ON THE EVENING of the 5th of July, the atmosphere had been oppressive since the morning and threatened approaching storms. Large bats of ruddy color skimmed with their huge wings the current of the Amazon. Among them could be distinguished1 the “perros voladors,” somber2 brown above and light-colored beneath, for which Minha, and particularly the young mulatto, felt an instinctive3 aversion.
These were, in fact, the horrible vampires4 which suck the blood of the cattle, and even attack man if he is imprudent enough to sleep out in the fields.
“Oh, the dreadful creatures!” cried Lina, hiding her eyes; “they fill me with horror!”
“And they are really formidable,” added Minha; “are they not, Manoel?”
“To be sure — very formidable,” answered he. “These vampires have a particular instinct which leads them to bleed you in the places where the blood most easily comes, and principally behind the ear. During the operation the continue to move their wings, and cause an agreeable freshness which renders the sleep of the sleeper6 more profound. They tell of people, unconsciously submitted to this hemorrhage for many hours, who have never awoke!”
“Talk no more of things like that, Manoel,” said Yaquita, “or neither Minha nor Lina will dare sleep to-night.”
“Never fear!” replied Manoel; “if necessary we will watch over them as they sleep.”
“Silence!” said Benito.
“What is the matter?” asked Manoel.
“Do you not hear a very curious noise on that side?” continued Benito, pointing to the right bank.
“Certainly,” answered Yaquita.
“What causes the noise?” asked Minha. “One would think it was shingle7 rolling on the beach of the islands.”
“Good! I know what it is,” answered Benito. “Tomorrow, at daybreak, there will be a rare treat for those who like fresh turtle eggs and little turtles!”
He was not deceived; the noise was produced by innumerable chelonians of all sizes, who were attracted to the islands to lay their eggs.
It is in the sand of the beach that these amphibians8 choose the most convenient places to deposit their eggs. The operation commences with sunset and finishes with the dawn.
At this moment the chief turtle had left the bed of the river to reconnoiter for a favorable spot; the others, collected in thousands, were soon after occupied in digging with their hind5 paddles a trench9 six hundred feet long, a dozen wide, and six deep. After laying their eggs they cover them with a bed of sand, which they beat down with their carapaces10 as if they were rammers.
This egg-laying operation is a grand affair for the riverine Indians of the Amazon and its tributaries11. They watch for the arrival of the chelonians, and proceed to the extraction of the eggs to the sound of the drum; and the harvest is divided into three parts — one to the watchers, another to the Indians, a third to the state, represented by the captains of the shore, who, in their capacity of police, have to superintend the collection of the dues. To certain beaches which the decrease of the waters has left uncovered, and which have the privilege of attracting the greater number of turtles, there has been given the name of “royal beaches.” When the harvest is gathered it is a holiday for the Indians, who give themselves up to games, dancing, and drinking; and it is also a holiday for the alligators12 of the river, who hold high revelry on the remains13 of the amphibians.
Turtles, or turtle eggs, are an object of very considerable trade throughout the Amazonian basin. It is these chelonians whom they “turn”— that is to say, put on their backs — when they come from laying their eggs, and whom they preserve alive, keeping them in palisaded pools like fish-pools, or attaching them to a stake by a cord just long enough to allow them to go and come on the land or under the water. In this way they always have the meat of these animals fresh.
They proceed differently with the little turtles which are just hatched. There is no need to pack them or tie them up. Their shell is still soft, their flesh extremely tender, and after they have cooked them they eat them just like oysters14. In this form large quantities are consumed.
However, this is not the most general use to which the chelonian eggs are put in the provinces of Amazones and Para. The manufacture of “manteigna de tartaruga,” or turtle butter, which will bear comparison with the best products of Normandy or Brittany, does not take less every year that from two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions of eggs. But the turtles are innumerable all along the river, and they deposit their eggs on the sands of the beach in incalculable quantities. However, on account of the destruction caused not only by the natives, but by the water-fowl from the side, the urubus in the air, and the alligators in the river, their number has been so diminished that for every little turtle a Brazilian pataque, or about a franc, has to be paid.
On the morrow, at daybreak, Benito, Fragoso, and a few Indians took a pirogue and landed on the beach of one of the large islands which they had passed during the night. It was not necessary for the jangada to halt. They knew they could catch her up.
On the shore they saw the little hillocks which indicated the places where, that very night, each packet of eggs had been deposited in the trench in groups of from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and ninety. These there was no wish to get out. But an earlier laying had taken place two months before, the eggs had hatched under the action of the heat stored in the sand, and already several thousands of little turtles were running about the beach.
The hunters were therefore in luck. The pirogue was filled with these interesting amphibians, and they arrived just in time for breakfast. The booty was divided between the passengers and crew of the jangada, and if any lasted till the evening it did not last any longer.
