noon
He had conjured up an ancient outboard motor for the scow-like boat Dalton had bought from a fisherman . The sun was setting murkily and the sluggish swell of the water ahead was the color of witch 's blood . Under its opaque surface _ a mae dágua _ , the Mother of Water , ruled over creatures slimy and razor-toothed . In the blackness beneath the great trees , where it was dark even at noon , other beings had their kingdom . Out of the forest came the crying grunting hooting voices of its life that woke at nightfall , fiercer and more feverish than that of the daytime . To the man from the north there seemed something indecent in the fertile febrile swarming of life here . Compared to a temperate woodland the _ mato _ was like a metropolis against a sleepy village .