I was in a canoe in Papua New Guinea with him and a couple of local paddlers, going slowly down a forest river. The dugout was level with the surface of the water and full of water itself, but we were in no danger of sinking. The river was still and slow and we were trying to get the crocodiles to trust us, so we were leaving dead pigs and goats for them in the still little areas of backwater. One of the men paddling pointed out that a large crocodile was coming to see us, and it slid beneath the surface and nudged the boat. We left a pig for it.
The rain was late and people were getting worried so it was decided that we should go to a place in the forest that looked out over a small clearing full of bright green spear grass that ran toward the west and ask the rain to come. We did this by whistling loudly and saying the rain's secret name, which I no longer know. Nothing happened for a long time, and then a strange, dry, sistrum-like noise rolled toward us over the trees from a long way distant, and then we saw a whiteness moving toward us. It was the rain, but it was falling as dry sleet and snow, battering the grass and all the tender tropical plants, and the local men climbed down and ran away while we stood and watched it come to us and felt it on our faces and hands. I knew all the gardens would be ruined.
The rain was late and people were getting worried so it was decided that we should go to a place in the forest that looked out over a small clearing full of bright green spear grass that ran toward the west and ask the rain to come. We did this by whistling loudly and saying the rain's secret name, which I no longer know. Nothing happened for a long time, and then a strange, dry, sistrum-like noise rolled toward us over the trees from a long way distant, and then we saw a whiteness moving toward us. It was the rain, but it was falling as dry sleet and snow, battering the grass and all the tender tropical plants, and the local men climbed down and ran away while we stood and watched it come to us and felt it on our faces and hands. I knew all the gardens would be ruined.
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