The Rain Forest Storybook

The stories gathered here have been adapted from the oral traditions of the forest dwellers of the Amazon, Central Africa and South East Asia. In keeping with those traditions, they are related in a conversational style and are open enoug to carry ironic allusions to the modern, world. The prevalent mood, however, is of poignant remoteness as the storyteller, in relating how life and death customs originated, conjures up visions of a vanished, magical time when people could converse with animals, plants and elemental forces. The sense of sadness accompanying these fascinating legends is deepened by a factual commentary on how the rainforests and the culures they support are being deliberately exterminated. This is moving and important reading.