Edmund Narine

Spirits of the Times Edmund Narine

You do not see the chameleon but he sees you, perched on the branch of the samaan tree whose girth you pause to admire; and just as you fail to see the chameleon an arms-length above your head, so to you fail to see Papa Bois, the creature with the ram's head and man's body staring from his abode inside the clump of bamboo growing on the banks of the dry ravine. He is hiding from you, for he knows, one glimpse of him would force you to shout "How Papa Bois get horn?" Read this book and you will be amazed at how 'Papa Bois get horn'. This book, like the rainforest of Trinidad's Northern Range, takes the unwary visitor on a journey starting at the Dry River, paved and channeling through Port-of-Spain's urban ghetto from its source high up on the heights of El Tucuche, Trinidad's second highest peak. From El Tucuche one would see the distant horizon merge with the turquoise waters of the Paria Gulf. Cup a hand to the ear and be rewarded to hear drums throbbing in ceremonial obeisance to Shango, Lord of Thunder and of Lightning. But one must not tarry, for it is here, too, high up on this magnificently foliaged mountain; here, where the immortelle flashes its flaming swords in March; and when the poui ring out its yellow bells in a high wind in April that one might suddenly encounter a douen - a spirit, a child wearing wide brimmed straw hat, its feet turned backwards as it awaits the night and the capture of an unwary child, and the pleasure that child brings when it falls from the high cliffs to the jagged rocks below. Be adventurous. Take a trip any night on a Mayaro back road come face-to-face with a lagahoo, a reader of books on the occult whose knowledge has empowered him to transform from elephant pig to giant dog at midnight. 'Spirits of the Times' is about rain forest spirits, urban ghetto politics, and rituals to Lord Shango. Not a book for the faint-hearted, but one can read it, and savor the consequences of fool hardiness.