THE COMUDI—AN ADVENTURE IN GUIANA.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9385, 8 April 1896, Page 2

THE COMUDI—AN ADVENTURE IN GUIANA.

By A. Ferguson,

Garth and I got our holiday at the same time, and, shaking off the dust of Georgetown and civilisation, we went out together into the wilds. When we came back again he was laden with spoils for his cherished botanical and zoological collection, and I had gained some experiences that were distinctly new to mc. The extent of Garth's holiday and mine did not admit of far roaming. We had to be content with hiring a, large bateau, with four lusty negroes to paddle it, and going just as far up the River as our tether of time would let us. That was not very far, for we spent a large part of our allotted time in exploring every promising looking creek that we passed, and wherever it was practicable we left the bateau and dived into the forest with our guns. One evening at sundown we camped on a tiny savannah on the side of the very prettiest creek we had yet paddled up—a "creek which seemed to present at every bend a different variety of tropical scenery and the best sample of that variety. We hung our hammocks np in a clump of graceful bamboos, lit a fire, and presently had supper. Garth, who had got a touch of fever on him, declined supper, dosed himself with quinine and retired to his hammock, where he lay tossing and growling. Garth's noble rage for collecting the carcases of beasts, birds and plants was tempered by a tendency to take fever whenever it was there to be taken. *

Around the d}'ing tire the negro boatmen laughed and chatted boisterously among themselves. I, having no one to talk to and nothing to do, followed Garth's example and got into my hammock. Presently I fell fast asleep. When I awoke that bright tropical moon was riding high in the heavens. Under its rays the little Savannah looked exactly like an English park that had mysteriously found its way into the midst of a South American forest. I felt too wide awake to go to sleep again. I slipped out of my hammock and strolled down to the water's edge. On the opposite side of the creek the trees and bushes formed., a towering, seemingly impenetrable mass of foliage, festooned with gay bignoni&s and flaming orange moranteas, and with flowering orchids of all kinds that in the day time made an embroidery of glowing colours on the background of living green. The moonlight had stoleu the glow from the flowers and foliage, it is true, and they now looked somewhat anremic in its pale rays. But they had assumed, as an offset, an air of delicate 'spirituality. The whole scene, with its subdued white light, its ivndecklecl tints, its graces of dimly revealed form, made mc feel that I was in real fairyland where the life of nature and the fairies is attuned to a faint minor key. I felt tingling with life and energy cind unrest. It suddenly became to mc an all important thing to be off by myself and see what lay behind the next bend of the creek. In another minute I was in the bateau and paddling contentedly up stream. Those I left in our little camp slept steadily on. The next bend of the creek, and the next, and the next, and a good many more were passed, and still I had nofc sated my curiosity as to what lay behind the point I had last reached. Presently -the creek broadened out into a small lagoon. On one side of the lagoon was a low stretch of ground covered with long gleaming grass, chiefly razor grass. Tall, graceful Itah palms were dotted over this groimd, which stunted wallaba trees and moco-mocos and prickly soweri palms sufficiently proclaimed. to be swamp. I was lazily skirting the swamp when the bateau ran on a nasty snag, and, after vainly exhausting all lesser efforts to get it off, I had at last to take my weight out of the boat. Standing above my knees in water on an insecure footing of fibrous roots, I tugged and pushed at the bateau until, finally, with one herculean shove I got it off the snag. But I had overdone the thing. My herculean shove had sent the bateau spinning right out into the lagoon, and I was floundering on my face in the water, hugging the snag tightly with both arms. I scrambled to my feet and ruefully realised the situation.

