Chap. III. 
TURTLES. 
213 
ing : every one ends, sooner or later, by becoming 
thoroughly surfeited. I became so sick of turtle in the 
course of two years that I could not bear the smell of 
it, although at the same time nothing else was to be 
had, and I was suffering actual hunger. The native 
women cook it in various ways. The entrails are 
chopped up and made into a delicious soup called sara- ^ 
patel, which is generally boiled in the concave upper 
shell of the animal used as a kettle. The tender flesh 
of the breast is partially minced with farinha, and the 
breast shell then roasted over the fire, making a very 
pleasant dish. Steaks cut from the breast and cooked 
with the fat form another palatable dish. Large sausages 
are made of the thick-coated stomach, which is filled ^' 
with minced meat and boiled. The quarters cooked in 
a kettle of Tucupi sauce form another variety of food. ' 
When surfeited with turtle in all other shapes, pieces of 
the lean part roasted on a spit and moistened only with 
vinegar make an agreeable change. The smaller kind 
of turtle, the tracaja, which makes its appearance in * 
the main river, and lays its eggs a month earlier than 
the large species, is of less utility to the inhabitants 
although its flesh is superior, on account of the diffi- 
culty of keeping it alive ; it survives captivity but a 
very few days, although placed in the same ponds in 
which the large turtle keeps well for two or three 
. years. 
Those who cannot hunt and fish for themselves, and 
whose stomachs refuse turtle, are in a poor way at 
Ega. Fish, including many kinds of large and delicious 
salmonidae, is abundant in the fine season ; but each 
