402 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA 



One of the sentinels was a taciturn, morose-looking, 

 but sober and honest Indian, named Daniel ; the other 

 was a noted character of Ega, a little wiry mameluco, 

 named Carepira (Fish-hawk) ; known for his waggery, 

 propensity for strong drink, and indebtedness to Ega 

 traders. Both were intrepid canoe-men and huntsmen, 

 and both perfectly at home anywhere in these fearful 

 wastes of forest and water. Carepira had his son with him, 

 a quiet little lad of about nine years of age. These men in 

 a few minutes constructed a small shed with four upright 

 poles and leaves of the arrow-grass, under which I and 

 Cardozo slung our hammocks. We did not go to sleep, 

 however, until after midnight : for when supper was over 

 we lay about on the sand with a flask of rum in our midst, 

 and whiled away the still hours in listening to Carepira' s 

 stories. 



I rose from my hammock by daylight, shivering with 

 cold ; a praia, on account of the great radiation of heat 

 in the night from the sand, being towards the dawn the 

 coldest place that can be found in this climate. Cardozo 

 and the men were already up watching the turtles. The 

 sentinels had erected for this purpose a stage about fifty 

 feet high, on a tall tree near their station, the ascent to 

 which was by a roughly-made ladder of woody lianas. 

 They are enabled, by observing the turtles from this 

 watch-tower, to ascertain the date of successive deposits 

 of eggs, and thus guide the commandante in fixing the 

 time for the general invitation to the Ega people. The 

 turtles lay their eggs by night, leaving the water when 

 nothing disturbs them, in vast crowds, and crawling to the 

 central and highest part of the praia. These places are, 

 of course, the last to go under water when, in unusually 

 wet seasons, the river rises before the eggs are hatched 

 by the heat of the sand. One could almost believe, from 

 this, that the animals used forethought in choosing a 

 place ; but it is simply one of those many instances in 

 animals where unconscious habit has the same result as 

 conscious prevision. The hours between midnight and 

 dawn are the busiest. The turtles excavate with their 

 broad, webbed paws deep holes in the fine sand : the first 

 comer, in each case, making a pit about three feet deep, 

 laying its eggs (about 120 in number) and covering them 

 with sand ; the next making its deposit at the top of that 

 of its predecessor, and so on until every pit is full. The 



