630 OIL FROM TURTLES EGGS. 



drawn up on the beach and thoroughly washed out, while 

 the whole praia is covered with natives with the baskets 

 on their backs in which they collect the eggs. The eggs are 

 then cleansed from the grains of sand adhering to them, and 

 emptied into the canoes, when they are trodden on by the 

 children, much in the same way as grapes are mashed for wine- 

 making. The canoes, when full, are left exposed to the sun's 

 rays, and in a short time a fine clear oil rises to the surface. 

 It is then skimmed off with shells and put into large pots, 

 when it is boiled over the fire and becomes purified. It is 

 next transferred to jars, and is ready for use. It is finer and 

 clearer than that produced from olives. 



Meantime, any stray turtles which have delayed their de- 

 parture, as frequently happens, are turned over on their backs. 

 Holes are dug in the sand near the water, in which the young 

 turtles are kept till required for eating. When not actually 

 employed in picking up eggs or catching turtles, the whole 

 population are engaged in feasting off them an enormous 

 quantity being thus consumed. The flesh of the animals is 

 cut up and dressed in the shells, which serve as pots, without 

 the danger of burning ; and it is washed down with copious 

 draughts of chica. 



The female turtles contain an enormous number of eggs, 

 apparently ready to be laid during a succession of years from 

 the large ones covered with a white membrane, down to a 

 confused mass resembling mustard-seeds. As it requires five 

 thousand to fill a jar of oil, and as many thousands of jars are 

 collected, it may be conceived what an enormous number of 

 eggs are deposited every year. Were it not that many turtles 

 lay in solitary places, which the Indians have not discovered, 

 the rivers would soon be depopulated. The Indian children 



