The Wari', for as long as they had existed, had no chiefs and were thus spared the inconvenience of government and brutal regimes that afflicted the other peoples of the world. Every Wari' was therefore equal. Everyone, except the co tucu ninim', or shaman, who walked between the worlds. Shamans were not specially selected through some arcane criteria, nor did they have schools, for the concept of schools did not yet exist for them. These men were born with certain gifts, that was true, and no one knew why. But when conditions were right, they were called upon by unseen forces to activate those gifts and make them bloom.
Xijam did not know how old he was when the jaguars took him. The Wari’ did not reckon time and troubled themselves with neither calendars nor even numbers. 'One' was simp
