Chap. IV. 
THE ANINGAL. 
259 
employed in making the fire, roasting the fish, and 
boiling the coffee, the rest of the party mounted the 
bank, and with their long hunting-knives commenced 
cutting a path through the forest ; the pool, called the 
Aningal, being about half a mile distant. After break- 
fast a great number of short poles were cut and laid 
crosswise on the path, and then three light montarias 
which we had brought with us were dragged up the 
bank by lianas, and rolled away to be embarked on the 
pool. A large net, seventy yards in length, was then 
disembarked and carried to the place. The work was 
done very speedily, tod when Cardozo and I went to the 
spot at eleven o'clock we found some of the older 
Indians, including Pedro and Daniel, had begun their 
sport. They were mounted on little stages called 
moutas, made of poles and cross-pieces of wood secured 
with lianas, and were shooting the turtles, as they came 
near the surface, with bows and arrows. The Indians 
seemed to think that netting the animals, as Cardozo 
proposed doing, was not lawful sport, and wished first to 
have an hour or two's old-fashioned practice with their 
weapons. 
The pool covered an area of about four or five acres, 
and was closely hemmed in by the forest, which in 
picturesque variety and grouping of trees and foliage 
exceeded almost everything I had yet witnessed. The 
margins for some distance were swampy, and covered 
with large tufts of a fine grass called Matupa. These 
tufts in many places were overrun with ferns, and 
exterior to them a crowded row of arborescent arums, 
growing to a height of fifteen or twenty feet, formed a 
s,2 
