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It all started several months ago, when the folk singer, who intended to record Mexican Indian songs, stopped off to visit an archeologist friend who was staying in the city of Chiapas in southern Mexico. While dining at the archeologist's house one evening, Sam met a Frenchman who was going into the Mexican jungles to film the Lacandon Indians -- a dying race of people whose group has remained intact since antiquity. The courageous movie-maker was intrigued by Eskin's recording machine that could be operated solely on batteries. Immediately, the Frenchman invited Eskin and his machine to come along on the expedition. "I only acted coy for about seven seconds," Eskin says, "Before I said 'yes'!" The explorers started on their trip in a small plane from San Cristobal de e las Casas, a town at the edge of the jungle. This village marked the end of paved roads and civilization. Once in the steaming jungle, the adventurers traveled in primitive fashion on the backs of the mules. "It was like being in another world." Eskin says. "We rode along narrow, tortuous paths where you couldn't see more than five feet in front of you. There were swarms of insects everywhere, and all sorts of birds and animals." Machetes were vital pieces of equipment for every member of the safari. The jungle swarmed with reptiles, many of them deadly; anti-poisons were carried, in case anyone was bitten. Tapirs, pumas, jaguars, leopards, monkeys, alligators and crocodiles roamed through the dense growth and swam in the streams that were banked by masses of luxuriant, overhanging foliage. Finally the expedition reached the Lacandon Indians. The men set up headquarters in a flimsy tobacco shed. Hammocks were slung from poles, and food was kept in bags suspended from the ceiling, so that animals couldn't get at it. "From our base we'd go out on mules with our equipment to visit different families," Eskin says. "These people -- and there are only a few hundred of them left -- seem to have lost most of their Mayan culture that was on a par with Greece and Rome 2,000 years ago. They have no political organization, no leaders, and no high priests. Each family makes a clearing in the jungle and sets up a hut of sticks with a thatched roof." The Lacandon Indians are polygamous, some men having as many as six wives in their household. It is a patriarchal society; each man is the boss of his own menage. Women greatly outnumber the men, so that polygamy is almost a necessity. It is customary for a man to buy his wives, and he will have as many as he can afford. A wife costs about 1,000 pesos ($120 in American money), or else a man can give three years of his labor for a bride. All adult married women wear a feathered head-dress that hangs down their backs. This ornament symbolizes their status as mature women. Eskin was surprised to see so few children in the community. Among more vigorous Indians there were swarms of youngsters running all over. Among the Lacandons, families were small, even in units with several wives. Old people seemed to be non-existent. Truly, these people are a dying race, with their high death rate and low birth rate. The men occupy themselves with hunting, fishing and primitive agriculture. They raise corn for the women who pound it into meal for making tortillas. Tobacco is raised for making the thick cigars that everyone smokes. Among these apparently listless people there are no crafts or home industries. Pottery, utensils and cloth for their tunics are acquired by trading with their tobacco. "In the last forty years, outsiders have come in to get mahogany and chicle out of the jungle," Eskin says. "But these people have no interest in working. They'll always refuse a job." This strange tribe doesn't have any domestic animals, no do they have any means of transportation. They go through the jungle on foot, and Eskin says, they can travel faster than a mule. Certain vestigial religious rites are still practiced by the Lacandon. The men and women play flutes and sing songs that are African in nature. Music proved to be an effective means of gaining the confidence of these simple, reserved people. Sam's melodic strumming on his guitar was a great attraction to the shy Indians, and soon they began to make their own crude guitars out of gourds. They were also intrigued by the cameras and recording machines of the film company, and they'd walk right up and peer into the mysterious devices without any fear. "These people don't look like Indians at all," Eskin says. "They're beautiful people, not very talk, with copper-colored skins and long black hair. They look like Egyptians to me." Archeologists have long argued over the origin of the Mayans. Some savants claim that they came from China across the Bering Straits, between 10,000 and 25,000 years ago. Now these people are the last of the true Mayans, and when they die out -- as they undoubtedly will -- nothing will be left of the fabulous Mayan culture, except some ruins in the jungle. |