302 EXCURSIONS IN NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA. Cuap. XI. 
the middle one, between the two islands, Shimunf and Barid, is not 
much less than a mile. 
We found the two sentinels lodged in a corner of the praia, where it 
commences at the foot of the towering forest-wall of the island ; having 
built for themselves a little rancho with poles and palm-leaves. Great 
precautions are obliged to be taken to avoid disturbing the sensitive 
turtles, who, previous to crawling ashore to lay, assemble in great shoals 
off the sand-bank. The men, during this time, take care not to show 
themselves, and warn off any fisherman who wishes to pass near the 
place. ‘Their fires are made in a deep hollow near the borders of the 
forest, so that the smoke may not be visible. The passage of a boat 
through the shallow waters where the animals are congregated, or the 
sight of a man or a fire on the sand-bank, would prevent the turtles 
from leaving the water that night to lay their eggs, and if the causes of 
alarm were repeated once or twice they would forsake the praia for 
some other quieter place. Soon after we arrived our men were sent 
with the net to catch a supply of fish for supper. In half an hour four 
or five large basketfuls of Acari were brought in. The sun set soon 
after our meal was cooked ; we were then obliged to extinguish the fire 
and remove our supper materials to the sleeping ground, a spit of sand 
about a mile off ; this course being necessary on account of the mosqui- 
toes which swarm at night on the borders of the forest. 
One of the sentinels was a taciturn, morose-looking, but sober and 
honest Indian, named Daniel; the other was a noted character of Ega, 
a little wiry mameluco, named Carepira (Fish-hawk) ; known for his 
waggery, propensity for strong drink, and indebtedness to Ega traders. 
Both were intrepid canoemen and huntsmen, and both perfectly at 
home anywhere in these fearful wastes of forest and water. Carepira 
had his son with him, a quiet little lad of about nine years of age. 
These men in a few minutes constructed a small shed with four upright 
poles and leaves of the arrow-grass, under which I and Cardozo slung 
our hammocks.. We did not go to sleep, however, until after midnight: 
for when supper was over we lay about on the sand with a flask of rum in 
our midst, and whiled away the still hours in listening to Carepira’s stories. 
I rose from my hammock by daylight, shivering with cold; a praia, 
on account of the great radiation of heat in the night from the sand, 
being towards the dawn the coldest place that can be found in this 
climate. Cardozo and the men were already up watching the turtles. 
The sentinels had erected for this purpose a stage about fifty feet high, 
on a tall tree near their station, the ascent to which was by a roughly- 
made ladder of woody lianas. They are enabled, by observing the 
turtles from this watch-tower, to ascertain the date of successive deposits 
of eggs, and thus guide the commandante in fixing the time for the 
general invitation to the Ega people. The turtles lay their eggs by 
night, leaving the water, when nothing disturbs them, in vast crowds, 
and crawling to the central and highest part of the praia. These places 
are, of course, the last to go under water when, in unusually wet seasons, 
the river rises before the eggs are hatched by the heat of the sand. 
One could almost believe, from this, that the animals used forethought 
in choosing a place; but it is simply one of those many instances in 
