From up here one has a beautiful view of many lakes.

Down there by the river is a headland, that means that the shore joins there at a point. It is there where something strange happened, so that one was made to think that something monstrous lived in this river. The river is narrow and has a dense covering of vegetation.

To the shore of the river one always brought a horse to graze and tied him at a stake for this purpose. One night, one heard a mighty commotion there, but no one dare go there in the dark. The next morning everyone established that the horse was dead. He was torn open down his length.

The people say that this was the great snake.

The men here then built six bombs each with 500g of explosives, went there and threw the bombs in the water. Exactly there where the horse was ripped open. We could even feel the explosion up here. But only one single fish became a victim of the explosion. Up until today this has remained a mystery. It is fascinating that only one single little fish fell victim to this explosion. What sort of a creature could have killed a horse?

Told by Antonio Lopez Malheiros in Punto de Surubiasú at Rio Amazonas, on 21st September 2000.