THE ADVENTURES OF DJOU THE WILD BOY
by Hilário P. Ferraz Pimentel
Single chapter
Djou is a very smart, cheerful and playful
boy. He lives with his parents, as every child should, he goes to school in the
morning and in the afternoon he plays with his friends in a square very close
to his house. There in the square they play those children's games before the
video game era, like tag, hide and seek, hopscotch, jumping rope, playing
football and more that they invent on the spot. A good boy, studious and
well-behaved, but without ceasing to have fun and get ready to play, Djou is the
joy of the house. His parents are very proud of their son. His teacher always
praises the boy, despite some mischief he gets up to from time to time. When he
comes back from class, he will soon do his homework and then go to the square
with his colleagues on the street.
One day, during
the school holidays, the whole family went to travel in the boat of Djou's
father's friend. They went there very close to where the whales have a date, in
Abrolhos, in the extreme south of Bahia. They say that this place has this name
because it is full of stones and the Portuguese at the time of Cabral warned:
“If you are going to sail in that place, oh man, open your eyes”. And that’s
why we ‘Brazilianize’ the name and “open your eyes” became Abrolhos. In the
past, whales were hunted mercilessly. Today, thanks to the awareness that man
has acquired, understanding that he is also part of nature and that this nature
must be preserved, this hunting is prohibited and whales swim and court in
peace. And they are returning to occupy all the places where they were hunted
before and today people go to these places to watch them.
Well, little Djou
and his parents were on the boat, calm, when the boat hit one of those rocks
and started to sink. It was a general panic, the boat started to sink fast and
the boy's parents rigged the boats and put him on a big one. While Djou's
parents were setting up another boat, the boat the boy was in detached itself
from the sinking boat and began to move away. When they realized it, it was too
late. The boy's boat was far away and, thanks to a sea current, it moved even
farther away, very quickly. The boy's parents got into the boat, which was
already armed, tried to reach Djou at all costs, but it was too late, Djou was
a castaway who sailed with the wind and tide. Of course, one day they will meet
again, but until then the boy will live great adventures.
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The boy was
caught up in the tide, and after a day and a night, Djou reached the beach. He
landed in a very beautiful place called Guaiuquiçaba. On this beach the waves
were breaking strong on a very sharp coral full of urchins, but on this day the
sea was calm and the boy arrived calmly on dry land. The place is beautiful,
full of palm trees, trees, coconut trees, birds and animals. A virtually
untouched place, which has nature preserved as it always was. The sand is white
and very soft. Very close to where the boy arrived, a river flows into the sea.
Flourfish, those little sand crabs, watched Djou's arrival. “What a weird
animal” thought the little crabs who had never seen a human.
With great
hunger, Djou was soon picking cashews from a nearby cashew tree. They were
yellow cashews and very sweet. Next to it was a cashew tree with red fruits,
but these weren't as sweet as the ones on the first tree. In addition to
cashew, it was mangaba season, a very soft fruit that can only be eaten when it
falls on the ground. Djou soon discovered this by grabbing one straight from
the mangaba tree and keeping his mouth glued to the mangaba latex. Some
indigenous tribes in Brazil use this latex to make a soccer ball and play a
game similar to goal-for-goal, only without kicks, just headbutts. In ground
balls, the Indians give a “little fish” to head the ball. This Indian game is
very fun.
With his belly
full of cashew nuts and his mouth glued with mangaba, Djou immediately set
about getting to know his surroundings. The beach was full of coconut trees,
many marmosets and monos-coals, two types of monkeys, climbed the trees and
from up there they kept watching that new figure never seen before in the area.
The boy was scared and missing his parents, friends and
school, but he didn't let himself down and soon went to set up a shelter. With
bamboo poles and coconut leaves, the boy built a temporary hut to spend the
night, which was coming. Djou covered the floor with leaves so his body
wouldn't be covered in sand. Luckily it was summer and it wasn't cold at night.
