Strange thing happened today, near dusk. Was walking along a trail in the forest just as the sun was setting, and while walkin along, I heard something hit the ground. So I stopped and waited awhile without moving. Finally, I looked up and saw an eagle (I believe a crested eagle) looking at me from halfway up a tree. When the eagle saw me looking at it, it flapped its wings and quickly flew away. I went over to the tree to investigate and was surprised to find a dead opossum (truly dead--not faking it) lying at the base of the tree. Opossums are mostly nocturnal, and begin to come out of their tree holes when the sun goes down. Evidently, this one had just gotten nailed by the crested eagle, which let it go when it saw me coming along. The opossum couldn't have been dead for more than a few minutes, so I grabbed it by the tail and took it back to the Indian village, dropping it off in front of a pot in the house where I have been staying.

The Yura thought that this was really funny, the fact that I came back with a dead opossum and wanted to eat it. They really laughed. That's because the Yura don't eat carrion or dead things that they find on the ground. They have all kinds of stories about the vulture (the vulture can take them to the land of the dead and then return), none of them exactly complimentary. I guess the Yura woman felt sorry for me, or wanted a good laugh, because she skinned the opossum, roasted it on a spit, and then gave it to me. It was surprisingly delicious and quite fatty, but none of the other Yura would touch it. Oh, well. It was great eating, whether they liked the idea of eating it or not.