Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Machu Picchu (d)

I'm a servant to a priestess, carrying water for her bath and arranging her hair. It seems to be late spring and we are readying for the festival of the sun.
I cook for her, as I am the only servant trusted to create the dishes she must eat before the ceremony.

A dish consisting of monkey, [!] some grain that turns a bright orange when ground and mixed with the blood of the monkey, a red vegetable, kind of like tomatoes and small green peppers that are quite hot. I felt sorry for the monkey, but I was determined that the priestess should have the best possible feast.

Another dish of a fruit and some leaves from a tree. The fruit is mixed with a syrup, some more of the ground grain and wrapped in the leaves, then placed between flat rocks in the fire.

The water that she drinks has to be filtered through layers of cloth woven from her hair.

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