Djou, a boy of only 7 years old, was spending his second night alone and away
from his parents. For a moment he wanted to cry, but he realized that wasn't
going to help anything. And the night passed peacefully....
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The next morning,
dying of curiosity, the little marmosets went to spy on him more closely. They
got so close that their fur made the boy sneeze. Djou woke up and, still not
knowing where he was, was startled by the little marmosets that were also
scared of him. As the little monkeys fled, the boy got up and took the
opportunity to take a walk on the beach. Trails of turtles that went to the
beach to lay eggs at night marked the white sand of that wonderful place. Some
pieces of the boat also reached the beach and, among them, a small trunk that
was in the boat. The boy immediately went towards him, but the chest was locked
and Djou dragged him to his makeshift camp. What would be inside that trunk?
The marmosets watched everything from a coconut tree. What a curious animal this
marmoset is.
In the sea
several dolphins played in the waves. They swam inside the wave and when it
ended they would jump back in search of another one to do the same. Djou was
looking at them and felt like swimming too, but his biggest concern at the
moment was with lunch, as hunger was starting to tighten. The cashews he had
eaten in the morning had already worn off. But there was no other alternative,
fruit again. He picked up a dry coconut lying on the ground and struck it open
with a stick. He was able to relieve his hunger again with fruit, but the boy
was missing something more consistent. And in a snap he thought: "I wonder
if there's food in that chest?".
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With a very
large rock the boy began to strike the lock of the chest, hoping to find
goodies. The padlock wasn't very strong and within a minute it was broken in
the sand. Djou opened the trunk and was surprised. It was from his father, who
had put him on the boat for emergencies like these. So much so that it was
lined with styrofoam to float. “My father thinks of everything anyway,” the boy
reflected.
Right away,
Djou saw a machete. Knives are dangerous for children, but that machete would
have to be handled well to open coconuts, cut weeds, and more. Two cooking pots
were inside as well. Hooks and fishing line were inside one of the pots. A
yellow raincoat stood out for its color. Two flares were wrapped in plastic,
along with some matchboxes. A magnifying glass, the kind used to read the fine
print, surprised the boy. “Why is this magnifying glass here?” the boy asked
himself. But little did he know that this gadget would one day be very
important. A little shovel for digging was also there. There was a crab ‘siripóia’
for catching crabs, which the boy knew from having seen his father use one just
like it. Cutlery was next to two plates. He liked the fork, but it reminded him
of the meals he ate with his parents, and he continued to rummage through that
trunk full of surprises. Soon he found a pair of scissors, which was almost a
treasure. It also had a compass which he thought was a watch. A first-aid kit
with tape, chrome mercury, gauze, and a bandage was in the back. As it was at
the bottom, there were no more surprises in the trunk, but there was the last
one that was a blanket for the coldest nights and that was soaking wet. Djou
washed it in the stream to remove the salt and put it to dry in the sun. Soon
he would have no problems when winter came. That's if he was still there.
--------------------------
With so much
news, the boy didn't know what to do first, but he soon thought about the night
and with that dangerous machete he went to cut more bamboo and straw to improve
his camp, which until then was totally improvised. Cut it from here, bury it
from there with the help of the shovel, soon a little 'more or less' hut was
ready. More or less because it had no door or window, but the boy, who was
getting a little wilder with each passing day, did a good job and soon the hut
would be ready. Night soon fell and Djou, for the first time, made a fire. Fire
is also very dangerous for children and the forest, but the boy did it far from
the hut and the nearby bush, well over the sand to avoid fires. Just missing
something to cook. But Djou remembered some dishes that his mother made at home
and put some bananas to cook in the newly acquired pot from the trunk. One of
the bananas fell onto the coals and the boy didn't notice it right away, only
after a few minutes. Djou took the banana off the grill and it was black, black
on the outside. Out of curiosity he peeled the banana and saw that it was white
inside and tried it. "What a delight!" exclaimed the boy who had
discovered a new recipe.
The little
monkey got a little closer and soon got a boiled banana. When he went to get
it, the little animal burned his hand and ran towards the coconut tree. Djou
was laughing.
