276 
EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IY. 
makings were carried on near the ranches, where the 
more staid citizens of Ega, husbands with their wives 
and young daughters, all smoking gravely out of 
long pipes, sat in their hammocks and enjoyed the 
fun. Towards midnight we often heard, in the intervals 
between jokes and laughter, the hoarse roar of jaguars 
prowling about the jungle in the middle of the praia. 
There were several guitar-players amongst the young 
men, and one most persevering fiddler, so there was 
no lack of music. 
The favourite sport was the Pira-purasseya, or fish- 
dance, one of the original games of the Indians, though 
now probably a little modified. The young men and 
women, mingling together, formed a ring, leaving one of 
their number in the middle, who represented the fish. 
They then all marched round, Indian file, the musicians 
mixed up with the rest, singing a monotonous but 
rather pretty chorus, the words of which were invented 
(under a certain form) by one of the party who acted 
as leader. This finished, all joined hands, and questions 
were put to the one in the middle, asking what kind of 
fish he or she might be. To these the individual has 
to reply. The end of it all is that he makes a rush at 
the ring, and if he succeeds in escaping, the person who 
allowed him to do so has to take his place ; the march 
and chorus then recommence, and so the game goes on 
hour after hour. Tupi was the language mostly used, 
but sometimes Portuguese was sung and spoken. The 
details of the dance were often varied. Instead of the 
names of fishes being called over by the person in the 
ipaiddle, the nanae of some animal, flower, or other object 
