260 
EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. 
Chap. IV. 
green palisade. Around the whole stood the taller forest 
trees ; palmate-leaved Cecropise ; slender Assai palms, 
thirty feet high, with their thin feathery heads crowning 
the gently-curving, smooth stems ; small fan-leaved 
palms ; and as a back-ground to all these airy shapes, 
lay the voluminous masses of ordinary forest trees, 
with garlands, festoons, and streamers of leafy climbers 
hanging from their branches. The pool was nowhere 
more than five feet deep, one foot of which was not 
water, but extremely fine and soft mud. 
Cardozo and I spent an hour paddling about. I was 
astonished at the skill which the* Indians display in 
shooting turtles. They did not wait for their coming 
to the surface to breathe, but watched for the slight 
movements in the water, which revealed their presence 
underneath. These little tracks on the water are 
called the Siriri ; the instant one was perceived an 
arrow flew from the bow of the nearest man, and never 
failed to pierce the shell of the submerged animal. 
When the turtle was very distant, of course the aim 
had to be taken at a considerable elevation, but the 
marksmen preferred a longish range, because the arrow 
then fell more perpendicularly on the shell, and entered 
it more deeply. 
The arrow used in turtle shooting has a strong 
lancet-shaped steel point, fitted into a peg which enters 
the tip of the shaft. The peg is secured to the shaft 
by twine made of the fibres of pine-apple leaves, the 
twine being some thirty or forty yards in length, and 
neatly wound round the body of the arrow. When the 
missile enters the shell the peg drops out, and the pierced 