The next
morning, the boy thought about putting out the hook and line to try to catch
some fish.
-------------------------
No sooner
said than done. Early in the morning there was the boy on the beach catching tatuíras
to bait, as he had seen his father do once on a trip to the beach. Tatuíra is
like a little shrimp with a very hard shell and that is on the edge of the
beach, hidden under the sand. It was easy to catch the bugs, when the wave came
and went, there was a little mark in the sand of the bug, just dig and that's
it. In some places people know the tatuíra as tatuí.
Djou took a
half dozen, adjusted the line with the hook, placed a rock on the end so he
could throw the bait far away, and started fishing. After a few minutes the boy
felt a tug on the line. He started to pull and there came a hooked fish. When
he picked it up, the boy saw that it was a puffer fish, which is that fish that
swells up and turns into a ball when threatened. Remembering the words of his
father, who told him that puffers are poisonous, Djou returned him to the sea.
Too bad he'd lost a bait. But it doesn't matter, soon the line was in the water
again and this time the fish that bit was a yellow hake, more or less large.
The boy was satisfied, returned the rest of the tatuíras to the sand and went
to clean the fish for lunch. He also knew how to clean fish just by looking at
his father. He knew he had to remove all the scales, scraping them off with the
knife. That done, he saved what was left of the fish to put in the siripóia as
bait to try to catch some crabs at night. The siripóia is an iron arch with a
net, it looks a bit like a butterfly net. You place the bait, throw the siripóia
in the water, wait a little, pull and that's it. There came the crabs clinging
to the net.
---------------
At night,
said and done, Djou used the siripóia and caught some crabs to eat. The crabs,
which were many, were on the bank of the little river near the camp. Djou knew
this because one day he got stung by one of them while taking a shower. To
alleviate the lack of seasoning, the boy cooked the crabs in sea water that
gave the animals a little salt.
The next day,
Djou woke up early to the noise of the marmosets, which were getting closer and
closer to the hut looking for food. Djou was making friends with one of them
who stood at the door looking at the boy. When Djou approached, the little
marmoset ran out. The boy would put a fruit and the little monkey would come to
get it. He was about to eat out of the boy's hand. Djou had already found a
name for him: Txiboom, because one day, running away from him, the little
monkey tripped, fell into a puddle of water and made this noise.
On the beach, the boy
would watch the dolphins surf the waves. Djou was amazed and wanted to get in
the water. He could swim very well, as his father had given him some lessons.
Suddenly the boy grabbed a piece of styrofoam that had arrived with the trunk,
threw himself into the water and started to catch some “alligators” in the foam
of the waves. Now the ones looking at him were the dolphins, who had never seen
a human so closely. After a long time in the water having fun in the waves,
Djou got exhausted and went to rest.
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Cavies, armadillos, pacas, anteaters and even jaguars were
the animals that lived near Djou's camp. Apart from the jaguar, the boy wasn't
afraid of any of them. To defend himself against the possible appearance of
such a feline, Djou always kept the fire burning, but the matches were running
low and that worried the boy. But, one day, while observing an ant more closely
with the magnifying glass that had arrived inside the trunk, Djou toasted the
insect with a ray of sunlight. It was unintentional, but he discovered that the
magnifying glass was used to make fire and began to use it to save matches. It
was enough to place the magnifying glass against the sun, let the beam of light
hit a dry straw and that was it, the fire was done.
Djou's daily
life was always like this. Wake up, go pick some fruit to eat, collect water
from the river in coconut bowls, light the fire, or simply revive the embers of
the night before, go fishing, have lunch and the rest of the afternoon to catch
waves with the dolphins. Djou was already surfing just fine with styrofoam. He
went down the wave lying down and to help him he had made a kind of flipper out
of tightly braided coconut straw. It was almost a bodyboard. When there was no
wave, he was playing with the monkeys. Txiboom was his favorite, as he had
already gotten used to the boy and practically never left Djou's hut. There
were other little monkeys that came to visit too, but Txiboom was the king of
the place.
