Raucous Summer - Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life - page 4

often Paulo would stop and shout. 'Look at that water, look at those
trees: so beautiful, isn't that beautiful?' I would stand and gaze for a
moment, and see trees weighed down above clear water by moss and
epiphytes, damselflies pausing in spots of light.
We ran on, following Barbara's footprints, slipping on the clay
path. By midday we started to climb steeply; my breath came as if
drawn through a sheet. Soon I saw light ahead of us: we were reach-
ing the top of a mountain. From its crest we saw women on the far
side of the valley, dressed only in loincloths, moving through banana
groves, carrying baskets of fruit. Hills stepped away into silence, for-
ested, undisturbed. We remained hidden among the trees for a few
minutes, then we walked down to the lap of the valley and up into the
gardens, calling out in Portuguese that we were friends. They stood
still and watched us come close. I put out my hands and they shook
them with shy grins.
'White woman,' I said. 'Have you seen the white woman?' I mimed
Barbara's height and long hair.
They laughed and pointed up the slope behind them, into the forest.
We began to run again, over the mountain and down into the next
valley. We stumbled, exhausted, along the valley floor, tripping on
roots, blundering into trees. We turned a corner of the path and
stopped.
In the glade beside a stream a crowd of people sat or knelt, the
honey of their skins cooled by the stained-glass light of the forest. The
women wore feathers in their ears, the painted spots and stripes of
wildcats; and jaguar's whiskers: stems of dried grass piercing their
noses and cheeks. In the middle of the circle, radiant as a flower in the
green dark of the forest, was Barbara.
She turned and smiled. 'Glad you could make it.'
The young Yanomami people led us along the path until we came
to their malocas : round communal houses thatched almost to the
ground with palm leaves. I took off my shirt and shoes - everyone
else was nearly naked - and sat down. Children clustered around me,
grinning and giggling, hiding their faces when I looked at them. They
tugged at the hairs in my armpits: the Yanomami do not possess them.
Someone gave me a plug of green leaves, and when I pushed it under
my lip and sucked I forgot that I was hungry.