278 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



shining examples of the superior civilisation of Europe 

 in attendance at Catua. The masters kept their In- 

 dians well under control ; the young people enjoyed 

 themselves upon the whole innocently, and sociability 

 was pretty general amongst all classes and colours. 



Our rancho was a large one, and was erected in a line 

 with the others, near the edge of the sandbank which 

 sloped rather abruptly to the water. During the first 

 week the people were all, more or less, troubled by 

 alligators. Some half-dozen full-grown ones were in 

 attendance off the praia, floating about on the lazily- 

 flowing, muddy water. The dryness of the weather had 

 increased since we had left Shimuni, the currents had 

 slackened, and the heat in the middle part of the day 

 was almost insupportable. But no one could descend 

 to bathe without being advanced upon by one or other 

 of these hungry monsters. There was much offal cast 

 into the river, and this, of course, attracted them to the 

 place. One clay I amused myself by taking a basketful 

 of fragments of meat beyond the line of ranchos, and 

 drawing the alligators towards me by feeding them. 

 They behaved pretty much as dogs do when fed ; 

 catching the bones I threw them in their huge jaws, 

 and coming nearer and showing increased eagerness 

 after every morsel. The enormous gape of their mouths, 

 with their blood-red lining and long fringes of teeth, 

 and the uncouth shapes of their bodies, made a picture 

 of unsurpassable ugliness. I once or twice fired a heavy 

 charge of shot at them, aiming at the vulnerable part of 

 their bodies, which is a small space situated behind the 

 eyes, but this had no other effect than to make them 



