Page 9 - Brugger Karl The chronicle of Akakor

The Chronicle of Akakor
the night and listen to their strange tales about red-haired and blue-and-red-painted Indians with
poisoned arrows....

The trip becomes an expedition against our own doubts. We are barely ten days from our putative goal.
The monotonous diet, the physical strain, and the fear of the unknown have all taken their toll. What
seemed a fantastic adventure in Manaus has now become a nightmare. Basically, we realize we’d like to
turn back and forget about Akakor before it is too late.

We have not yet seen any Indians. The first snowcapped mountains of the Andes appear on the horizon;
behind us stretches the green sea of the Amazonian lowlands. Tatunca Nara prepares for his return to his
people. In a strange ceremony, he paints his body: red stripes on his face, chest and legs in dark yellow.
He ties his hair back with a leather band which is decorated with the strange symbols of the Ugha
Mongulala.

On October 13, we have to turn back after all. After a dangerous passage over rapids, the canoe is
caught in an eddy and capsizes. Our camera equipment packed in boxes drifts into the dense bush on the
bank; half of our food and the medical stores are also lost. In this hopeless situation, we decide to give
up the expedition and return to Manaus. Tatunca Nara reacts with irritation: He is bitter and
disappointed. The next morning, J. and I break our last camp. Tatunca Nara, in the war paint of his
people, wearing only a loincloth, takes the overland route to return to his people.

This was my last contact with the Ugha Mongulala chieftain. After my return to Rio de Janeiro in
October 1972, I tried to forget Tatunca Nara, Akakor, and the Gods. It was only in the summer of 1973
that the memory returned: Brazil had started the systematic invasion of Amazonia. Twelve thousand
laborers were building two trunk roads through the as yet unexplored jungle, cutting a distance of 7,000
kilometers. Thirty thousand Indians mistook the bulldozers for giant tapirs and fled into the wilderness.
The last attack on Amazonia had started.
And with that, the old legends returned to me, as fascinating and mystical as before. In April 1973,
FUNAI discovered a tribe of white Indians on the upper reaches of Rio Xingu, which Tatunca Nara had
mentioned to me a year before. In May, during survey work at the Pico da Neblina, Brazilian frontier
guards established contact with Indians who were led by women. They also had been thoroughly
described by Tatunca Nara. And finally, in June 1973, several Indian tribes were sighted in the Acre
region, previously assumed to be "free from Indians."

Does Akakor exist after all? Perhaps not exactly the way Tatunca Nara had described it, but the city is
undoubtedly real. After reviewing Tatunca Nara’s tape recordings, I decided to write his story down "in
good words and in clear script," as the Indians specify. This book, The Chronicle of Akakor, is in five
parts. "The Book of the Jaguar" deals with the colonization of the earth by the Gods and the period up to
the second world catastrophe. "The Book of the Eagle" comprises the time between 6,000 and 11,000
(of their own calendar) and describes the arrival of the Goths. The third book, "The Book of the Ant,"
tells about the struggle against the Spanish and Portuguese colonists after their landing in Peru and
Brazil. The fourth and last book, "The Book of the Water Serpent," describes the arrival of 2,000
German soldiers in Akakor and their integration with the Ugha Mongulala people; it also predicts a third
great catastrophe. In the fifth part, the Appendix, I have summarized the results of my research in
Brazilian and German archives.
The major part of the book, the actual Chronicle of Akakor, closely follows Tatunca Nara’s report. I
have tried to render it as literally as possible, even when the facts seem to contradict traditional
historiography. I have dealt in the same way with maps and drawings based on data supplied by Tatunca
Nara. The script samples were made by Tatunca Nara in Manaus. All subsections are preceded by a
short summary of traditional history to give the reader a basis for comparison, but I have restricted this
to the most important events in South American history. The chronological table at the end of the book
provides a juxtaposition of the Akakor calendar with that of traditional history. On another table, I have
entered the probable names given by white civilization to the various tribes mentioned in the text.

file:///C|/My Documents/My Webs/Akakor/Akakor.htm (9 of 94) [12/5/2001 12:58:31 PM]