Cuap. XI. TURTLE EGGS. 313 
be seen. They embarked, however, in montarias, determined on ven- 
geance : the monster was traced, and when, after a short lapse of time, 
he came up to breathe—one leg of the man sticking out from his jaws 
—was despatched with bitter curses. 
The last of these minor excursions which I shall narrate, was made 
(again in company of Senhor Cardozo, with the addition of his house- 
keeper, Senhora Felippa) in the season when all the population of the 
villages turns out to dig up turtle eggs, and revel on the praias. Placards 
were posted on the church doors at Ega, announcing that the excavation 
on Shimunf would commence on the 17th of October, and on Catud, 
sixty miles below Shimuni, on the 25th. We set out on the 16th, and 
passed on the road, in our well-manned igarité, a large number of people, 
men, women, and children, in canoes of all sizes, wending their way as 
if to a great holiday gathering. By the morning of the 17th some 
400 persons were assembled on the borders of the sand-bank ; each 
family having erected a rude temporary shed of poles and palm leaves 
to protect themselves from the sun andrain. Large copper kettles to 
prepare the oil, and hundreds of red earthenware jars, were scattered 
about on the sand. 
The excavation of the taboleiro, collecting the eggs, and purifying the 
oil, occupied four days. All was done ona system established by the 
old Portuguese governors, probably more than a century ago. The 
commandante first took down the names of all the masters of house- 
holds, with the number of persons each intended to employ in digging ; 
he then exacted a payment of 140 reis (about fourpence) a head towards 
defraying the expense of sentinels. The whole were then allowed to 
go to the taboleiro. They ranged themselves round the circle, each 
person armed with a paddle, to be used as a spade, and then all began 
simultaneously to dig on a signal being given—the roll of drums—by 
order of the commandante. It was an animating sight to behold the 
wide circle of rival diggers throwing up clouds of sand in their energetic 
labours, and working gradually towards the centre of the ring. A little 
rest was taken during the great heat of mid-day, and in the evening the 
eggs were carried to the huts in baskets. By the end of the second day 
the taboleiro was exhausted: large mounds of eggs, some of them four 
to five feet in height, were then seen by the side of each hut, the produce 
of the labours of the family. 
In the hurry of digging some of the deeper nests are passed over ; to 
find these out the people go about provided with a long steel or wooden 
probe, the presence of the eggs being discoverable by the ease with 
which the spit enters the sand. When no more eggs are to be found, 
the mashing process begins. The egg, it may be here mentioned, has a 
flexible or leathery shell; it is quite round, and somewhat larger 
than a hen’s egg. The whole heap is thrown into an empty canoe 
and mashed with wooden prongs; but sometimes naked Indians 
and children jump into the mass and tread it down, besmearing them- 
selves with yolk, and making about as filthy a scene as can well be 
imagined. This being finished, water is poured into the canoe, and the 
fatty mess then left for a few hours to be heated by the sun, on which 
