Although some people claim to find the jungle a calm and relaxing place, other people do not—not even when they live there. Belizeans of all cultures and colors live in the bush, either one-one (by themselves) or in small, often isolated towns. Like forest-dwellers everywhere, they have plenty of reasons to fear the rainforest. I talked about your run-of-the-mill poisonous and otherwise disagreeable plants and animals last week, along with a woman the Kekchi Maya call ix tabi. Since nobody has ever photographed one (what a surprise), I had to resort to a staged photo from the internet. This time I’m resorting to a drawing. (More about that in a minute.) The ix tabi share the rainforest with other creatures, who have likewise never been photographed.
This “duende” looks as though his father might be a sisimito. Why else would his feet point backwards? And I have never heard of one that had white skin. (Photo by http://www.belizeadventure.ca)
