TURTLE EGGS 



415 



determined on vengeance : the monster was traced, and 

 when, after a short lapse of time, he came up to breathe — 

 one leg of the man sticking out from his jaws — was dis- 

 patched with bitter curses. 



The last of these minor excursions which I shall narrate, 

 was made (again in company of Senhor Cardozo, with the 

 addition of his housekeeper Senhora Felippa), in the season 

 when all the population of the villages turns out to dig up 

 turtle eggs, and revel on the praias. Placards were posted 

 on the church doors at Ega, announcing that the excava- 

 tion on Shimuni would commence on the 17 th of October, 

 and on Catua, sixty miles below Shimuni, on the 25th. 

 We set out on the i6th, and passed on the road, in our 

 well-manned igarite, 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 400 persons 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 earthenware 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 140 reis (about 

 fourpence) a head, towards defraying the expense 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 then all began simultaneously to dig on a signal being 

 given — the roll of drums — by order of the 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 eggs, some 

 of them four to five feet in height, were then seen by 



