16. A dangerous climb on a steep rock

The canoe sails along a rocky island. Sisoi’s father inspects the steep cliffs. Suddenly he points upward: “Son look, there!” With his eagle-eyed sight he can see bird nests. He counts four, five, up to ten on that one cliff alone. Sisoi knows what this means, his father will gather eggs. They will not go up today, because it is already too dark. This late in the day it is very dangerous to climb the rocks. In addition, his father may do so only accompanied by another strong man, who has to lower him down on a leather rope to the nests. Mother slows down the canoe by putting the oar firmly in the water. This way she practically stops the canoe. The nearest canoe reaches them. The Yagán man had already seen him pointing out the nests and he understands without words. The neighbour wants to help. The two men will go out together on the adventure tomorrow.

The next day, the sun has hardly risen, and everyone is awake. Sisoi’s father and the neighbour are being pushed off into the bay, in the canoes. It is quite complicated because the crashing of the waves drags the canoes in the wrong direction, time and time again. When they reach the cliffs the men take a big leap and land with their bare feet on the first stones that peek over the water. The two climb energetically to the top of the rocky cliff. Father ties the leather rope around him. The neighbour releases the rope little by little and soon father reaches the first nest. The cormorants are not in their nest, so they can easily pick up the eggs. Some other birds are flying away. Father collects eggs for both families: two per person. Sisoi calculates in his mind: “Two for dad, two for mom, two for my sister, two for me, neighbours are a family of three. That will be a total of eight for us and six for the others.”

The neighbour yells at father that he must distribute his weight better, because the leather rope is rubbing against the sharp rocks and is being damaged. Quickly father puts the last eggs in the basket of dried seaweed. He calmly climbs up while the neighbour hauls home the rope. It seems that the rope has not been damaged too much. Far below he sees the canoe with his wife, Sisoi and Gaméla. He quickly waves at them, signaling ‘we succeeded’.

Later that week they go out again, but this time it is to hunt some cormorants for their meat. The feathers will be used by mother and Gaméla in making a necklace for themselves, a cap for father or other ornaments. Father lets himself down again, the neighbour lets the rope run out. Father stops at the first nest, but when he moves to the second one, the rope breaks and he falls dozens of meters below into the water and is submerged in the water. His wife knows that he can’t swim and she rows quickly with big strokes towards him.

  • Will they arrive in time to save father who has fallen into the water?
  • Have you ever paddled a canoe? Can you swim?
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