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210 Conclusion a possible forest “mariane cóndase’cho” (“the story of maria”) In the midafternoon, on a path close to a garden, a girl walked by a tree. “Where are you going?” someone said to her. “Who just spoke?” replied the girl. She stopped and looked behind her. Again, the voice spoke, “Where are you coming from?” She was scared and went to look at the tree trunk. Someone was sitting inside. The girl asked, “Why are you calling me?” The person in the tree said, “I just want to know where you’re coming from.” The girl asked, “Why do you live in this tree?” The person simply replied, “This is where I live.” The girl returned to the village and told some old people what happened. She asked them, “What person could be in that tree trunk, with white clothes and white skin, sitting in a nice bed? Who was that person who just spoke to me?” The old people thought and said, “What could be there? Let’s go see.” One old man went to look. He entered the tree trunk and sat down. Maria [now named] asked him, “Are you all living well?” The man replied, “Yes, we’re living well. Where did you come from?” Maria said, “Our father left me here. That’s why I’m here. He told me, ‘Now you have to take care of this place and these people.’ That’s what he said, our father who lives in the sky. I’m here to take care of you all, so that you don’t die, so that the cocoya don’t come. That’s why I’m here.” The old man listened, and he understood. The man went back to the village and told all of the younger people that Maria lives in the tree trunk. Everyone listened, and they went to see Maria. The young people went and looked, and Maria saw them and smiled and laughed. She didn’t speak to the young people, but to an old person she said, “Build me a house. I want to live in a house here.” They built her a house, and Maria lived in it. Our father from the sky left a book in that house and then left again. Maria made a school, and the young people studied in the school and read the book. They then said, “Our father is coming for Maria. He wants to take Maria away. But Maria doesn’t want to leave, because if she leaves, we won’t be able to live.” So the people decided to build another house, a nice house for Maria to live in. A Possible Forest 211 While Maria lived there, not one child died, and there were no sicknesses. The people reproduced well, and the population grew. Then, some priests from Colombia came and saw all of the Cofán. “How many are there?” they thought. They wanted to take the Cofán away to make wars in Colombia. The people didn’t want to leave, so they stayed. The priests returned and forced the Cofán to build a house. They told them it was for the soldiers. The Cofán built a house to make them happy. They built a big house with palm-wood walls. The priests stayed there. On Sunday, the priests called the people to the house to have a meeting. All of the people went, even the children. Not one person remained in the village. They all gathered inside, and the soldiers came to the door. No one could escape, and with machetes the soldiers cut and killed many people. That’s how the priests did it. Afterward, Maria was left with one very old couple, the only ones who survived. The Spanish didn’t kill those two. They met together and said, “How are we going to survive? Let’s go to the other side of the [Aguarico] river.” They went to the other side. They built another house on the other side of the river and brought Maria there. They stayed there for four days. On the morning of the fifth day, they went to see Maria, but she wasn’t there. “Where did she go?” they thought. They decided to return to their old home of Bifeno [an Aguarico village site] to see if Maria was there. She was there in an old, rotting house. They wanted to bring her back to the other side of the...

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