There before us was the Candiru. It has a bony snout and sharp teeth and its skin is covered with fine back-swept barbs. It seeks to enter the natural orifices of the body, whether human or animal, and once inside cannot be extracted because of the barbs. While I was in Riberalta an Austrian doctor cut one out of a woman; and a Japanese doctor at Astillero, on the Tambopata River, showed me one of a different species taken from a man's penis (21)
the test is, the conclusion
for here the monster (candiru) functions as a 'scientific tool' in the authro's fantasy. The creature (signifier of the phallus) having penetrated a woman with its bony snout (erection), sharp teeth and barbed skin, is cut out (scarring of the body). A different species is taken from a man after blocking his penis (castration). The Austrian doctor brings to mind Freud and his attitudes to women. While the Japanese doctor signifies the exotic healer outside Western cultural taboos and therefore allowed to handle the symbol of power
