260 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



green palisade. Around the whole stood the taller forest 

 trees ; palmate-leaved Cecropioe ; slender Assai palms, 

 thirty feet high, with their thin feathery heads crowning 

 the gently-curving, smooth stems ; small fan-leaved 

 palms ; and as a back -ground to all these airy shapes, 

 lay the voluminous masses of ordinary forest trees, 

 with garlands, festoons, and streamers of leafy climbers 

 hanging from their branches. The pool was nowhere 

 more than five feet deep, one foot of which was not 

 water, but extremely fine and soft mud. 



Cardozo and I spent an hour paddling about, I was 

 astonished at the skill which the Indians display in 

 shooting turtles. They did not wait for their coming 

 to the surface to breathe, but watched for the slight 

 movements in the water, which revealed their presence 

 underneath. These little tracks on the water are 

 called the Siriri ; the instant one was perceived an 

 arrow flew from the bow of the nearest man, and never 

 failed to pierce the shell of the submerged animal. 

 When the turtle was very distant, of course the aim 

 bad to be taken at a considerable elevation, but the 

 marksmen preferred a longish range, because the arrow 

 then fell more perpendicularly on the shell, and entered 

 it more deeply. 



The arrow used in turtle shooting has a strong 

 lancet-shaped steel point, fitted into a peg which enters 

 the tip of the shaft. The peg is secured to the shaft 

 by twine made of the fibres of pine-apple leaves, the 

 twine being some thirty or forty yards in length, and 

 neatly wound round the body of the arrow. When the 

 missile enters the shell the peg drops out, and the pierced 



