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with worry, and the corners of her mouth twitched. Our eyes locked
for a moment, and her sorrow flowed into me: I felt we were one.
I took the hem of my frock and wet it in the river. I returned to
clean her face. Tamanoa was staring at the river, transfixed. While I
cleaned her face, she told us what had happened.
She had been betrothed to Baruta since before she was born. As
she blossomed into a woman, he sought to realize the marriage, but
she pleaded with her parents to let her stay with them longer. A
couple of years elapsed and Baruta grew impatient.
She didn’t live in Chacao’s village after all. It turned out she was a
niece of Paramaconi, the war chief cacique of the valley of the
Toromaynas where we now stood. Baruta was the son of
Guacaipuro, war chief of the entire north-central region of the
province of Venezuela.
Tamanoa said there was some danger of flies depositing their
eggs in Apacuana’s cut. He insisted she let him cover it with chewed
tobacco leaves. She complied. We resumed walking at an easy pace.
She explained she had come to visit her friend, Yulema, before the
rains started. Baruta had arrived unexpectedly, bringing news from
his father to Paramaconi, and so he had descended farther into the
valley looking for her.
Apacuana had enlisted her friend Yulema to help, but Yulema did
so reluctantly. Baruta was not pleased by Apacuana’s absences.
Possibly Yalema had told Baruta about me. Wehad to stop talking in
order to ford the river.
We took time to refresh ourselves in its waters. As she bathed,
Apacuana was so beautiful that even Tamanoa’s eyes followed her
helplessly. Most of the time he seemed unmoved by her charms,
apparently inured to exposed breasts, long legs, glimpses of loins
and innocent displays of coquetry. Indeed, he went so far as to shoo
her away whenever she listened to our language lessons. She
appeared as eager to learn my language as I was to learn hers.
Perhaps Tamanoa valued his role as translator and did not wish to
have any competition.
Mayanaam
vequinox
Manolis 