Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/286

 narrate, was made (again in company of Senhor Cardozo, with the addition of his housekeeper Senhora Felippa), 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 Shimuní would commence on the 17th of October, and on Catuá sixty miles below Shimuní, on the 25th. We set out on the 16th, and passed on the road, in our well-manned igarité, 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 sandbank; each family having erected a rude temporary shed of poles and palm leaves to protect themselves 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 households, 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