One day, the boy saw a boat in the distance, took the flares
and fired them, but it was in vain, the boats probably didn't see the signal
and the few flares were wasted.
Djou found a big
board brought in by the tide and started to shape, with the help of the
machete, a real surfboard, just like the ones he saw on the beach. It would be
time consuming work, but what the boy had most was time.
In the
afternoon, the boy went fishing in the nearby corals. The coral, when there was
a wave, formed perfect and tubular waves, which the boy already surfed with
mastery, lying down of course, but even so he even caught some tubes, this in
less than 3 months of training, which was the time he was living your
shipwrecked adventure.
But that
day it didn't have a wave and, very carefully, he began to explore the corals.
That place had a very rich life. Urchins, starfish, anemones, very poisonous
stonefish and, holed up in holes, the dangerous moray eels. Djou caught some
fish and went back to the hut. Ahhh, by now the hut already had a door and
window that the boy had made to protect himself from the occasional jaguar
attack. He hadn't seen this animal yet, but at night he had already heard its
roar. Djou knew that the day of this meeting was not far off...
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Accompanied by Txiboom, who was now only riding on his
shoulder, Djou went to inspect the surroundings for some fruit. It was jambo
season and he soon found a tree loaded with these fruits. He filled his straw
basket with the berries and started to head back to the camp, when suddenly he
heard a noise behind a nearby bush. The boy slipped through the foliage and saw
the much-feared jaguar grab a small prey and devour it right there. Djou was
terrified by the scene and ran to his hut. There he began to think about making
some traps to defend himself against the jaguar. He dug a hole at the entrance
to his hut, placed thin branches and covered it with leaves in case the jaguar
tried to catch him off guard.
Having done
all that and leaving the worry aside, surfing appeared as the best option for
that afternoon, as the waves broke hard on the sharp coral and there were their
sports companions, the dolphins, going down the waves, jumping on them and
doing a racket to call Djou to the water. There is nothing better in life than
surfing on a deserted beach with your friends, even if they are dolphins.
His new
board, which he had shaped from wood stranded in the sand, was ready and he
went to test it that afternoon. In the first waves he felt it difficult to
stand up, but in a few hours he was already starting to cut some waves. The
board had turned out very well, but the problem was that it was starting to
soak, get heavy and sink. What to do ?
The next day the boy, already almost completely wild from
the experience he had acquired in the last few months, went to the woods to
gather wood for the fire and some fruit to eat. On his usual path, Djou noticed
the jaguar's footprints, very fresh. She had been there during the night and
was approaching the camp. Txiboom, who was on the boy's shoulder, when he saw
the footprints, covered his eyes, as if to say "Shhh, I don't even want to
see it". But the boy remained firm in his purpose of catching things from
the forest, after all he needed to feed.
Without any major
problems, the boy did what he had to do, collected some fruit and returned to
the camp. There he lit the fire with the help of his magnifying glass and then
went fishing for lunch. Good waves were breaking on the beach and the dolphins
as soon as they saw Djou, started to make noise, as if calling him to have fun.
But his board wasn't dry yet and the boy went fishing. When suddenly, like a
snap, Djou exclaimed “That's it!!”. He had found the solution for his board:
mangaba latex. After fishing, which earned him a big fish, he went to make some
cuts in the mangabeiras and let the latex drain into some broken coconuts. The
board was put in the sun to dry faster and the next day he would rubberize it.
But in the meantime he picked up his Styrofoam and went to have some fun with
the dolphins, leaving lunch for later.
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---------------------------------
At night, the
bonfire was lit, the full moon made everything brighter, Djou gets up for a
minute to pee when he sees said whose, the jaguar, about ten steps away, just
looking at him. She was just sitting there, ears pricked, waiting to see what
the boy was going to do. She probably didn't attack Djou because of the fire.
The boy quickly picked up a burning stick and threw it at the animal. Embers
hit the jaguar's head, which gave a terrible growl and fled into the bush.
