Amazon Duets - Tape of Amazon Trip
Airdate:
Friday - September 17, 1965
WOR Show Original Airing
First Spoken Line After Theme Ends
All right I'm all ready here, here we go. . .
Show Description
Shep opens by playing a tape of him playing the Jews Harp in a duet with Arushba, the son of the tribe chief, who is playing his own hand made violin.
Shep decribes the violin, how it is made and from what woods.
The birds of the jungle. "The smaller the bird the bigger the sound"
Shep explains how he recorded much of the trip on tape.
He talks about how you become chief of the tribe by 'braining' all the competition. The camp is difficult to navigate into so it makes it harder for the enemy tribes to enter. They always are on the alert for jaguar and enemy tribes coming into thecamp.
The violin is handmade and has a face carved into it. They explained that the face meant "it sings to you". Shep plays an excerpt of Arushba playing the 2 string instrument.
The Shapra had no written language. The missionaries are trying to provide them with the written language so that they can preserve their history and not disappear.
Withing 24 hours of arriving he was drinking river water, and eating the roots and the vines. The one thing that kills them is disease.
They thought for a long time that they were the only people in the world. They thought the world was 'pod' shaped.
On his trip to New York to be on Barry Farber's show, (refer to 9-16-65 show for detail), the Chief observed that with so much in the city, you did not have one important thing they had - monkey meat.
Shep plays a portion of tape where he entertained them playing the Kazoo and of the chief speaking.
