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Once in the courtyard, surrounded by the packed crowd, the telinel dances his cargo to the strains of a top-rate marimba band. He continues for almost an hour while pausing only briefly. Several times his attendants asked the band to cease, but the telinel insisted they continue, for this was a chance to prove not only his physical strength, but his spiritual fitness for the role as the Mam's bearer and shaman priest. The very title, telinel, implies a shouldering of the burden. And it's said that "no human, of himself, could perform such a feat."