Mud-Walled Jerusalem, Mud-Walled Troy - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 62

bulk of the forces. Bombachas , the loose pantaloons that were the hallmark of the
gaúcho , were as much in evidence as military uniforms.
Canudos itself, said da Cunha, “was, appropriately enough, surrounded by a girdle
of mountains. It was a parenthesis, a hiatus. It was a vacuum. It did not exist. Having
crossed that cordon of mountains, no one sinned anymore. An astounding miracle was
accomplished, and time was turned back for a number of centuries. As one came down
the slopes and caught sight of that enormous bandits' den that was huddled there, he
might imagine that some obscure and bloody drama from the Stone Age was taking
place. The actors on one side and the other bore on their countenances the indelible im-
print of many races.” 4
It had taken months to dig in, with ambushes and epidemics making things worse.
Tenuous supply lines and constant harassment kept rations short. The troops at the front,
under the command of General Artur Oscar, were famished, and the drought-plagued
land mostly provided only pestilent waters. A smallpox epidemic raged among the Re-
publican forces. As da Cunha put it “One thousand mules were worth ten thousand her-
oes.”Thegovernmentforceswererepeatedlyenticedintotrapsthatcapturedentirecom-
panies, as well ruses that picked off individual desperate soldiers. One lure was a jagun-
ço withaneckbelljustlikethatofdomesticgoats,usedsotheanimalscouldbefoundin
the outback. Ravenous troops hungry for roasted kid set out in hunt of this enticing din-
ner, only to discover that they were in fact the prey, and so met their end. The narrative
of Os Sertões is alive with such sertanejo ingenuity, so clever and lethal.
Da Cunha was quite ill during his entire stay but relied on military doctors and avidly
interviewed anyone back from the front lines, prisoners of war as well as hapless chil-
dren who ended up in the crossfire. He himself would adopt a little jagunçinho and take
himbacktohishome. 5 TheCanudosregionhardlylackedfororphans,orforthatmatter,
child warriors.
Da Cunha wrote the two armies into reflections of each other. The army tents had
been quickly covered by fronds of local vegetation and took on the primitive aspect of
Canudos itself, like something shaken out of the earth. The military forces, the “legal”
forces, and the rebels were buying food from each other, exchanging jokes, living in the
same sort of hovels, dying of the same diseases, thirsting, all in close proximity.
The siege, as da Cunha describes it, initially took on a comradely form, with men in
thefrontlinescallingsomenameattheCanudosrubble,andgettingaresponse.Anami-
able conversation would ensue—about families, conditions, and the like. Longing back-
land songs would be sung. Obscene jokes were told to the hilarious enjoyment of those
on both sides. When a divergence in opinion occurred, “insults couched in a forceful
argot” would be punctuated with bullets. But “the rebel settlement little by little suc-