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Pulley Across River
On the second day in the village, Mama asked me to help make sugar, named by the Indians as 'honey of the mountain'. The sugar-making hut and sugar cane crop was across the river, on the other side of the valley. The Kogis had made a rope and pulley mechanism, about 20ft above the swift flowing river, with which one could pull oneself across the 50 foot wide river using a second parallel rope. The Indians made it look easy, practically gliding to the other side. As for me, being somewhat larger and heavier than most of the Kogis created a significant incline on the second half of the rope, essentially making it dip. I furiously hoisted myself up the incline, determined not to give the Kogis another reason to think all civilisation people were weak. They already had a low enough opinion of civilisation. I made it, I had to. My other option was to jump into the swift river below, which hosted a small waterfall nearby downstream.
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