433 Chapter Seven Cosmos For the Matsigenka of Shimaa, kameti ...

“Now, let’s go,” their father said. “Now we will return home” [not having yet completed
their journey to the land of the Unseen Ones]. They went on back and reached a path. A bird flew
up. “Father?” “OK.” The son shot it. Another flew up and landed on a branch. “OK.” Another
son shot it. On they went. Many birds flew up, but their father said, “No, that one is your sister’s
pet. Be careful you do not shoot it.” They went and went until they arrived home. His wife
greeted him and gave him a maize dish she had set aside for him. He ate a little and rested in bed.
That night, she gave him ayahuasca and he drank it. He sang...he sang, and, clapping his
hands, tan! tan! he [his soul] flew away. Then...tan! tan! he was back, walking down the stairs,
koren, koren, koren, koren, koren. “My son.” “You have returned, Father.” “I waited there for
you,” his father said. “The one-like-your-mother was there, she was waiting for you.” “You went
there?” the son asked. “I really went there,” his father replied. [Here the father is speaking both as
the shaman and as his Unseen counterpart--both in a “fatherly” relationship to the sons.] The next
day, their mother cooked manioc. They opened up the leaves and ate the other fish. They stayed
there a long time. Then one day, when their father came back (from his flight to the land of the
Unseen Ones), he said, “Tomorrow morning, I will take you again. I will really show you the way to
where I return from.”
This time they went farther. They caught the shivaigi fish called mereto, about this big
[indicating 25 cm with his hands], two of them. Their father roasted them in leaves. They slept. In
the morning, they went back home. At night his wife gave him ayahuasca. He drank, he sang.
Clapping tan! tan! tan! he flew away. Later, he returned, tan! tan!, he landed. “There you are,
Son.” “Yes, Father. You went there?” “Yes, I really did go.” “Now you have returned.” “I waited
for you there,” the old man said, “and your ‘mother’ likewise waited there for you.”
They stayed there a long time, making two more trips, each one farther than the last. Then
he drank his ayahuasca, tan! tan! [he went]. He returned purified [itsatimatanakera]. “Now,” he
told his sons, “I will take you all the way to the place that I visit. They went and went, far upstream
there. When they got there, he said, “See? My visiting place. You will stay here, plant your
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