Note 6 — Chapter III · THE GREAT RIVER
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Elsewhere he tells us of the thousands of “vglie serpents,” which he calls Lagartos, the Spanish word for lizards, that he saw everywhere along the Orinoco. They were what are now known as crocodiles and caymans, the former of which, according to Schomburgk, are seldom more than six to eight feet long, while the latter are said sometimes to attain a length of twenty-five feet. We saw several of them every day but their number was far from being as great as is usually represented.
Of the armadillo, which is prized as a delicacy in Guiana, Raleigh says “it seemeth to be barred ouer with small plates like to a Renocero with a white horne growing in his hinder parts, as big as a great hunting horne which they vse to winde in steed of a trumpet.” Op. cit., p. 74. ↑