Chapter 27: The Amazon Maidens

This chapter is set hundreds of years before, at the very start of the colony.

Before the Spanish came there were two Amazon indian tribes on opposite sides of the widened river. Many years before they had been one tribe, but as they grew some different factions emerged. Since they could not live together they split apart. However, the two tribes did keep some traditions in common.

Much like the Incas, these tribes recognized distinct stages of life in the community: child, willful student, adult, and elder. (The Incas had more stages.) As a person moved from one stage to the next, and showed their ability, they got a new name, wore different clothing, and were expected to act according to their age. Those of child age lived with their adult parents. Willful students from both tribes were isolated on the north and south islands, where they were instructed by elders.

For both tribes, when a female child reached a trigger point of a willful student, she was sent to the downriver island at the north, to live with the elders, supporting them with her labor while learning from them the skills and behavior needed by an adult. Once a girl went to the island she stayed there, through the troublesome tween and teen years, until she passed the tests. Passing the tests was marked by a double cord of leather around her head. After that, when she was ready to leave the island, she would swim to either shore, towards a post that marked the location of a hut with a sign showing a sharp thorn, the sign of what awaited. Each female had the choice of swimming to the east or the west shore, she did not have to go to the side she came from. That choice was hers as an adult. There was a third option, at any time she could swim north, downriver, to make her own way in the jungle as one who was unpierced. However, the chance of surviving that choice was slim. Death, and a meal for some fortunate creature, was the usual fate.

When a woman swam from the island, the man who lived in the thorn hut would pierce her ear with a thorn, explain the rules for an adult of the tribe, then send her to the Chief as a new adult for the tribe. The Chief would decide where she would live until she had a husband. Usually there was a time limit for how long she could stay unattached.

You might expect that the ear was not the only piercing in the thorn hut.

There was a similar island to the south where males were sent. While the female students could not leave until they passed the tests or were expelled downriver, the male students could be “checked out” of that island by their family to hunt or gather food, or for threats (like a jaguar). These were important lessons learned through experience.

Sending children to the islands was not strictly a matter of age but more a matter of maturity. There were a variety of triggers. Some were anatomical, such as the appearance of breasts or a change in hips which bothered children or drew the attention of grown men. Others were the result of “willful” behavior, such a gossiping with others instead of doing chores, disobeying, arguing, disrupting adults at work, or paying too much attention to the opposite sex. Finally, some children were sent to the island simply because they ate too much of the food for the household to support.

When the Spanish came down the mountain from the west they came upon the armed warriors who planning to attack the other tribe. The small band of armored and mounted Spanish were attacked by all the men of the west tribe, as well as all the male student, who were called to join in the battle.

It was a slaughter. The Spanish killed them all without any serious injuries, and divided the war widows of the west bank tribe. Disease killed the rest of both tribes in about a year. The Amazon lifestyle, with no metal and little nearby game or food, was very labor intensive so the illness of any member of the hut was eventually fatal to all.

The female students on their island survived because they were isolated, their bodies were healthy so they could fight the disease, and the Spanish Captain made arrangements to support the girls and their elders until they were ready to join the adults as wives.

When the Spanish came there were 10 maidens on the island of various tween and teen ages. During the next two years nobody went to the island and nobody left. Finally, the first female to pass her tests after the Spanish came swam from the island to the Spanish shore. She was short, 4 feet 8 inches. The Captain, who had communicated with the elders, expected her and posted a soldier at the thorn post. He had one order to the elders, any female who swam ashore had to do it on the first day of her monthly period.

The world had changed a great deal. Instead of over 200 Amazon adults and children on the two shores, there were 18 Spanish men with orders to build a sustaining colony. (7 of the original 25 had been sent to Spain to report to the Bishop, but they eventually returned.) All had been without the company of women for over a year, since the last of the Amazon women died.

As the young female came from the river, virtually naked, the first thing she expected was a thorn in here ear. But it seemed and the ear was not the only place that was pierced in the hut, marking a girl’s transition to an adult. She was given a poncho to wear as adult clothing, and the name of Avee as her adult name. In talking, Avee was very sure that she wanted many babies, and to be with a man each night. Then the Captain asked what she knew about where babies came from. That knowledge had been kept from the maidens. She had the feeling that babies were somehow tied to the place where her blood flowed every month, but she did not know the exact connection. Also, she had never seen that portion of an aroused adult man. The Captain explained the facts, with a demonstration.

After the deed was done more things were explained. Instead of matching one man and one woman in a hut as a married couple, like Avee’s parents, the Captain said that Avee would get a log cabin, and two temporary husbands, who would change after two of her monthly periods. This would continue until she knew all the men as temporary husbands. Each pair of husbands would be selected with definitive features (height, hair, ears, chin, etc.) so the father of any child conceived in any two month period could be identified.

But before Avee got her log cabin, two things had to be taken care of. First was the matter of taking her from maidenhood to womanhood, her barrier had to be removed. Since it was the path to babies and a husband, Avee bent over the table and bid the Captain to put his words about sex into action. Avee’s barrier, which the elders called a spiders web, gave way with little pain. She was eager so they repeated the act during the night. She liked the experience better the second time.

The second matter of immediate importance was that the other men had been without females for so long that there would be trouble. So Avee had to meet ALL her future temporary husbands ... naked and as a woman in the night, in their barracks where all could witness the acts.