Beach Chicken

On Sunday, Monteiro and I headed over to Ponta Negra beach after our tennis lesson. We bought two cans of Guaranà soda and drank them as we walked along the riverbank. The Negra is so huge that is almost seems like a lake, and the sandy beach certainly reinforces that. Along the way are parasols where vendors have set up shop, at one of which we bought the sodas. As we walked along, though, the sound of a clucking chicken suddenly permeated the air: cluck, cluck, clu-coooo! I whipped my head around to find no beach chicken, but instead a well-tanned elderly man in sunglasses and a hat selling a simple, yet effective, noise-making device. What is basically a thick, paperboard cup with a long blue string stapled to the bottom, the device makes an uncanny chicken sound that echoes throughout the area. We approached him and he showed us it worked by running your forefinger against the inside of the paperboard cup where there was some chalk, rubbing your finger and thumb together, and then, grasping the string, slowly pulling down, short and quick at first--cluck, cluck--and then one long, deliberate pull--c-c-coooooo. And, wallah, beach chicken!