742 



THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



-are to be found, the mashing process begins. 

 The egg, it may be 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 some- 

 times 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 

 1he fatty mass then left for a few hours to be 

 heated by the sun, on which the oil separates 

 and rises to the surface. The floating oil is 

 afterward skimmed off with long spoons, 

 made by tying large mussel-shells to the end 

 of rods, and purified over the fire in copper 

 kettles. 



The destruction of turtle-eggs every year 

 by these proceedings is enormous. At least 

 6000 jars, holding each three gallons of the 

 oil, are exported annually from the Upper 

 Amazons and the Madeira to Para, where it 

 is used for lighting, frying fish, and other 

 purposes. It may be faiily estimated that 

 3000 more jarfuls are consumed by the in- 

 liabitants of the villages on the river. Now, 

 it takes at least twelve basketfuls of eggs, or 

 aibout 6000, by the wasteful process fol- 

 lowed, to make one jar of oil. The total 

 number of eggs annually destroyed amounts, 

 therefore, to 48,000,000. As each turtle lays 

 about 120, it follows that the yearly offspring 

 of 400,000 turtles is thus annihilated. A 

 vast number, nevertheless, remain undetect- 

 ed ; and these would probably be sufficient 

 to keep the turtle population of these rivers 

 up to the mark, if the people did not follow 

 the wasteful practice of lying in wait for the 

 newly-hatched young, and collecting them 

 by thousands for eating ; their tender flesh 

 aind the remains of yolk in their entrails 

 being considered a great delicacy. The chief 

 natural enemies of the turtle are vultures and 

 alligators, which devour the newly-hatched 

 young as they descend in shoals to the water. 

 These must have destroyed an immensely 

 .greater number before the European settlers 

 began to appropriate the eggs than they do 

 now. It is almost doubtful if that natural 

 persecution did not act as effectively in 

 checking the increase of the turtle as the 

 artificial destruction now does. If we are to 

 believe the tradition of the Indians, however, 

 .it had not this result ; for they say that for- 

 merly the waters teemed as thickly with tur- 

 tles as the air does now with mosquitoes. 

 The universal opinion of the settlers on the 

 Upper Amazons is, that the turtle has very 

 .greatly decreased in numbers, and is still an- 

 nually decreasing. 



We left Shimuni on the 20th, with quite a 

 flotilla of canoes, and descended the river to 

 Catua, an eleven hours' journey by paddle 

 and current. Catua is about six miles long, 

 and almost entirely encircled by its praia. 

 The turtles had selected for their egg-laying 

 a part of the sand-bank which was elevated 

 at least twenty feet above the present kv^i 



of the river ; the animals, to reach the place, 

 must have crawled up a slope. As we ap- 

 proached the island, numbers of the animals 

 were seen coming to the surface to breathe, 

 in a small shoaly bay. Those who had light 

 montarias sped forward with bows and 

 arrows to shoot them. Carepira was fore- 

 most, having borrowed a small and very un- 

 steady boat of Cardozo, and embarked in it 

 with his little son. After bagging a couple 

 of turtles, and while hauling ia a third, he 

 overbalanced himself ; the canoe went over, 

 and he with his child had to swim for their 

 lives, in the midst of numerous alligators, 

 about a mile from the laud. The old man 

 had to sustain a heavy fire of jokes from his 

 companions for several days after this mis- 

 hap. Such accidents are only laughed at by 

 these almost amphibious people. 



The number of persons congregated on 

 Catua was much greater than on Shimuni, as 

 the population of the banks of several neigh- 

 boring lakes was here added. The line of 

 huts and sheds extended half a mile, and 

 several large sailing vessels were anchored at 

 the place. The commandante was Senhor 

 Macedo, the very worthy Indian blacksmith 

 of Ega, who maintained excellent order dur- 

 ing the fourteen days the process of excava- 

 tion and oil manufacture lasted. There were 

 also many primitive Indians here from the 

 neighboring rivers, among them a family of 

 Shumanas, good-tempered, harmless people 

 from the Lower Japura. All of them were 

 tattooed round the mouth, the bluish tint 

 forming a border to the lips, and extending 

 in a line on the cheeks toward the ear on 

 each side. They were not quite so slender 

 in figure as the Passes of Pedro-uassu's 

 family ; but their features deviated quite as 

 much as those of the Passes from the ordi- 

 nary Indian type. This was seen chiefly iu 

 the comparatively small mouth, pointed chin, 

 thin lips, and narrow, high nose. One of 

 the daughters, a young girl of about seven- 

 teen years of age, was a real beauty. The 

 color of her skin approached the light tanned 

 shade of the Mameluco women ; her figure 

 was almost faultless, and the blue mouth, in- 

 stead of being a disfigurement, gave quite a 

 captivating finish to her appearance. Her 

 neck, wrists, and ankles were adorned with 

 strings of blue beads. She was, however, 

 extremely bashful, never venturing to look 

 strangers in the face, and never quitting, for 

 many minutes together, the side of her father 

 and mother. The family had been shame* 

 fully swindled by some rascally trader on 

 another praia ; and, on our arrival, came to 

 lay their case before Senhor Cardozo, as the 

 delegado of police of the district. The mild 

 way in which the old man. without a trace 

 of auger, stated his complaint in imperfect 

 Tupi, quite enlisted our sympathies in hia 

 favor. But Cardozo could give him no re- 

 dress ; he invited the family, however, to 

 make their rancho near to ours, and in the 

 end gave them the highest price for the sur- 

 plus oil which they manufactured. 



It was not all work at Catua ; indeed there 