I could see that the bateau had already got into deep water and was drifting with the current back into the creek. I could not go after it, for, apart from the question of alligators, my evil destiny had no arranged things that I had never learned to swim. 1 breathed a fervent wish that the boat might not; drift past our camping place unobserved, and then I had to turn my attention to ,'myself,' for I was gradually sinking deeper in the water. I lost no time in scrambling on to the swamp. It seemed to mc that more water than anything else went to the composition of this , swamp. There was no stable footing anywhere except about the roots of the trees, and I tried to improve my position by climbing one of a little group of wallab&s that grew near the edge of the swamp. There I found a surprisingly comfortable seat, with a back, too—formed by the fork of two queerly twisted branches. My tree and its neighbours evidently lived unhappily on this spot, for they were stunted and gnarled and had a melancholy insufficiency of foliage. My surroundings, like my situation, were certainly rather depressing, but I can hardly say I felt depressed. My temperament is sanguine—to an irrational degree, friends tell me—and I didn't doubt that things would turn out as I wanted them to. I possessed of a comfortable, though ill grounded, conviction that some one would be opportunely awake in our camp as the bateau was drifting past, would secure the boat, discover my absence, and, understanding generally what had happened, paddle off at once to my rescue. Despite my dripping garments, I was pleasantly warm, and though I knew that fever microbes were swarming up in their greedy millions from the swamp, it gave mc no concern; fever microbes had always treated mc hitherto as a privileged pers6n. I grew drowsy and ended by falling asleep, I was awakened by the loud, weird call of a maam from the bush on the opposite side of the lagoon. I sat up and remembered where I was. The moon was still 'shining brightly, but there was no sign of my rescuers. Wae it possible that the boat had drifted past the camp unobserved ? I was really about to consider the serious bearings of this question when something stirred on the tree nearest to mc. I turned my head to see wha,t bird this something was. Then 1 had no thoughts for anything else- There, facing mc, with its huge body loosely coiled round the neighbouring wallaba, was a huge water boa, or Comudi snake. The foliage of the tree was too scanty to obscure the moonlight, and I. instantly recognised what the creature was, for, only a few days before, Garth and I had had an unsuccessful shot at a Comudi sunning itself on a log on the river bank. I had heard a great deal about Coinudi snakes, more than it was agreeable to recollect just then. My neighbour, with a gentle, modulatory , , motion of his head, looked at mc. I looked at him. lam absolutely certain that he-must have derived more ?leasure from that, interchange of looks than did. A cold perspiration broke out upon mc.

Here at least was a situation in which it was impossible for mc to believe that thing 3 would turn out as I wished. I could not fight, nor could I run away on that swamp. I was weaponless, helpless, and I quite understood that the boa would not refrain from taking advantage of my helplessness. If he were gorged with food, no doubt he would exercise a passive courtesy and leave mc unmolested ; but he was very evidently not gorged with food. He looked hungry. I had an irresistible conviction that it was my destiny to serve him for a late supper. It gave mc a very queer sensation to look at his rather lean girth and think that, in a short time I should be making him bulge out to an unseemly extent. The thought was humiliating, too. A much more dignified ending to my .etrong. young life would have been an attack of Yellow Jack and a grave- in the Georgetown cemetery.. Followingthis thought came the sudden remembrance 6f one of the marly tearful little regrets which my mother had expressed when I was leaving her and England to try my fortunes in Demerara. It was to the effect that, " if anything should happen" to mc out there, she would be denied the sad consolation of tending my I grave and weeping over it. The' idea of my ! mother wishing to shed tears and iflowers on ! my grave struck m= as exquisitely funny, in view of what that grave was going to be. I ; could not fancy an anaconda lending itself easily to be wept over. I burst into a loud fit of laughter, though I was certainly far from fceb'ng mirthful. ' Thoughts move quickly, and not more than

