ISLAND OF MUGERES. 



411 



dian boys engaged in weaving a new one. The old 

 fisherman, without desisting from his work, invited 

 us to the hammocks, and, to satisfy our invariable 

 first want on this coast, sent a boy for water, which, 

 though not good, was better than that on board. 



Along the shore, at no great distance, was a funer- 

 al pile of the carcasses of turtles, half burned, and ' 

 covered with countless millions of flies, actually heav- 

 ing and moving as if alive ; and near this hideous 

 pile, as if to contrast beauty and deformity, was a 

 tree, covered to its topmost boughs with the white 

 ibis, its green fohage appearing like an ornamental 

 frame-work to their snowy plumage. We ordered 

 our dinner to be brought to the arbour, and as we 

 were sitting down a canoe came ashore ; the fisher- 

 men dragged across the beach two large turtles, and 

 leaving the carcasses to swell the funeral pile, brought 

 down to the arbour strings of eggs, and the parts 

 that served for food or oil, and hung them quivering 

 in the sun along the fence, their sudden blackness 

 from swarms of flies disturbing somewhat the satis- 

 faction with which we had first hailed this arbour. 

 We had again stopped to visit ruins, but in the af- 

 ternoon it rained, and we could not go to them. 

 The arbour was no protection, and we were obhged 

 to go inside the hut, which was snug and comforta- 

 ble, the oil jars being arranged under the eaves, with 

 turtle-shells tied up carefully in bundles, and on the 

 rafters hung strings of eggs, while nets, old sails, 

 blocks, and other characteristic furniture of a fish- 



