a shrunken head from peru and a feather with traces of blood are the clues that launch tahir shah on his latest journey fascinated by the recurring theme of flight in peruvian folklore shah sets out to discover whether the incas really were able to fly like birds over the jungle as a spanish monk reported or was their soaring druginduced his journey full of surreal experiences takes him from the andes mountains to the desert and finally in the company of a vietnam vet up the amazon deep into the jungle to discover the secrets of the shuar a tribe of legendary savagery travel writing at its best at once colorful informative and amusing doris lessing said that shah has a genius for surreal traveling the cast of characters includes madmen and dreames sorcerers and con men headhunters and scholarsin short the usual assortment for shah features an appendix on florabased hallucinogens of amazonia including ayahuasca the vine of the dead hardcover isbn 1559706139