264 
EXCUESIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IY. 
poles, the rest stretching themselves on the sand round 
a large fire. We lay awake conversing until past mid- 
night. It was a real pleasure to listen to the stories 
told by one of the older men, they were given with so 
much spirit. The tales always related to struggles with 
some intractable animal — jaguar, manatee, or alligator. 
Many interjections and expressive gestures were used, 
and at the end came a sudden "Pa! terra!" when 
the animal was vanquished by a shot or a blow. Many 
mysterious tales were recounted about the Bouto, as the 
large Dolphin of the Amazons is called. One of them 
was to the effect that a Bouto once had the habit of 
assuming the shape of a beautiful woman, with hair 
hanging loose to her heels, and walking ashore at night 
in the streets of Ega, to entice the young men down to 
the water. If any one was so much smitten as to follow 
liQr to the water-side, she grasped her victim round the 
waist and plunged beneath the waves with a triumphant 
cry. No animal in the Amazons region is the subject 
of so many fables as the Bouto ; but it is probable these 
did not originate with the Indians but with the Portu- 
guese colonists. It was several years before I could 
induce a fisherman to harpoon Dolphins for me as speci- 
mens, for no one ever kills these animals voluntarily, 
although their fat is known to yield an excellent oil for 
lamps. The superstitious people believe that blindness 
would result from the use of this oil in lamps. I suc- 
ceeded at length with Carepira, by offering him a high 
reward when his finances were at a very low point ; but 
he repented of his deed ever afterwards, declaring that 
his luck had forsaken him from that day. 
