This is chapter two of the story of the same title; it will probably make more sense as a tale if you read the first part before continuing:
I was becoming more and more accepted into the life of the village. After my initiation into the ways local government worked round here, I realised that I was the first anthropologist in modern times (and maybe the only one ever) to have the option of studying such an unspoiled civilisation.
These people, who hadn't got a name like all of the others tribes in Benin and who referred to themselves as The People - and to everybody outside of their tribe by the same title; who used sex as the lubricant in the mechanism of their society - for appeasement, for sorrow, for equanimity, for relaxation and most of all for pleasure.
Since the night of the first orgy that had taken place after I had been invited to join the villagers in the adult sleeping house, I had been asked back to the same place numerous times during each day. Everybody wanted to try out this new (seemingly) exotic addition to the village. I said no a lot more times than I said yes - my libido just wasn't up to eight or ten such forays during each day. The way my friend Fayeye, the most open of the local young women, put it; being asked to get involved in a sexual tryst in their society held as much importance as an invitation for coffee in ours. A refusal wasn't ever likely to cause offence.
However, now that I knew more of what took place within its confines, I couldn't help but notice that many of the villagers seemed to take the time out from whatever they were doing for a liaison of some sort at least a couple of times during each day.
It was explained to me that I was being observed as a representative of all outside societies and that a decision about whether or not further representatives would be welcome was being deferred until they had a better handle on what we were like. Inside I knew that whenever they decided to accept other outsiders in, my sexual contact would almost certainly cease lest I be fired from my post for improper behaviour.
It was two nights after my first orgy that I was invited to my next during a bathing session in the stone-lined bed of the stream which ran through the village. Fayeye had started helping me in my twice daily public ablutions, and it was she who extended the invitation. I watched closely as she tried to explain something new to me in their language of words, sounds, posture and gesture. A celebration of some sort was indicated by the rapid rise and fall of both eyebrows in conjunction with a toothy grin. Added to that she held both arms down, with her genital areas surrounded by open hands palms facing out. The new sign included a rumbling throaty chuckle interspersed with the word '
eutu
', a dipping of the head with eyes ending up looking upwards at you and the opening and closing of the left hand from loose fist into open palm, fingers pointing up... very Amerindian like. It was another enigma in a plethora of them that I was coming across in my observations of these wonderful generous people.
I puzzled over this new sign, asking for clarification of similar meanings twice before realising that tonight was the start of the annual celebration of the start of their settlement. Another tick in another box... a verbal rather than written history; I wondered how accurate it was in terms of dates... and how far back did it go?
Dinner was roast jungle pig on a bed of sour sago served on a plantain leaf plate (the villagers' idea of disposable crockery) with copious amounts of their beer, followed by a semi-fermented fruit salad with crushed nuts - also with copious amounts of beer. Once the food was cleared away and the last of the children had made their way to the larger of the two huge sleeping huts, the remainder of the adults and I made our way carrying beers and jugs containing more of the same over to the other hut.
Once inside, everybody took a place sitting against the long side walls of the dormitory; once we were all seated, all conversation stopped... one by one each villager stood up and told their part of the story of the village. My data recorder, sitting on the matting floor between my legs, caught it all... probably enough on that one recording for somebody back at the university to take a PhD on.
The tone was serene without being too serious... I realised that this repeating of the history in front of everybody ensured that each part of it was remembered correctly. A memory failsafe that seemed to have worked successfully for the villagers for eons, the telling of their history took almost two and a half hours, during which even the beer drinking was kept in check.