As soon as the eggs have been laid, the Indians, arriving in their
canoes from all directions, with their families, build reed huts on the
banks--some merely driving poles into the sand, from which to swing
their hammocks. The canoes are then drawn up on the beach and
thoroughly washed out, while the whole praia is covered with natives
with the baskets on their backs in which they collect the eggs. The
eggs are then cleansed from the grains of sand adhering to them, and
emptied into the canoes, when they are trodden on by the children, much
in the same way as grapes are mashed for wine-making. The canoes, when
full, are left exposed to the sun's rays, and in a short time a fine
clear oil rises to the surface. It is then skimmed off with shells and
put into large pots, when it is boiled over the fire and becomes
purified. It is next transferred to jars, and is ready for use. It is
finer and clearer than that produced from olives.
Meantime, any stray turtles which have delayed their departure, as
frequently happens, are turned over on their backs. Holes are dug in
the sand near the water, in which the young turtles are kept till
required for eating. When not actually employed in picking up eggs or
catching turtles, the whole population are engaged in feasting off
them--an enormous quantity being thus consumed. The flesh of the
animals is cut up and dressed in the shells, which serve as pots,
without the danger of burning; and it is washed down with copious
draughts of chica.
The female turtles contain an enormous number of eggs, apparently ready
to be laid during a succession of years--from the large ones covered
with a white membrane, down to a confused mass resembling mustard-seeds.
As it requires five thousand to fill a jar of oil, and as many
thousands of jars are collected, it may be conceived what an enormous
number of eggs are deposited every year. Were it not that many turtles
lay in solitary places, which the Indians have not discovered, the
rivers would soon be depopulated. The Indian children watch for the
creatures as soon as they are hatched, and collect great numbers.
Humboldt calculates that nearly a million turtles annually deposit their
eggs on the banks of the Lower Orinoco. In the Amazon, already the
turtles have greatly decreased in numbers; and Bates states that, where
formerly he could buy one for ninepence, he could with difficulty
procure them latterly for eight or nine shillings each. Every house on
the banks has a little pond, called a corral, or pen, in the back-yard,
to hold a stock of large turtle during the wet months, till a fresh
supply can be procured in the dry season.
The tracaja, or smaller kind, which lays its eggs a month earlier than
the larger species, seldom lives, in captivity, beyond a few days.
The natives cook the turtles in various ways. The entrails make a
delicious soup, called _sarapatel_; while the flesh of the breast is
mixed with farina, and roasted in the breast shell over the fire.
Steaks, cooked with fat, make another dish; and large sausages, composed
of the thick-coated stomach, filled with mince-meat, and boiled, are
considered great delicacies. Bates, however, found, that though the
flesh is very tender, palatable, and wholesome, it becomes cloying after
a person has lived on it for some time; and he at length could not bear
the smell, even though suffering from hunger.