Chapters 10, 11 and 12 Summary

In these chapters, the author continues her descriptions of specific, enlightening incidents on her journey.

"Jewelry." The author gives herself her first "talent-name" - Dung Collector, in honor of her skill at finding dried animal dung to use in fires. She also describes how a young girl of the tribe found and wore with a single, simple flower, returning it to the earth after a single day of celebrating its, and her own, beauty. The author compares the girl with a woman she knew back in America, who was causing herself increasing stress over how she should take care of an immensely valuable diamond necklace. The flower, she writes, "had meaning." The diamonds "had value."

"Gravy." The author and the tribe encounter the grave of a long-forgotten mutant. Tool Maker reconstructs the cross that marks the grave while Ooiota points out...