setting ropes

Before the rainy season begins, women gather reeds that have been drying for months during the river's ebb. They spend several days twisting and braiding the reeds into rope. Two days before the first storm they go into the sections of cultivated forest and climb one tree after another, stringing the ropes between them and creating walkways. The following day the women carry their grafts into the trees, climbing only one and using the rope walkways to reach all the trees in their stands.   Women don't use the ropes for more than one season. After the last of the berries have been harvested, the final task is to take down the ropes. Despite it being an easier job than setting them up, many women dislike having to undo their work and may postpone it as long as they can. But a woman who leaves her ropes to decay in the trees must make new ones to use in her home during the dry season.

Although Spirit-talker does not participate in any of the women's agricultural activities, her role is the most essential to the tradition's success. She can feel the heaviness of the first rain-laden front up to a week before it arrives, alerting the women to the right time to begin gathering reeds.

The ropes must be in place and the grafts set before the first rains of the season begin, but not too early or the grafts will dry up.