Chap. IV. TUKTLE EGGS. 271 



commandante. It was an animating sight to behold 

 the wide circle of rival diggers throwing up clouds of 

 sand in their energetic labours, and working gradually 

 towards the centre of the ring. A little rest was taken 

 during the great heat of mid-day, and in the evening 

 the eggs were carried to the huts in baskets. By the 

 end of the second day, the taboleiro was exhausted : 

 large mounds of effffs. some of them four to five feet 

 in height, were then seen by the side of each hut, the 

 produce of the labours of the family. 



In the hurry of digging some of the deeper nests are 

 passed over ; to find these out the people go about pro- 

 vided with a long steel or wooden probe, the presence 

 of the eggs being discoverable by the ease with which 

 the spit enters the sand. When no more eggs are to be 

 found, the mashing process begins. The egg, it may be 

 here 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 sometimes naked In- 

 dians and children jump into the mass and tread it down, 

 besmearing themselves with yolk and making about as 

 filthy a scene as can well be imagined. This being 

 finished, water is poured into the canoe, and the 

 fatty mess 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 afterwards 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 



