DOMESTIC LIFE. 139 



"Placards/ 7 says Bates, "were posted up on the 

 church doors at Ega, announcing that the excava- 

 tion on Shimuni would commence on the 17th of 

 October, and on Catesa ... on the 25th. We 

 set out on the 16th, and passed on the road . . . 

 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 four hundred people 

 were assembled on the borders of the sand-bank, 

 each family having erected a rude temporary shed 

 of poles and palm leaves to protect themselves 

 from the sun and rain. Large copper kettles 

 to prepare the oil, and hundreds of red earthen- 

 ware 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 households, with 

 the number of persons each intended to employ 

 in digging; he then exacted a payment of one 

 hundred and forty reis (about fourpence) a head 

 towards defraying the expenses 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 all began simultaneously to dig, on 

 a signal being given the roll of drums. . . . 

 It was an animating sight to behold the circle 

 of rival diggers throwing up clouds of sand in 

 their energetic labours and working gradually 

 towards the centre of the ring. ... By the end 