half a minute had elapsed between my first sighting the serpent and my burst ot laughter. I had never taken my eyes off him for a second, and now, when I let out my mirthless cackle, I saw that he suddenly stopped the gentle movement of his head and shrank back a little as if daunted by the sound. A wild gleam of hope lib up the situation for mc. Might it not be possible by noisy demonstrations on my part to frighten him away, or at least to deter him from attacking mc ? With daylight—surely with daylight—help must come. If not from Garth and the boatmen, then from the Indians. There were Indians living on that creek, I knew, and at daylight some would surely be about in their canoes. If I could only keep the Comudi at bay till then ! Thereupon, I began making violeut gestures with my arms, and I emitted a series of blood- oimlliiig yells which I think eveu . Fuzzy-Wuzzy, in his home in the Soudan, could scarcely have bettered. The Comudi did not unwind his tail and flee. But he was evidently impressed by these demonstrations —strongly impressed. They soemsd to take the keen edge off his appetite. No doubt he wanted his supper very badly, but, as there seemed to be something in it he didn't quite understand, he evidently decided to inspect it a little longer before making his assault. So he continued to inspect mc with cold, glittering eyes, while I tried, by converting my arms into windmills, every now and then, and yelling at the top of my voice, to make him afraid of attacking mc. My tactics were so far successful, but the anaconda was not to be frightened off the field. He seemed to know instinctively that my powers were limited and his position secure. With some of his great black and yellow coils embracing the tree, and the rest reposing gracefully among the branches, he looked very much at home —as I daresay lie was.

How slowly the time passed ! I suppose the Comudi, having, seemingly, no pressing engagement elsewhere, didn't find it very tedious waiting till the supper he had in view should cool down enough to let him begin upon it, but I shall never forget the long, torturing suspense that waiting meant to mc. Every moment I was expecting him to overcome his doubts of mc and make the fatal spring; and I kept an unwinking watch upon him, with my nerves strung up to an almost unbearable degree of tension. Then, as time went on, the violence of my demonstrations to keep the Coraudi in awe began to exhaust ma physically. I grew hopeless of escaping those cruel jaws, though I was doggedly determined to show fight to the end.

My thoughts would conjure up all the horrible details of that end, and dwell on them with an odd fascination. Sooner ov later my vigilance mnst relax, and then the watchful serpent would seize his opportunity and hurtle himself through the air upon mc. I would feel his sharp teefch piercing my flesh. Then I would know myaelf involved in the cold, scaly coils of his body, and feel them pressing tighter and tighter till my rib 3 cracked and suffocation began. And then—well, I hoped I (mould be dead before he began swallowing mc. It seems rather absurd that at that moment I should have felt a sort of finnicking disgust at the idea of being passed through the process of deglutition, but I did. The dreadful hours passed somehow, and the morning found me—a ghastly looking object, I make no doubt—still perched on the wallaba, desperately watching my neighbour on the other tree. My body ached with fatigue, the wild motio\»s I still made with my arms were purely mechanical, my tongue clove to the roof of my mouth. I seemed to be almost past thinking or feeling about what was going to happen to mc.

As the sun rose the Comudi began, by his restlessness, to plainly express his indignation at having his supper merged in his breakfast in this fashion. I had seen that latterly my attempts to intimidate him were losing their effect, and I knew that the end was at hand. I did not seem to care. Yet, all the same, I got out my pocketknife and opened it. I think I. meant to try to do something with it if the Comudi wasn't too quick for mc. I waited, making no further attempt to delay the Gomudi's fatal spring. It seemed to mc that I waited long before it came ; but perhaps I was mistaken. There was a slight nois&, and I had a blurred vision of something darting towards mc. Instinctively I leaned forward and threw out the hand which held the knife. At the same instant I felt myself encircled by the huge body of the anaconda. The touch of the reptile seemed to galvanise mc into fresh life. I looked and saw what I had escaped by my sudden, unthinking change of position. * The boa's powerful jaws were nearly closed in the wood of the wallaba, exactly at the spot where my head had been resting the instant before. I remembered that the peculiar formation of the teeth of boas makes it difficult for them to let go what they have once seized with their mouths and I simultaneously divined my advantage. Bringing my free right hand with the knife into play, I struck repeatedly at the Comudi's massive coils, devoutly trusting to reach some vital part. I was sitting in the fork of two branches which were both included in the Comudi's embrace, and, as the pressure,of his powerful muscles were first expended on those, I had not felt it as yet. But now I heard the slighter branch crack, and immediately afterward I felt the terrible convolutions tightening round mc. I was sure all -was over, but, actuated by a blind instinct of revenge rather than by a hope of setting myself free, I again and again drove my knife up to the handle into the encircling folds. The last time it broke, but it had done its work.

