OUTLOOK

by PETER ZUCKERMAN IArt by by JEREMY COLLINS

the samc trcl, refused tll try it.
Two days later, a freal, avalanche
erushed him to death.
"Please, pJew;e," I<.rishna said,
assuring me I was Iud,,' to find
an~'one who'd sell it. ''I'll eat the
other hnlf."
[ later found out that ~'ar­
sagu 111 ha-one of scvcra I na mes
and spellings it goes by-forms
when a fUll,~US aWlcl,s ghost moth
larva. The caterpillar lllul11lllifies,
and :l mushrool11 shoots out of its
head, spreading spores that l\ill
other eaterpillars.
We nearJ~' met the same fate.
Forty-eight hours after huying the
stuff, three of us were convuls-
ing. Mal'ing matters worse, it had
hcen e10udy for days. This me;,1nt
the solar eell only had the juiee
for ;1 two-minute S( lS.
I phoned 111~' eousin. She never
sleeps and has a high limit on her
IIlasterCard. It was J ;1.111. in Los
l\ngeles when l\manua answered.
"So you're in a village in the
Jlimalaya," she respollde'd, "You
just OD'ed on ~I eaterpill[lr with
sh rooms ,growi I\~ out its head-
and ~'Clli want an evne on n Soviet-
era hclicopter'~"
J meant to answer, hut the line
went dead.
HUNGUNG IS A CURIOUS place.. To off. on, then darti11g awa~' in ,green
unfolded a gruhh~' h<lndl,crehiet'
that revca led t.he yarsagumba.
Ill' comhed his fingers throu.l\h
the pile. Speaking in \'epali, he
said you should chew the "worm
hean" straight, hut you can also
grind it to a paste, hrew it as
tea, ruh it on your s\dn or sprin-
Ide it on food. Its value exeeeds
SJ()O,OOO per kilo. But he lil,cd
me a nd would eu t a dea I.
I distrust hard dru,!!,s; life is ps~'­
ehedelie enough without them. I
didn't imagine yarsagumha could
he a narcotic. Everyone described
it as medieine. I ha!!..-&\Ied. hCllIght
some worms and, along \vith m~'
friends, ;tte one. It tasted like Eng-
lish Brealdast Tea ;lI1d had the
texture of wood. I waited for the
ener,gy boost to power me up the
1,200-meter elimh planncd that
day. !\othing Iwppened.
At camp that evcning in I"lllll, a
villa,~er cxamined our worms, \\'e'u
been semllmed, she said, For that
inferior stuff to worl\. \ve'd neeu to
gorge ourselves on two dozen pieces,
Playing it safe, I swalkJ\ved another.
~I~' friend f'as<lng Lanw took two.
A few hours later, m~' vision
blurred. The ,ground morphed, \voh-
blin,gand sinkin,g beneat.h m~' boors.
]3!;lck poll'<I dots scattered across
my field of vision, winking off. on,

Finding Nirvana get there. I tool, a tlight to an ail'- streal,s. Sl~' jaw vibrated. E\'er~'­
strip in Turnlin,~tar, Aepal. Then I thing I touehed was velvet. Time
joined 2J others smashed into and turned frcnzied, cartoon ish. Dru,gs
It was just medicine. Right?
on top of a flatbed truck that jostled arcn't for evcry'onC', hut th<lt carcr-

O
f course it was a bad idea, but evcn the guide
considered it sate. lIe hou,ght 400 rupees' worth.
So did some of my Sherpa triends. The interpret-
er planned to give it to her parents to improve
digcstion, cyesight and stamina. Why not try a piece?
:\obody kncll' what this thing' ens nails, rcgcneratcs the hairline'
was, but it J<)(JJ,ed harmless. j\ It's the \\'ell-I\I1o\\'n Ilimalavan
tapered e~'li}]der stretehin,~ two Viagra\ It's the world's only half-
inches long, it had rid,~es popping plant, half-animal. One bite accel-
aeross and a tuber sprouting out enltes thinldng, relaxes the mind
one cnd. It rescmhled ;1 shriveled ;\I1d makes the fat man slim!
e;lterpill;lr with a tumor ,growing i\ porter named Krishna told
from its forehead, me ahout a depressed En,t:!ishman
.\s we treld,ed to lIungung, ;1 who swallmved the "magic ve,~et;t­
remote village in ~epal, wc hC;trd hie" ~·ctrsagul11ba. lIe immediatelv
the loea Is prod;li m thc nW,l\iea I started a hotel business. made
properties of "Y, \\V-Sheh (;OOM- millions and seduced a heauti-
hah" Lt treats sunhurn, strength- ful woman. A (3erman tourist on
along unt.il the road ended near a pillar was working for Ille.
cliff. !\ext. we trudged five days over We erouehed inside a hut around
switehhaeks ami passes, erossin,~ a fire, eating rice and dahl. :\ohody
canyons over bridges made of rusted else felt the effects of the half-plant,
elwin linl\. The aren lacks running half-animal. Some claimed I was
water, eleetrieity, l11aehinery and fal,in,~ it. f'asan,gswaJlowed another.
an official spelling. Almost everv- If I felt weird, this 2::;-~'ear-old
thing is made from SlOne, reeds, mountaineering prodig~' wouldn't
wood and dun,g mortar. Speaking in let me go it alone. Ohli\'ious, I sang
one of the Sherpa Innguages, ehil- a Sherpa tune resemhling "Tal,e Me
dren in Bungung petted my skin (Jut to the Ball Game" and shoveled
and asked whv it was white. handfuls of riee into mv mouth. The
h;td left for IIungung to ~';lrsagumb;t made ever~,thing taste
researeh <I hool, ;lhout K2's like truffles in ,\-1 steak sauee.
hcroes, sec!, peace and a\'oid frus- :\ext thing I remember, I woke
tr;ttions at home. I met the ~'ar­ in a sweltering tent. ,\Ithollgh on
sagul11ba dealer on the \V;t~' bad\. the ,~rollnd, I groped for <J hand-
IIis gnarled arms ,lI1d dented bee hold to prevent 1ll~'seJf from f;lJl-
made me thinl, of a tree stump. ,\ ing through. The walls of the tent
group huddled ;tround him. and he s"emed to be closing in on me. I

,2 ROCKANDICE.COM • 09 DECEMBER