250 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chat. IV. 



four or five large basketsful 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 mosquitoes 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 



