270 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



narrate, was made (again in company of Senhor Car- 

 dozo, with the addition of his housekeeper 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 

 Egfa, announcing that the excavation on Shimuni would 

 commence on the 17th of October, and on Catua\ sixty 

 miles below Shimuni, on the 25th. We set out on the 

 16th, and passed on the road, in our well-manned 

 igarite, 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 sandbank ; each family having erected a rude tem- 

 porary shed of poles and palm leaves to protect them- 

 selves from the sun and rain. 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 

 on a 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 



