| Show queens llor horses ses some Som years eyears ago said a friend who was a famous traveler and with whom I 1 was exchanging turtle experiences perien ces S 1 I found myself up tip the amazon so far that I 1 imagine I 1 was the only really white man in the count country the natives and halt half bred ryca 0 hold bold undisputed sion eion I 1 wa 1 lye well 11 received everywhere tit alie 0 pe people 0 tie being extremely hospital WO lie and an among the tha curious things that I 1 noticed was that thai almost every family kept turtles just ns we WB do pigs in other words attached to nearly every little house was a pen or corral in which one or more turtles were confined as the family meat meat a apply and killed as occasion required the turtles were extremely large some weighing two hundred end and fifty P pound 0 sand wore were three feet in length a and d proportionately stout and bulky balki 1 found that they formed one 0 ot the most moat important articles of diet in the country and many of the nat natives ive earned a living by catchi catching ng and sell WO ing them to the richer people ll 11 my first glimpse at these theao huge tu turtles r was at a hut but where I 1 observed a child sitting ra I 1 B a bath tub made of the shell abet of one eno and this led to my iny becoming acquainted with the originals tor for my lost host observing my interest in the animals told me ime that a re regularly cearly organized hunt was to 0 take p place ace in a few days and that his big men were going to invite me to loin in 1 them on the morning of the r hunt 1 we wont to a little settle 1 bont five miles up tahe the river and there waited for tho the entire party the bombera bere of which were arriving every 6 y 0 ry minute in their canoes in fours and lives having some time to wait ident I 1 went ashore and strolled abou tand at one of the tha houses I 1 found list the tha turtles in their usefulness were not restricted to food but were uti utilized lize a by tho the native eh ildren as latora balor hearing a shouting in in one of t the be corrals I 1 looked over the tha fence a and d there were two little ure urchins biris each mounted on a large turtle lina and ov evidently racing as each rider sat astride of the shell shall and with a piece of bamboo split at ala end urged the phlegmatic steeds along at a pace which might have bavo been a mile a week as the turtles aroused at the noise of the blow would scramble ahead a i foot for it certainly could not be felt but the moment their heads protruded far enough to seo the diminutive rider tb they a would take alarm draw in neck dock tail and feet and stop suddenly to recover courage and repeat the maneuver a 4 moment later the riders varying var ying the performance by standing upon tho the backs of their steeds an and d friskey frisking about like circus riders 0 T 7 adm den in |