The Comudi's -great coils, with blood spirting out of some of them, spasmodically unwound themselves and fell limply down. But, as his teeth were .still"buried in the wood of the tree, a big length of him remained hanging plumb with the wallaba, while the rest—a good 20 fefet—trailed on the ground. A violent tremor ran through him from head to tail, and then he hung motionless. He was dead. If I had been a woman I suppose I should have fainted then. As It was I sat quite still, staring stupidly at the dead Comudi. Now and then I put out my hand timidly, like a child, and touched the still flexible carcase. After a time I heard the sound of paddles. I looked round slowly, and there was an Indian in a large woodskin paddling down the stream. I hailed him with a rather feeble croak. He paddled quickly toward mc, stared blankly at mc and the pendent, blood stained Comudi, and said "Huh!" He did not seem to quite take in the situation. He could not speak English, and I could not speak Maeusi. But the language of signs is universal, and in a very short time both I and the Comudi were stowed away somehow in the woodskin beside the Indian. The serpent's huge carcase made it rather a tight fit, but-I. didn't mean to leave him to the king vultures—l wanted to have something to show for what I had suffered. On our way down to the camp we came upon the errant bateau with its nose gently run into the soft oozy bank. Apparently it had drifted only a short distance before striking. We transhipped ourselves into the bateau and took the woodskin, with the boa, in tow.

As we approached the camp I saw Garth walking about in a very forcible style, and I knew by the token that he was angry. I could conceive that it might be with mc he was angry. It was. " When next the whhn takes you to go off in the bateau by yourself, Kenyon," he shouted out angrily, as soon as he caught sight of mc, "you will please have the courtesy to manage it so as not to upset all our arrangements We were, as you know, to break up camp and start away at dawn, and now- •."

Then Ms tone euddenly changed as the bateau and the woodskin touched the landing place. . "By Jove, my dear fellow, where did you get hold of that Comudi ? It's the biggest I've ever set eyes on ! It can't be less than thirty feet long ? My dear Kenyon, I wish I had been with you !"■ "You wouldn't if you knew," I said, with a burst of laughter that was in truth a little hysterical. Then I took a good grip of bis friendly shoulder.

"Garth, old chep, is it a few hours or a ' few years since I last saw that $unburned old phiz of yours ?" Garth ran his short-sighted eyes inquiringly over my dirty, blood stained garments. Then he looked anxiously at the Comudi. "It's a pity you've hacked him so, he ♦•aid, regretfully. " It rather spoils the skin for preserving. ' . ' *' I wasn't thinking of your confounded old museum when I was killing him," I said laughing. " But I'll make you a present of him now. if you think hie skin worth having."

"Worth having!" Kenyon, you are a downright good fellow," cried Garth joyfully. He made a rush to get the Comudi out of the woodskin, but halfway there he bethought himself, and stopped to ask, with polite concern, if I had had hard work in killing the boa." "Oli, the killing of him was the only part of the business I really almost enjoyed. But what went before !—Garth, old fellow, I have a story to tell." And, after I had had a good stiff nobbier of brandy and water, I told my story. I think I told it rather well then, for Garth was moved to strong sympathy and interest. He was really much concerned that I should have had such a terrible and well nigh fatal experience, but all the same, whenever his eye lighted upon the latest and finest addition to his darling collection, it was evident that he could not regret my encounter with the Comudi.— Temple Bar.