Chap. IV. THE ANINGAL. 259 



employed in making the fire, roasting the fish, and 

 boiling the coffee, the rest of the party mounted the 

 bank, and with their long hunting-knives commenced 

 cutting a path through the forest ; the pool, called the 

 Aningal, being about half a mile distant. After break- 

 fast a great number of short poles were cut and laid 

 crosswise on the path, and then three light montarias 

 which we had brought with us were dragged up the 

 bank by lianas, and rolled away to be embarked on the 

 pool. A large net, seventy yards in length, was then 

 disembarked and carried to the place. The work was 

 done very speedily, and when Cardozo and I went to the 

 spot at eleven o'clock we found some of the older 

 Indians, including Pedro and Daniel, had begun their 

 sport. They were mounted on little stages called 

 moutas, made of poles and cross-pieces of wood secured 

 with lianas, and were shooting the turtles, as they came 

 near the surface, with bows and arrows. The Indians 

 seemed to think that netting the animals, as Cardozo 

 proposed doing, was not lawful sport, and wished first to 

 have an hour or two's old-fashioned practice with their 

 weapons. 



The pool covered an area of about four or five acres, 

 and was closely hemmed in by the forest, which in 

 picturesque variety and grouping of trees and foliage 

 exceeded almost everything I had yet witnessed. The 

 margins for some distance were swampy, and covered 

 with large tufts of a fine grass called Matupa. These 

 tufts in many places were overrun with ferns, and 

 exterior to them a crowded row of arborescent arums, 

 growing to a height of fifteen or twenty feet, formed a 



