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Updated: April 30, 2025
We found among the Indians assembled at Pararuma some white men, who had come from Angostura to purchase the tortoise-butter. After having wearied us for a long time with their complaints of the bad harvest, and the mischief done by the tigers among the turtles, at the time of laying their eggs, they conducted us beneath an ajoupa, that rose in the centre of the Indian camp.
These creatures are annually robbed of their eggs in millions. They have many enemies, but man is the chief. When a turtle hatching-place is discovered, the Indians assemble, and as soon as all the eggs have been deposited, they uncover and collect them. They eat them but that is not the principal use to which they are put. It is for the making of oil, or "tortoise-butter," they are collected.
These creatures are annually robbed of their eggs in millions. They have many enemies, but man is the chief. When a turtle hatching place is discovered, the Indians assemble, and as soon as all the eggs have been deposited, they uncover and collect them. They eat them but that is not the principal use to which they are put. It is for the making of oil, or "tortoise-butter," they are collected.
Perhaps in the different rivers of South America more than an hundred millions of them are deposited every year! In the Orinoco alone, in three principal hatching places, it has been calculated that at least thirty three millions are annually destroyed for the making of tortoise-butter!
In the Orinoco alone, in three principal hatching-places it has been calculated that at least thirty-three millions are annually destroyed for the making of tortoise-butter! Fancy, then, one hundred millions of animals, each of which grows to the weight of fifty or sixty pounds, being produced every year, and then the increase in production which these would make if left to themselves!
The eggs are thrown into a large trough or canoe, where they are broken up with a wooden spade and stirred about for awhile. They then remain exposed to the sun, until the oily part collects on the surface, which is then skimmed off and well boiled. The "tortoise-butter" is now made, and after being poured into earthen jars or bottles, it is ready for market.
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