiro managed to stale that he had three times beeu forced by some strange power to the spot where he now was, unable to get away, and that he was deadly frightened. The rubber workers, with rifles cocked, approached in their canoe, fully prepared to meet a jaguar, but when only a few yards from their comrade they saw directly under the root where the man was sitting the head of a monstrous boa-constrictor its eyes fastened ou its prey. Though it was only a few feet from him, he had been unable to see it.

One of the men took good aim, and fired, crushing the head of the snake, and breaking the spell, but the intended victim was completely played out, and had to lie down in the bottom of the canoe, shivering as if with ague. The others took pains to measure the length of the snake before leaving, ft was 79 palmas, or 52 feet 8 inches. In circumlereuce it measured it palmas, corresponding to a diameter ot 28 inches. Its mouth, they said, was 2 palmas, or 16 inches, but how they mean this to be understood 1 do not know.

This event happened while 1 was living at headquarters. I had a long talk with Ferreira, but could not shake his statement, nor that ot the three others ; nevertheless, I remained a sceptic as to this alleged charming or mesmeric power ot the snakes, at least so far as man is concerned.