Excerpt from Brazil by Errol Uys, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"They are the men who hang in their hammocks when the hunt is called, the men who hide when the enemy is near, the men who run from the fire in the sky. Look around you. Do you see such men?" Several shook their heads. "You will not find them among the Tupiniquin. Tell them, O Great Pagé, where the men without the spirit of men are."

Naurú was on his feet, a little unsteady from the effects of the tabak, which he had been inhaling furiously. He moved to the boys, so close that spittle dribbled from his lip hole onto the nearest one.

"They are taken into the forest," Naurú said. "Such men cannot hide their fear from the shadows. See Caipora with them, Caipora with her one leg, leaping as high as the trees. 'Dance, coward! Dance!' she demands. 'Dance for Caipora!' And Jurupari, he with the teeth of Jaguar and claws of Hawk. How Jurupari hungers for such miserable things! See the fire in his eye glow. Hear his stomach growl."

Naurú now launched into a grisly cautionary tale replete with inhuman beasts and demons, monstrous figures of that other world where cowards - and young boys who didn't bring feathers - might be tormented.

When Naurú had finished, Tabajara walked over to the boys with the feathers, motioning the one farthest from Aruanã to rise.

"O Voice of the Spirits, here is a true son of Tupiniquin, a boy who will be a man among us!"

Aruanã grew excited as he waited his turn, but he felt a deep sadness also: This night of all nights he wanted his father here-to see him praised in this way.

The two boys had presented their feathers, and now Aruanã was called. He stood up quickly and went to the elder and Naurú.

"Son of my maloca, Tabajara is happy that you have feathers. Your eye is good, your arrow true, your path that of a warrior-to-be. Let us hear where Macaw was found."

"Farther than I have been with our hunters."

"I saw you leave the maloca before the sun woke. Those who came back with nothing were still in their hammocks. Tell me, boy, were you not afraid of the darkness?"

"I left when hunters leave."

Tabajara smiled. He was pleased with the boy's answers. Last night he had had doubts about this son of no-warrior. It was good to see that he'd been wrong.

Naurú was not pleased. Here was bad blood, this son of a man who had denied a way of the ancestors. But he had found Macaw, and it was difficult to speak against him.

"Yes, boy, you were lucky this day."

"And swift, too," Tabajara hastened to add.

"Let the boy show his feathers!" he ordered.

Aruanã carefully removed the bindings around the palm leaves. His hands shook, such was his excitement, for he knew that the eyes of every man and boy present were upon him; and, he knew too that the feathers of the others were nothing against those he had brought.

He unrolled the leaves with a flourish, his eyes bright with anticipation.

Aruanã gasped in horror. The dazzling feathers of Macaw had become the worst pluckings from the wing of Heron!

"My feathers! Where are the feathers of Macaw?"

The men of the clan first greeted this incredible scene with silence. Eyes turned to Naurú and all willed that he act quickly to appease those offended.

To the surprise of all, the pagé began to cackle, and danced a wobbly jig before the boy, slapping his sides. He laughed till tears streamed from his eyes, and when others saw this, they began to laugh, too. The brothers who had lured Aruanã to their honeycomb, and other boys who had been in on the scheme to change the feathers, laughed as loudly as the adults standing behind them. As Naurú's mirth increased, so did everyone's, all but Tabajara.

The elder was furious. The boy had made a fool of him, in front of every man of the village. He grabbed Aruanã by the arm. "My anger, boy, is as nothing to the furies of our ancestors at your foolishness."

Copyright Errol Uys. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint this excerpt contact the author at http://www.erroluys.com.