Demarcation Diaries
11 September 2001
Last night I had a long chat with Vabishi and Yabishi of the
Deni and Ian, Marcio, Jan and Tim. Vabishi wanted to know how
to count in our languages so we counted to ten in German, Swedish,
English, French, Portuguese and Deni.
Well, the Deni only count to seven since anything more is simply
'many'. In an odd way, that seems to make sense around here. After
that the discussion switched to dangerous animals. When I asked
Vabishi how close you could safely get to a Jacare (alligator),
he said 'Don't get close at all. They are very, very fast. They
hit you with their tail and bite you'.
He also said that he once ended up close to a Jacare on a beach
and he tried to hit it with a stick over the head. The Jacare
caught the stick in mid-air with its mouth. Marcio asked what
he did then and Vabishi said 'I ran'.
When Ian asked what the most dangerous animal in the jungle is,
he said the squeezing snakes (Anacondas) and then other snakes.
Tim asked what you could do if you were alone in the forest and
got bitten by a snake. Vabishi said 'If you are alone and get
caught by an Anaconda, you die. If you are alone and get bitten
by a snake, you also die. The only thing to do is to yell and
if the others find you they can take you to the shaman who can
sometimes cure snakebites. But most die.' Straightforward
people, the Deni.
The Deni tell vivid stories and illustrate their tales with signs
and touching. They also laugh a lot and seem to view the world
in a very positive light. They obviously know a lot about the
environment they live in and I am very impressed by the depth
of their knowledge in the behaviours and habits of different animals.
After the chat ended I was adjusting my hammock when Vabishi
came by and pulled at my arm. He talked a lot and pointed around
him while holding up his hammock. I understood that somebody had
taken his spot on the crowded deck and now there was no place
for him to sleep. We sorted it out and I felt that the ice had
been broken by that evening's chat.
It's the first time one of the Deni approached me. Well, unless
you count the many times when they have laughed their butts off
at all the weird gringo things that I do.
The next day I was talking to a few Deni and Tim on the upper
deck when I noticed some blood on my shirt. I started to remove
it to check and found that I had scratched some of my numerous
bug bites too much.
As the blood was discovered the four Deni immediately gathered
around me and tore at my shirt to check the damage on my arm.
When they saw my impressive bug bite collection one of them pinched
my skin and then his own and laughed. I could only agree that
compared to them, we gringos really are thin skinned.
Steve
Find out about the different
volunteers on the demarcation project.
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