June 22 is World Rainforest Day. It is a day to help keep awareness up of protecting our rainforests. They say that 20% of our oxygen, and the fresh water we drink is because of the rain forests. I have a section in the library, of stories and adventures in Africa and South America (The tropics are the area between the Tropics (Latitudes) of Cancer and Capricorn). It is a wonderful section of the library because one can safely curl up in a reading chair, and yet still visit a dangerous world. There are some great books of adventure on that shelf.
I could show something famous like “Wonders of the Tropics, Exploration and Adventures of Henry M. Stanley.” by Henry Davenport Northrop, 1889 (with more than 200 striking illustrations), but decided to go a more feminine route. I have several books of women who have been just as brave and adventurous as any man. Here are a few of their stories in the tropics, the jungle, the rainforest.
“Headhunting in the Solomon Islands” by by Caroline Mytinger, 1942. This is the story of two women, Miss Caroline Mytinger and her friend Margaret Warner who in 1926 packed up to paint and record the indigenous tribes of the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Miss Mytinger had some anthropological training, yet still many did not want her to undertake this expedition, thinking they would not return. It did take several years. It also was almost ten years to get this (the first of two books) about her travels printed. What an adventure to read! On the back cover was a notice “Send this book to a boy in the armed forces anywhere for only 6ȼ. ” It was during the war.
“Madami, My Eight Years of Adventuree With the Congo Pigmies” by Anne Eisner Putman, 1954. Anne Eisner (a painter) first went to Africa in 1945 with an anthropologist Pat Putnam to the Iruri Forest to study the Mbuti tribe of pigmies. He had lived there before. They married several years later, and set up a permanent base for study and to help the Mbuti tribe.
This book is a wonderful look into the lives of several tribes in the African Congo, as well as the hardships and misfortunes of rainforest life. She talks much on nature and the animals of the jungle. There is an interesting story, not of dangerous leopards or elephants, but of driver ants. Every now and again a snake-like column would make their way through the jungle, eating anything that was in their way. The stories that Mrs Putnam tell, are amazing.
The next book is “The Nun’s Story” by Kathryn Hulme, 1956. The author tells the story of Sister Luke, a Belgian girl who entered a famous Nursing order. In 1933 she spent much time in the Belgian Congo before she had to leave because of tuberculosis, and went back to Belgium. The name is fiction. It is actually Marie Louis Habets. The events in Africa are something to read. Then there is an interesting subplot of her resistance against the Germans during World War II in Belgium, after her time in the Congo. The story may have been embelished some, even more so in the movie “The Nun’s Story” starring Audrey Hepburn, but the essential story is true. It is still a marvelous read.
Then I have “Witch Doctor’s Apprentice” by Nicole Maxell, 1961. The title goes on to say “Deep in the jungle, searching for fabulous medicinal plants of the Peruvian Indians, she came upon two that interest every woman-one to ensure fertility, another to prevent conception. This is her story.”
It is quite a story. In 1958, she was able to have an American drug company fund her adventure to the jungles of Peru to bring back plant specimens for medicinal use. She spent almost a year, and brought back very unusual plants used by natives, and witch doctors that she befriended. It is a very good read, especially her interactions with the tribes that she encountered. Also amazing, is the quality and uses, of some of the plants that she found and brought back.
These are some wonderful adventures, by women in dangerous environs. I am glad to have taken the time to read and understand a few of their stories. I applaud their dedication to stand on their own. And though I’m a little peckish, I am going to respect these women and their stories, and hold off talking of National Kissing Day (June 22), till we’re all ready, and that may be July 6th-International Kissing Day.
Until then guys, hands on your books, and please keep reading.
Librarytomes 