Summary

In "Song for Anninho", Part 1, Almeyda tells Zibatra about her husband, Anninho. The wise woman does not understand why Anninho’s kindness should be surprising if she “gave him what he wanted / [if] he got between [her] knees”, but Almeyda says that she is speaking of “more than that” (72). The narrator asks Zibatra if she saw Anninho by the river. She remembers that they escaped the battle together, but Portuguese soldiers caught up with them at the river. The witch did not see Almeyda’s husband, only Almeyda. She staved the bleeding from the narrator’s chest with mud and brought her into the woods. When Almeyda asks Zibatra to find Anninho, the wise woman tells her that she is “the one to do the finding” (75). As Almeyda continues to spend time with the witch, she thinks of her...