24-02-2019, 10:55 AM
Some of the men butchered the snake and the spent a good part of the afternoon repairing their boats and fashioning their hunting spears. Gerald joined several others in search of brush and wood for the night's campfires. Some where placed near the huts, but a one particularly large pile of brush was placed in the clearing where the lovemaking had taken place. Pedro told them that the ceremony adopting them into the tribe would take place there, out of earshot and eyeshot of the huts.
Aiko helped the women prepare the evening's feast.
When the clan's chores were completed, the men and women separated. Pedro explained to Aiko and Gerald that every man and women would don ceremonial paint in preparation for the three's initiation into the clan. Only the elders and the two women who were still having their periods returned to the huts taking the children with them. They would tend the campfires while the festivities took place.
As dusk approached, the feast began. Everyone, men, women and children partook of the food hunted by the men and gathered by the women. Aiko and Gerald restricted themselves to eating snake meat because it was thoroughly cooked and therefore presumably safe to eat.
After about an hour later, the children and the four adults assigned to care for them and to tend the campfires near the huts followed the path through the forest back to the huts, leaving eight women and nine men behind including the three to be initiated into the clan.
After a few more minutes the ceremony began in earnest. Some of the men began to dance and chant. Each threw bark into the bonfire. Then the women joined them, also throwing bark into the bonfire. Aiko and Gerald assumed that tossing bark into the bonfire had some ritualistic significance.
Later, they noticed that the burning bark gave off an aroma thaty was pleasant but otherwise indefinable and unidentifiable. Obviously these indigenous people knew what they were doing. Gerald thought it might be some sort of offering to a local deity. He doubted that its purpose was to keep the mosquitoes at bay. The smoke and heat from the bonfire was more than adequate for that task even without a coating of freshly crushed arrieras ants rubbed into their skin.
Aiko and Gerald saw the dancers gesture to them in an obvious invitation to join them. They got up. At first they watched the indigenous dancers in an attempt to understand the rhythm and the sequence of the dance steps. Once they got the hang of them though, they danced around with their soon-to-be clan mates.
After a while, Gerald felt a bit strange, almost as if he were on some kind of high, and he was feeling hornier. Gerald suspected that the burning bark had both a hallucinogenic and aphrodisiac qualities.
At one point as they circled the bonfire, Gerald found Aiko beside him. "I think the bark they're throwing in the fire is giving me a horny high," he told her.
"Yeah, me too" she said, "and we might more sensitive to it because we're not used it. I've never, ever taken an drug unless it is prescribed by a doctor or a dentist."
"Same here," Gerald said, 'but it may be seen as a grave insult to our hosts if we were to leave."
"I know. We can't leave," she agreed.
Then they lost track of each other. They continued to dance and breath in the acrid odour of the bark burning in the bonfire. Time and space seemed to twist. Otherwise their senses remained clear but also more acute.
Time seemed to both flow and stand still. The rhythmic dancing and chanting continued as men and women circled the bonfire.
After a while, Gerald realized there were fewer dancers around. The chanting was not as loud as it was earlier. Something was happening.
* * *
Aiko helped the women prepare the evening's feast.
When the clan's chores were completed, the men and women separated. Pedro explained to Aiko and Gerald that every man and women would don ceremonial paint in preparation for the three's initiation into the clan. Only the elders and the two women who were still having their periods returned to the huts taking the children with them. They would tend the campfires while the festivities took place.
As dusk approached, the feast began. Everyone, men, women and children partook of the food hunted by the men and gathered by the women. Aiko and Gerald restricted themselves to eating snake meat because it was thoroughly cooked and therefore presumably safe to eat.
After about an hour later, the children and the four adults assigned to care for them and to tend the campfires near the huts followed the path through the forest back to the huts, leaving eight women and nine men behind including the three to be initiated into the clan.
After a few more minutes the ceremony began in earnest. Some of the men began to dance and chant. Each threw bark into the bonfire. Then the women joined them, also throwing bark into the bonfire. Aiko and Gerald assumed that tossing bark into the bonfire had some ritualistic significance.
Later, they noticed that the burning bark gave off an aroma thaty was pleasant but otherwise indefinable and unidentifiable. Obviously these indigenous people knew what they were doing. Gerald thought it might be some sort of offering to a local deity. He doubted that its purpose was to keep the mosquitoes at bay. The smoke and heat from the bonfire was more than adequate for that task even without a coating of freshly crushed arrieras ants rubbed into their skin.
Aiko and Gerald saw the dancers gesture to them in an obvious invitation to join them. They got up. At first they watched the indigenous dancers in an attempt to understand the rhythm and the sequence of the dance steps. Once they got the hang of them though, they danced around with their soon-to-be clan mates.
After a while, Gerald felt a bit strange, almost as if he were on some kind of high, and he was feeling hornier. Gerald suspected that the burning bark had both a hallucinogenic and aphrodisiac qualities.
At one point as they circled the bonfire, Gerald found Aiko beside him. "I think the bark they're throwing in the fire is giving me a horny high," he told her.
"Yeah, me too" she said, "and we might more sensitive to it because we're not used it. I've never, ever taken an drug unless it is prescribed by a doctor or a dentist."
"Same here," Gerald said, 'but it may be seen as a grave insult to our hosts if we were to leave."
"I know. We can't leave," she agreed.
Then they lost track of each other. They continued to dance and breath in the acrid odour of the bark burning in the bonfire. Time and space seemed to twist. Otherwise their senses remained clear but also more acute.
Time seemed to both flow and stand still. The rhythmic dancing and chanting continued as men and women circled the bonfire.
After a while, Gerald realized there were fewer dancers around. The chanting was not as loud as it was earlier. Something was happening.
* * *
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