God of Wood, Stone, and Piranha Teeth (The Story of the God of Takiki)

One story never stated in my previous blog posts that took place late one night toward the end of my first stay in Natal is one that was considered widely entertaining upon my return to Boston. Because of this fact, and the fact I am sitting on a plane waiting for my battery to die on my laptop, I thought I would share with you the story of William and the god of Takiki.

I was lying on my two stacked mattresses one night in Brazil, as William laid reading in the bed next to me. Across from us on the wall was William’s hand carved blowgun that he had purchased during one of the first few days in the country. As I read a proverb out loud to him, a custom that took place between me and him on Saturday nights during my three week tenure in Natal, he looked over at me and said “Alex, have you noticed that we have been having all sorts of problems with the pool, and with the horses and with strange insect invasions ever since I turned the god of Takiki up-side-down.”

I looked over at him with inquiry, and finally spoke the question that was very clear from the expression my eyes were giving the 8 year old, “William, what are you talking about?” He motioned toward his blowgun that was grinning at us with a wicked smile that only razor sharp fish teeth could express.

“The god of Takiki…that’s what my blow gun is. Ever since it fell down and I put it back up-side-down all these weird things have been happening.” I wasn’t sure what to think at this point. Curious on how much Portuguese William had picked up on, and what these Planalto neighborhood kids were telling him I pushed the topic further.

“How do you know that’s the god of Takiki?”

“It’s in my Guide to Brazil book,” he answered. He reached under his bed and picked up a giant guide that looked like it was from the Brazilian equivalent of AAA. “Do you want to see?” I nodded yes, as he began flipping pages of the large magazine. “I read about him last night in the history section.” Glancing over I saw that there was in fact a history section. Had he actually learned of some ancient pagan tribal god that his blow gun had been modeled after? If so…what do we do with it now? These were the questioned I pondered as the minutes passed and the young boy turned page by page in his book.

I began to doubt him when he looked over at me and said…”do you really need to see it right now?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Maybe I read it in a different book,” was his reply. At that point I knew that he had been pulling my leg (not a difficult task if it is the left one) for a good 10 minutes. I called him on it, and with he turned his big eyes to me. With a grin on his face he said “I love having someone so gullible around”. So once again this little kid had gotten the better of me, this time bringing a fictional ancient tribal pagan god into the mix...