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An unexpected swift rain comes to splatter the dry sunstricken earth and relieving the intensity of the afternoon heat. The 'Tushua' or chief, Lorival, invites us to stay within the shabono so that we might be able to watch the dancing and ceremonies that are soon to be taking place. People from the neighboring Juricaba and Tootootobi villages, some three to eight days walk from here, are soon to arrive. We hasten back through the forest toward the post to gather our belongings to transfer them to the shabono to be in time for the coming evenings events. By the time we return, dusk is settling in and the natural 'stage' setting provided by the open center of the shabono is darkening. Children flit in and out of its great circle involved in the pursuit of their endless games. The fires are glowing brighter now. Monkey meat is boiling in pots alongside flat metal trays of toasting cassava bread while the people chatter away to the accompaniment of barking dogs.
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The typical living arrangements nside of a shabono.
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All are waiting for the dancing to begin and after a time it commences and continues as we collapse into our hammocks from the days exertions. At two o' clock in the morning, I rise to find voices rising in sing song chants as shadowy bodies leap in and out of the darkness in an erratic but energetic ceremony. After a time, the men circle the inner circumferance of the shabono in loose formation. The women bide their time occasionally tending the pots of slowly cooking food. Their dancing will come later. I fall into a light sleep, my dreams intermingling with the resonance of chanting dancers rising and falling , their writhing bodies in dark processions drifting through my consciousness.
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Men imbibing ebene. For the SHOCKWAVE VERSION. PUSH HERE!
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Night once again slips into day. I have slept well despite the constant noise of a world of constant activity that does not seems to distinguish day from night. This world seems to be beyond any clear cut division in terms of time of day. Decca tells me that the women were too tired to dance the previous night but will do so today. A small group of men are gathering to imbibe some ebene breaking into pairs with one loading the powdered ebene into the end of a hollow shoot of bamboo. The drug is then propelled through the tube, which has been inserted into one of the nostrils of the other man, and a single rapid exhalation of a deeply held breath from the first creates enough compression to drive a great puff of ebene into the sinus cavity of the recipient and then out the other nostril. The cycle of loading the 'pipe' and blasting the drug into each others nostrils continues until great stalactites of ebene and mucuous hang from each of their noses. The men become more wild in their gestures, chanting, yelping, stamping and uttering animal sounds, their painted faces become utterly transformed as they swirl and streak past in unrestrained movement.