In the morning of the 7th of July they were before San Jose de Matura, a town situated15 near a small river filled up with long grass, and on the borders of which a legend says that Indians with tails once existed.
In the morning of the 8th of July they caught sight of the village of San Antonio, two or three little houses lost in the trees at the mouth of the I?a, or Putumayo, which is about nine hundred meters wide.
The Putumayo is one of the most important affluents16 of the Amazon. Here in the sixteenth century missions were founded by the Spaniards, which were afterward17 destroyed by the Portuguese18, and not a trace of them now remains.
Representatives of different tribes of Indians are found in the neighborhood, which are easily recognizable by the differences in their tattoo19 marks.
The I?a is a body of water coming from the east of the Pasto Mountains to the northeast of Quito, through the finest forests of wild cacao-trees. Navigable for a distance of a hundred and forty leagues for steamers of not greater draught20 than six feet, it may one day become one of the chief waterways in the west of America.
The bad weather was at last met with. It did not show itself in continual rains, but in frequent storms. These could not hinder the progress of the raft, which offered little resistance to the wind. Its great length rendered it almost insensible to the swell21 of the Amazon, but during the torrential showers the Garral family had to keep indoors. They had to occupy profitably these hours of leisure. They chatted together, communicated their observations, and their tongues were seldom idle.
It was under these circumstances that little by little Torres had begun to take a more active part in the conversation. The details of his many voyages throughout the whole north of Brazil afforded him numerous subjects to talk about. The man had certainly seen a great deal, but his observations were those of a skeptic22, and he often shocked the straightforward23 people who were listening to him. IT should be said that he showed himself much impressed toward Minha. But these attentions, although they were displeasing24 to Manoel, were not sufficiently25 marked for him to interfere26. On the other hand, Minha felt for him an instinctive repulsion which she was at no pains to conceal27.
On the 5th of July the mouth of the Tunantins appeared on the left bank, forming an estuary28 of some four hundred feet across, in which it pours its blackish waters, coming from the west-northwest, after having watered the territories of the Cacena Indians. At this spot the Amazon appears under a truly grandiose29 aspect, but its course is more than ever encumbered30 with islands and islets. It required all the address of the pilot to steer31 through the archipelago, going from one bank to another, avoiding the shallows, shirking the eddies32, and maintaining the advance.
They might have taken the Ahuaty Parana, a sort of natural canal, which goes off a little below the mouth of the Tunantins, and re-enters the principal stream a hundred an twenty miles further on by the Rio Japura; but if the larger portion of this measures a hundred and fifty feet across, the narrowest is only sixty feet, and the raft would there have met with a difficulty.
On the 13th of July, after having touched at the island of Capuro, passed the mouth of the Jutahy, which, coming from the east-southeast, brings in its black waters by a mouth five hundred feet wide, and admired the legions of monkeys, sulphur-white in color, with cinnabar-red faces, who are insatiable lovers of the nuts produced by the palm-trees from which the river derives33 its name, the travelers arrived on the 18th of July before the little village of Fonteboa.
At this place the jangada halted for twelve hours, so as to give a rest to the crew.
Fonteboa, like most of the mission villages of the Amazon, has not escaped the capricious fate which, during a lengthened34 period, moves them about from one place to the other. Probably the hamlet has now finished with its nomadic35 existence, and has definitely become stationary36. So much the better; for it is a charming place, with its thirty houses covered with foliage37, and its church dedicated38 to Notre Dame39 de Guadaloupe, the Black Virgin40 of Mexico. Fonteboa has one thousand inhabitants, drawn41 from the Indians on both banks, who rear numerous cattle in the fields in the neighborhood. These occupations do not end here, for they are intrepid42 hunters, or, if they prefer it, intrepid fishers for the manatee43.
On the morning of their arrival the young fellows assisted at a very interesting expedition of this nature. Two of these herbivorous cetaceans had just been signaled in the black waters of the Cayaratu, which comes in at Fonteboa. Six brown points were seen moving along the surface, and these were the two pointed44 snouts and four pinions45 of the lamantins.
Inexperienced fishermen would at first have taken these moving points for floating wreckage46, but the natives of Fonteboa were not to be so deceived. Besides, very soon loud blowings indicated that the spouting47 animals were vigorously ejecting the air which had become useless for their breathing purposes.
Two ubas, each carrying three fishermen, set off from the bank and approached the manatees48, who soon took flight. The black points at first traced a long furrow49 on the top of the water, and then disappeared for a time.
The fishermen continued their cautious advance. One of them, armed with a very primitive50 harpoon51 — a long nail at the end of a stick — kept himself in the bow of the boat, while the other two noiselessly paddled on. They waited till the necessity of breathing would bring the manatees up again. In ten minutes or thereabouts the animals would certainly appear in a circle more or less confined.
In fact, this time had scarcely elapsed before the black points emerged at a little distance, and two jets of air mingled52 with vapor53 were noiselessly shot forth54.
