The Portland daily press., 1894-05-25
s.asla4a 4asa5zss .sAs-l
AN ASPtAND VERY EDEADLY.
Americas Most venomous Snake Is the
Pichu-Cuate.

abounds. and in several varieties including
the strange and deadly ''sidewinder," GRO
tolus cerastes. The so-called tarantula go
really only gigantic bush spider, but none
the less dangerous because of the misnomer
is decidedly common. Scorpions are none
too rare in the southern portions of the Ter
ritories, and in all part centipedes of seven
to eight inches long are frequent and neigh
borly. But the chief distinction of the re-
gion in this respect is the presence of the
pichu-cuate, the deadliest snake in North
America.
The pichu-cuate matches the worst SER
pent of India. Not only the most highly
venomous, but the tiniest and most treacher-
Gus, he would be also the most dangerous
but luckily, he is the rarest. He is the:only
true asp ON this continents; and in the u
nited States is never found outside of New
Mexico and Arizona. That he was also
known to the ancient Mexicans is apparent
from his name -pichu-coati, an Aztec word
which was brought up to our territory by
the Spanish conquerors.
My first meeting with one was in Valencia
County, N. M. in June, 1890. on the sandy
TANKS Of the Cerro del A1re. I was out hunt
ting iack-rabbits in company with some In
dian friends, and had dismounted to stalk,
leading my pet horse by the bride. My
eyes were on smaf chaparro bush ahead,
when suddenly Alazan snorted and reared
backward SO violently as almost to unhinge
my .arm. I looked about in surprise, for
AlaZan was too good horse to mind trifes.
AS there was nothing to be seen, started
to pull him forward. Again he protested
and with,evident terror, and. CHANGING to
look at my very feet, understood his fear
and felt very grateful that his senses We're
better than mine, for in another step l
should have walked upon my death.
The only thing visible was tiny object,
not nearly SO large as a good stag beetle
merely head, and perhaps an inch of neck.
But it was the most frightful object in its
kind that had ever seen. The head, GER
tainly neither So broad nor SO long as my
thumb nail, had shape and an air of con-
densed malignity impossible to describe 1t
seemed the very essence of wickedness and
hate, fairly bullying with deadly spite, and
growing upon one until it looked several
times it's actual size. The ugly triangle
(Which is the distinguishing mark of all
venomous. snakes, being formed by the
poison gland back of each eye told me at
once that Alazan was keeping up his repu-
tation-never did he shy at a harmless snake
and the tiny horns, which added peculiar
and grotesque hideousness, left no doubt
that this was pichu-cuate. He had buried
himself almost to the head in the gray sand,
against which his upper skin was barely
distinguishable, and thus in ambush was
waiting for something to turn up.
Turning AlaZan loose 1, l knelt at the safe
10 ,4,,5x h. o+r,ra
which fairly sewlled with murder
Gus rage. 1t not only struck madly at the
chaparro switch / thrust out to it, but at
last, evidently discerning that the blame
lay back of the switch, actually followed
it up. and with such agility that 1 had to
jump up and back without loss of time. The
idea of retreat never seemed to enter that
fiat head. Sometimes he would lie and puff
out with impotent rage, throwing his mouth
so wide open that it seemed the venom must
start, and sometimes he glided toward me,
his head an inch above the ground, with an
attitude which seemed to say: Stand still
there, and veil see who laughs!''
At last killed him. He was neither lar
ger round nor longer than an ordinary lead
pencil; a cold, leaden gray on the back. but
underneath rosy as the mouth of a conch
shell. The fangs were tiny, not much more
than an eighth of an inch long, and as deli
cate as the tiniest needle. A wonderous
mechanism. this mouth with it's automatic
needles, SO inflnitesimal yet so perfectly
competent! I opened the ugly little jaws
wide, pressing upon the sides of the head !;
and when the recurring fangs had risen
from their grooves in the roof of the mouth
and stood tense, a stream SO inconveniently
fine that the eye could barely note it squirt
ed from each, and in the space of two or
three inches melted into invisible spray.
Yet that jet. finer than cobweb strand,
was enough to give swift death to the lar
gest and strongest animal that walks.
When the hunt was over told my Indian
chums of the pichu-cuate, and asked the
many questions.s .They all knew of the
snake, though several had never seen one
and all agreed that it was extremely rare.
The crotalus ranks among the Pueblo divin-
tiles, and their charmers have no difficulty
with that steady-going and respectable rep
tile. But even among these people with
whom the cult of the rattlesnake has such
astounding features, and where until recent
years every Pueblo kept a sacred rattle
snake in a sacred room, with priests to at
tend him, the villainous little sand viper is
accursed. Even those who have the power
of the snakes" can do nothing with him; he
scorns to be tanned even by the dropping
upon his head of the mystic pollen of the
corn blossom.
And he was more dangerous than the rat
tlesnake? Oh, yes! A thousand times worse
than ch'a-ra-ra-dah! No one ever got well
if the pichu-cuate bit him. Even medi-
cine man once, who knew all the sacred
herbs, and so was proof against Snakes,
brought pichu-cuate in his blanket to
the pueblo to tame it. But when he let it
out upon the floor and sang to it and went
to take it up lit strrck him in the wrist, and
he fell down and died in the time one could
count fifty. All remembered, too, the fate
of Cruz Abeitaa, young man who had gone
out to the 1lano to herd cattle. Clearly, ne
had seen rabbit run down its burrow and
had tried to get it out with switch, for
when they found him he was lying there,
terribly swollen and black, with his arm
still down in the holes nd in.his other hand,
elenched with the grip of tho dead, was
crushed pichu-curate. Hidden in the sand,
it had struck him in the face while he was
SeaPchinp after the "a hhit and both bad