This inhospitable tract of country extends for several hundred miles, and contains in its midst an endless number of pools and lakes tenanted by multitudes of turtles, fishes, alligators, and water serpents.Our destination was a point on this coast situated about twenty miles below Shimuni, and a short distance from the mouth of the Anana, one of the channels just alluded to as connected with the Japura.After travelling for three hours in midstream we steered for the land, and brought to under a steeply-inclined bank of crumbly earth, shaped into a succession of steps or terraces, marking the various halts which the waters of the river make in the course of subsidence.The coast line was nearly straight for many miles, and the bank averaged about thirty feet in height above the present level of the river: at the top rose the unbroken hedge of forest.No one could have divined that pools of water existed on that elevated land.Anarrow level space extended at the foot of the bank.On landing the first business was to get breakfast.While a couple of Indian lads were employed in making the fire, roasting the fish, and boiling the coffee, the rest of the party mounted the bank, and with their long hunting knives commenced cutting a path through the forest; the pool, called the Aningal, being about half a mile distant.After breakfast, a great number of short poles were cut and were laid crosswise on the path, and then three light montarias which we had brought with us were dragged up the bank by lianas, and rolled away to be embarked on the pool.A large net, seventy yards in length, was then disembarked and carried to the place.The work was done very speedily, and when Cardozo and I went to the spot at eleven o'clock, we found some of the older Indians, including Pedro and Daniel, had begun their sport.They were mounted on little stages called moutas, made of poles and cross-pieces of wood secured with lianas, and were shooting the turtles as they came near the surface, with bows and arrows.The Indians seemed to think that netting the animals, as Cardozo proposed doing, was not lawful sport, and wished first to have an hour or two's old-fashioned practice with their weapons.
The pool covered an area of about four or five acres, and was closely hemmed in by the forest, which in picturesque variety and grouping of trees and foliage exceeded almost everything I had yet witnessed.The margins for some distance were swampy, and covered with large tufts of a fine grass called Matupa.These tufts in many places were overrun with ferns, and exterior to them a crowded row of arborescent arums, growing to a height of fifteen or twenty feet, formed a green palisade.Around the whole stood the taller forest trees; palmate-leaved Cecropiae slender Assai palms, thirty feet high, with their thin feathery heads crowning the gently-curving, smooth stems; small fan-leaved palms; and as a background to all these airy shapes, lay the voluminous masses of ordinary forest trees, with garlands, festoons, and streamers of leafy climbers hanging from their branches.The pool was nowhere more than five feet deep, one foot of which was not water, but extremely fine and soft mud.
Cardozo and I spent an hour paddling about.I was astonished at the skill which the Indians display in shooting turtles.They did not wait for their coming to the surface to breathe, but watched for the slight movements in the water, which revealed their presence underneath.These little tracks on the water are called the Siriri; the instant one was perceived an arrow flew from the bow of the nearest man, and never failed to pierce the shell of the submerged animal.When the turtle was very distant, of course the aim had to be taken at a considerable elevation, but the marksmen preferred a longish range, because the arrow then fell more perpendicularly on the shell and entered it more deeply.
The arrow used in turtle shooting has a strong lancet-shaped steel point, fitted into a peg which enters the tip of the shaft.
The peg is secured to the shaft by twine made of the fibres of pineapple leaves, the twine being some thirty or forty yards in length, and neatly wound round the body of the arrow.When the missile enters the shell, the peg drops out, and the pierced animal descends with it towards the bottom, leaving the shaft floating on the surface.This being done, the sportsman paddles in his montaria to the place, and gently draws the animal by the twine, humouring it by giving it the rein when it plunges, until it is brought again near the surface, when he strikes it with a second arrow.With the increased hold given by the two cords he has then no difficulty in landing his game.