Phew, the boy was safe, but he suspected that that hadn't been enough to scare
her away. Djou would have to do something more forceful for the jaguar not to
come back. That night he closed the door and window of his hut tightly to sleep
peacefully.
The next day, the
boy went to rubber his board with latex. He spread a thin layer on the board
and put it to dry in the sun. It was like a rubber on the wood. He did it both
ways and waited until the other day to test it.
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That night the
camp was empty. Two beautiful fish were on a coconut thatch next to the hut.
Here comes the jaguar, feeling the aroma of the fish. She looks around, doesn't
see the fire or anyone. Confident, she advances on the fish and, before taking
the first bite, receives a hail of coconuts on her head. It was a trap for her!
Djou, with the help of Txiboom and his friends, were on top of a coconut tree
just waiting for the beast to arrive. After the first volley of coconuts came
the second and third. The jaguar was stunned and probably had bumps on its
head, but it still managed to escape into the bush. And not without first
receiving some more beautiful cocadas on the butt. It was done, that time she
was chased away, for sure, never to return.
Djou and his
friends returned to the ground to celebrate the feat. From now on they felt
safer. That night, the roasted banana party was held with the fish that the
jaguar had not even tried.
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Winter was
approaching, and with it rains, a slight chill and waves, lots of waves. With
the board completely rubberized, Djou spent the day in the water. Waves to the
right, waves to the left, tubes and he was already starting to rehearse some
maneuvers. Only the board was too heavy for the maneuvers to be executed
perfectly, but he was on the right track. He started surfing side by side with
the dolphins that followed him along the entire length of the wave.
Who went along
with him, from time to time, was Txiboom, who stayed at the tip of the board
when he was going down a wave. Perhaps he was the first surfer monkey on the
planet. And the little monkey loved it. He didn't swim very well, but he didn't
sink either. And when he was in trouble in the water, dolphins came to his aid
quickly. They took him by the head and carried him to the boy's board. It was
an incredible scene. Txiboom when he saw the boy take his board kept jumping
and doing a lot of monkeying, just for joy and hoping to be invited.
Djou had adapted a keel, which he had also carved and fitted
to the bottom of the board, as it was skidding a lot, but not now with the aid
of the apparatus. He was getting better and better at surfing and that made him
happy. It was common for the boy to stay surfing until the night when the moon
was full. He saw the plankton glow around him in the moonlight.
The late
afternoons were incredible there. The sun, when setting, left an orange trail
in the sky for a long time. At dusk he would see the flocking birds go to their
nests and he would begin to hear the noise of the nocturnal animals waking up
to life. It was all very magical there. The jaguar had not appeared again and,
even if it did, the monkeys would give the warning by shouting and warning the
boy who had already prepared the trap at the hut's door.
But for Djou it
was getting boring. He wanted to play football, see his friends at school and,
above all, see his parents, whom he missed a lot.
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The days passed
slowly that winter. Rain came occasionally, but Djou's hut, with plenty of
coconut straw, was water resistant.
He surfed
every day there was a wave. His plank was holding up well. The mangaba latex
was efficient and resistant, and it was even non-slip. The dolphins were all
his friends and even helped him fish, bringing the fish close to the boy's
bait. Txiboom and his friends picked the tallest fruit from the trees for him.
Cavies, armadillos, agoutis, anteaters, saruês, deer, except the jaguar, all
approached the camp and there they felt free to observe that, for them, a
strange figure of a human who did not pursue them. But they could not trust men
much, for they are sometimes treacherous, killing animals for the sake of
killing, destroying forests to make money from timber and to sell land by the
sea.
Djou spent his
days inventing things. He had made a bowling alley out of bamboo sections and
the ball was an adapted coconut. Txiboom would stay close by and arrange the
buds that Djou had knocked over. With the bamboo he had also made a bow and
some arrows. At first the arrows came out crooked and without direction, but
the boy had remembered from the Indian movies that the arrows had feathers at
the tips. He soon picked up some fallen feathers in the forest and straightened
his arrows. Over time, he began to become adept at archery as well. His target
was the Styrofoam he surfed on, retired since he'd made the board.
