By Mandy Tearfall
clears her throat “the story I want to share with you tonight is a story about something happening in the jungle a bit longer ago. some of you might remember as they were part of the Tapi tribe back then already or were witnesses in another way …
picks up the hat laying next to her on the ground and places it on her head “the story I’m going to tell you now I called ‘Tapi Hat Mania – or How the Tapi got lice!’ …”
It’s several moons ago now, that suddenly there were seen natives wearing hats in the jungle. People wondered what this was all about and when asking they all got a similar answer …
Though most of the natives were from the far north of the Amazon and belonged to the Tapirapé tribe there were some others wearing a hat too after they heard about the story behind it.
After the Shaman Whispering Wind officially called out the “Tapi Hat Mania” many Tapi brothers and sisters joined the fun and helped spreading the word that people wearing a hat are more important than people who don’t wear one.
One day the Tapi people gathered for some gossip at the Native Bar at Red Coast. Eve Heartsong – often a part of the gossip gatherings at the Native Bar – joined that day too and when she arrived Catten said out loud: “You must be very important wearing a hat like that, Miss Eve!”
Curious gazes were shot to Eve and people were impressed as Eve’s hat consisted of several snakes which were nearly swinging around her face.
Not sure if it was due to Eve’s hat but after the gathering some Tapi sneaked into the rooms of the Resort and found several hats they tried on. And it seemed that they maybe took some hats from the Resort with them into their village in the North.
Days passed and still the Tapi told everyone who wanted to know – or even those who weren’t interested – that wearing a hat make people important. But … all of that hat mania ended suddenly …
It was a early on a sunny morning when a loud scream – followed by curses – could be heard in the whole Tapi village and even beyond, which woke up even the laziest of the Tapi people.
A bit later a crowd of people came together around the campfire and listened to the shocking news the Shaman announced to them with a serious face … “Family, I need to tell you that Catten got lice!”
Slight panic was in the air … What to do now? How to get rid of the lice? And above all – where did the lice come from?
Luckily the Shaman had a remedy against lice – honestly I forgot the name of the stinky oil she used – but apart from that many Tapi still had to get their hair cut to get rid of the lice. Specially Catten wasn’t really happy to loose his long hair.
While the Tapi got cured by the healing knowledge of the Shaman they tried to figure out why some of them got lice. Finally they came to the conclusion, that the only reason they got lice in the camp could be, that they were wearing hats from pale faces … though those clearly didn’t want to hear complains about it later, but that’s written on another piece of paper …
Later on the same day the Tapi got visited by one of the seekers – always a welcome visit, though this day the Tapi got even more worried. They couldn’t risk that some of the lice that not yet were killed jump over on the seekers head!
After a little pushing around – on a verbal basis – the seeker agreed to let one of the young Tapi women check her hair to make sure there wasn’t any lice in it.
While that the seeker and the young Tapi talked a bit about the past of the young Tapi and after a longer conversation between them, the day got a happy ending: the young Tapi woman got blessed after the seeker called the monks for her.
/me looks around to all who are gathered around the campfire “and .. though I was one of the Tapi who had lice, from time to time I like wearing my hat – I just take care it’s none I found somewhere at Red Coast!”