270 
EXCURSIONS AEOUND EGA. Chap. lY. 
narrate, was made (again in company of Senhor Car- 
dozo, with the addition of his housekeeper Senhora 
Fehppa), in the season when all the population of the 
villages turns out to dig up turtle eggs, and revel on the 
praias. Placards were posted on the church doors at 
Ega, announcing that the excavation on Shimuni would 
commence on the I7th of October, and on Catua, sixty 
miles below Shimuni, on the 25th. We set out on the 
16th, and passed on the road, in our well-manned 
igarite, a large number of people, men, women, and 
children in canoes of all sizes, wending their way as if 
to a great holiday gathering. By the morning of the 
17th, some 400 persons were assembled on the borders of 
the sa,ndbank ; each family having erected a rude tem- 
porary shed of poles and palm leaves to protect them- 
selves from the sun and rain. Large copper kettles to 
prepare the oil, and hundreds of red earthenware jars, 
were scattered about on the sand. 
The excavation of the taboleiro, collecting the eggs 
and purifying the oil, occupied four days. All was done 
on a system established by the old Portuguese governors, 
probably more than a century ago. The commandante 
first took down the names of all the masters of house- 
holds, with the number of persons each intended to 
employ in digging ; he then exacted a payment of 140 
reis (about fourpence) a head, towards defraying the 
expense of sentinels. The whole were then allowed to 
go to the taboleiro. They ranged themselves round the 
circle, each person armed with a paddle, to be used as 
a spade, and then all began simultaneously to dig on 
a signal being given — the roll of drums — by order of the 