There is no more untouched nature or virgin beaches on this
planet. Man has practically cleared everything and has been almost everywhere.
Djou had been the first on that beach. It had been 5 months since he arrived
there. In the meantime, the city boy has discovered his wild side by force.
These were experiences that showed that we are only beings that once belonged
to an ecosystem. And we were once hunters and hunted too. We have to respect
nature because we are still part of it.
Djou woke up
that morning and started doing his usual things, gathering firewood, looking
for fruit for breakfast, finding bait for fishing, and most importantly,
checking the conditions of the sea. He was already used to surfing, it was his
biggest pleasure of the day.
When he went
to check out the waves which was no surprise to him. He had a boat parked a
little behind the breakers and 4 people were surfing next to the coral. The boy
was speechless. He looked for the dolphins and they were there, away from the
surfers and waiting for the boy, as if imagining what would happen.
With the
Txiboom monkey slung over his shoulder, Djou approached the crowd, euphoric. It
was her chance to return home and meet her parents again. The surfers were
surprised to see a child sun-kissed and with a monkey on his shoulder on that
deserted beach. They caught a few more waves and came out of the water to meet
up with Djou.
On the beach
they greeted each other and the boys asked about the boy's parents. Djou told
his story and people were impressed with it. They couldn't believe the boy had
been there for 5 months on his own. They asked him what he did to pass the time
and Djou replied that he surfed. He took them to the camp and showed them his
board. Everyone was impressed with the board and everything else. They wanted
to see the boy surfing that carved board. The boy without hesitation, threw
himself into the water and caught high waves leaving everyone in awe.
After the
surf they invited the boy to have something to eat on the boat and he went, of
course, taking his faithful squire Txiboom. The little monkey was embarrassed,
moved everything, ate everything he could and even threw some things into the
sea, among them the boat captain's underwear, which were drying in the sun.
It had been
a while since the boy had eaten some things that he didn't like very much, but
that he was missing, like salads and vegetables, which every time his mother
prepared him, he wrinkled his nose. Now he ate everything with gusto and asked
for more.
After lunch,
they all went to rest and then dropped into the water to surf more waves. They
gave a board of theirs to the boy to see his performance. Djou found it strange
at first, but he started surfing with ease. The dolphins approached and also
began to catch their waves together with everyone. It was an unforgettable day
for everyone.
The surfers
decided to stay there until the waves ended, that is, until the swell lost
strength. They camped with the boy for a few days and listened to his fishing
stories and what happened to the jaguar and all. They were all impressed.
During those days Djou fished and caught crabs for everyone.
When the
swell ended the surfers decided to leave. They would take the boy back to
so-called civilization. Djou had learned that animals were civilized, that they
lived in harmony with nature and with other animals, but the boy missed his
parents very much. He said goodbye to Txiboom and the other little monkeys. He
rowed to the boat alongside the dolphins and said goodbye to them too. It
wasn't final, he knew, it was just a see you soon, because Djou would be back
and it wouldn't be long.
When the boat left, the boy saw all the monkeys on the beach watching
the boy who was leaving. He saw Txiboom waving, as if they were people. It was
an emotional and painful farewell. Djou would miss Txiboom and his other
friends a lot, but the longing for his parents spoke louder and the boy, with a
pain in his heart, left. He saw the
animals looking at him as if they already missed him. The dolphins escorted the
departing vessel until the beach was no longer seen.
Djou soon
arrived home. His parents had never given up hope of seeing him again and when
they saw him, they were very emotional. The boy, back in civilization, narrated
all his adventures and his parents promised they would never be parted again.
They had been looking for him for months, but to no avail. They promised that
soon they would return to the place where Djou was camped. That last promise
Djou would look forward to soon. He was already missing his wild life a lot.
And his adventures too.
THE END
This work is already
duly registered under number: 330,400, on 08/27/2004 in Book
606 and
sheet 60 at the National Library
Copyright Office
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