The ubas approached, the harpoons55 were thrown at the same instant; one missed its mark, but the other struck one of the cetaceans near his tail.
It was only necessary to stun56 the animal, who rarely defends himself when touched by the iron of the harpoon. In a few pulls the cord brought him alongside the uba, and he was towed to the beach at the foot of the village.
It was not a manatee of any size, for it only measured about three feet long. These poor cetaceans have been so hunted that they have become very rare in the Amazon and its affluents, and so little time is left them to grow that the giants of the species do not now exceed seven feet. What are these, after manatees twelve and fifteen feet long, which still abound57 in the rivers and lakes of Africa?
But it would be difficult to hinder their destruction. The flesh of the manatee is excellent, superior even to that of pork, and the oil furnished by its lard, which is three inches thick, is a product of great value. When the meat is smoke-dried it keeps for a long time, and is capital food. If to this is added that the animal is easily caught, it is not to be wondered at that the species is on its way to complete destruction.
On the 19th of July, at sunrise, the jangada left Fonteboa, and entered between the two completely deserted58 banks of the river, and breasted some islands shaded with the grand forests of cacao-trees. The sky was heavily charged with electric cumuli, warning them of renewed storms.
The Rio Jurua, coming from the southwest, soon joins the river on the left. A vessel59 can go up it into Peru without encountering insurmountable obstacles among its white waters, which are fed by a great number of petty affluents.
“It is perhaps in these parts,” said Manoel, “that we ought to look for those female warriors60 who so much astonished Orellana. But we ought to say that, like their predecessors61, they do nor form separate tribes; they are simply the wives who accompany their husbands to the fight, and who, among the Juruas, have a great reputation for bravery.”
The jangada continued to descend62; but what a labyrinth63 the Amazon now appeared! The Rio Japura, whose mouth was forty-eight miles on ahead, and which is one of its largest tributaries, runs almost parallel with the river.
Between them were canals, iguarapes, lagoons64, temporary lakes, an inextricable network which renders the hydrography of this country so difficult.
But if Araujo had no map to guide him, his experience served him more surely, and it was wonderful to see him unraveling the chaos65, without ever turning aside from the main river.
In fact, he did so well that on the 25th of July, in the afternoon, after having passed before the village of Parani-Tapera, the raft was anchored at the entrance of the Lake of Ego66, or Teffe, which it was useless to enter, for they would not have been able to get out of it again into the Amazon.
But the town of Ega is of some importance; it was worthy67 of a halt to visit it. It was arranged, therefore, that the jangada should remain on this spot till the 27th of July, and that on the morrow the large pirogue should take the whole family to Ega. This would give a rest, which was deservedly due to the hard-working crew of the raft.
The night passed at the moorings near a slightly rising shore, and nothing disturbed the quiet. A little sheet-lightning was observable on the horizon, but it came from a distant storm which did not reach the entrance to the lake.
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1
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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vampires
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| n.吸血鬼( vampire的名词复数 )；吸血蝠；高利贷者；（舞台上的）活板门 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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amphibians
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| 两栖动物( amphibian的名词复数 )； 水陆两用车； 水旱两生植物； 水陆两用飞行器 | |
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trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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carapaces
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| n.（龟、蟹等的）硬壳( carapace的名词复数 ) | |
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tributaries
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| n. 支流 | |
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alligators
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| n.短吻鳄( alligator的名词复数 ) | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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oysters
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| 牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 ) | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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affluents
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| n.富裕的，富足的( affluent的名词复数 ) | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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tattoo
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| n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于 | |
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draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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skeptic
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| n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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displeasing
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| 不愉快的，令人发火的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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estuary
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| n.河口，江口 | |
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grandiose
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| adj.宏伟的，宏大的，堂皇的，铺张的 | |
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encumbered
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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eddies
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| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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nomadic
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| adj.流浪的；游牧的 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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manatee
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| n.海牛 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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pinions
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| v.抓住[捆住]（双臂）( pinion的第三人称单数 ) | |
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wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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spouting
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| n.水落管系统v.（指液体）喷出( spout的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地讲；喋喋不休地说；喷水 | |
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manatees
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| n.海牛（水生哺乳动物，体宽扁，尾圆，有鳃状肢）( manatee的名词复数 ) | |
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furrow
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| n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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harpoon
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| n.鱼叉；vt.用鱼叉叉，用鱼叉捕获 | |
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52
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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harpoons
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| n.鱼镖，鱼叉( harpoon的名词复数 )v.鱼镖，鱼叉( harpoon的第三人称单数 ) | |
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56
stun
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| vt.打昏，使昏迷，使震惊，使惊叹 | |
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abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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64
lagoons
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| n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 )；潟湖；（大湖或江河附近的）小而浅的淡水湖；温泉形成的池塘 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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ego
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| n.自我，自己，自尊 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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