Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
history into the future space of life itself. As such, Echoi demanded an
ethnographic accounting of its shadowy presence, its menace, its pow-
erful allure.
6
It revealed how the past was a domain against which the
limits of modern moral life were created and evoked in contradictory
ways. I thought I was up to the task.
Mining Memories
It was no coincidence that the same two elders from Bolivia who taught
me about
adode
myths and
ujñarone
chants also provided my introduc-
tion to this place. Simijáné told me the first story I heard about
Echoi
:
They say that there was a woman named samá. she went to the south looking for a
place to stay. she found a lake, but it was very small, so she continued. Then samá
arrived at a good spot, which was beautiful and rich. she said, “here I will stay.” she
tried to put her head into a hole, but it was too large to enter. she had to cut it into
many pieces.
Nak
,
nak
, it sounded when she cut her head up. she had been searching
and she found the place of heads. her head belongs there. her head rolled backward
when her body fell, and it created a depression there that is
Echo babi
(Little salt). her
bones made
Echo querui
(Big salt). her cranium is white and that is why salt is white.
her blood dripped onto a rock. The salt sometimes is red like that rock. she called one
Little salt, and she called the other Big salt. Later, the human Beings went there to find
salt, but there wasn't any at all. There was a man named ejeidayabi who made a long
trip to the salt, but he only found mud there. The next year, he came back and it was
still only mud. he was a clan relative of samá and had learned her secret. he spoke the
secret so that the salt will always be there and will never again run out. And to this day,
the salt is still there. This is the secret of salt:
I am the sweet flesh of the earth
I am the sweet flesh of the earth
I am what the people want
I am what the people want
I satisfy the cravings of the people
I satisfy the cravings of the people
I am the sweet flesh of the earth
I am what the people like
I am leaving with her
I am leaving with her
I am looking for a place to live but there is not enough of the world to contain me
I am looking for a place to live but there is not enough of the world to contain me
