Opinion – Darwin and God: Prehistory of Brazil brings flavor to Guimarães Rosa’s narrative

The language of the genius from Minas Gerais Guimarães Rosa (1908-1967) is one of the most wonderful things that the Portuguese language and Brazilian culture have ever produced. I didn’t read anything by him for a long time, which maybe it was now that I’ve resumed reading the narrative “O Recado do Morro”, because some things jumped to my eyes with an unexpected freshness. For example: isn’t Rosa a beautiful summary of some of the main discoveries of Brazilian paleontology at the time when describing the scenarios in the interior of Minas Gerais that her characters visit?

Here’s the passage:

“And in the caves there were bones, passed out of old age, of animals with no normal stature, their hauntings – the megatherium, the saber-toothed tiger, the protopanther, the spelea hyena monster, the paleo-dog, the speleous wolf, the cave bear — and big men, of those that are no more.”

“Megatério” is one of the types of giant sloth — there were many Brazilian species, like the owner of the skeleton that the reader sees above. At the same time, there are some mistakes by Rosa – or, perhaps, he is just repeating what was the knowledge of his time, now outdated. We know, for example, that “spelea hyena” — cave hyena — was a species unique to the Old World, and the same goes for wolves themselves, which never lived here.

“O Recado do Morro” is a charm and is worth reading and rereading. Hail, Rose!