250 
EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. 
Chap. TV. 
four or five large basketsfiil of Acari were brought in. 
The sun set soon after our meal was cooked ; we were 
then obliged to extinguish the fire and remove our 
supper materials to the sleeping ground, a spit of sand 
about a mile off ; this course being necessary on account 
of the mosquitoes which swarm at night on the borders 
of the forest. 
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 canoenien 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 
