Call of duty

What is it like to be one of the last custodians of an ancient rite? Meet a man who weaves bridges from grass, a woman who can turn metal into a mirror, and other guardians of some of humanity's oldest surviving secrets

- Gowri S [e-mail]

BC travel correspondent Eliot Stein was wandering through the colourful streets of Burano in Italy, where each home is painted in at least two colours (yellows, reds and oranges abound), when he met a blind, 90-year-old woman. He soon discovered she was one of the last people on Earth who knew how to make a specific kind of incredibly intricate lace. She described it as "embroidering the air". Isn't it strange, Stein thought, that this is how Burano lace will end; after 300 years of being worn by royalty, traded at exorbitant rates, and treated as a coveted status symbol?

"It was once so valuable, it was even the target of international smuggling. But more than anything, it was the pride of Burano. It was the life's work of an astonishing line of women who gave something beautiful to the world, and in doing so, shaped this island," says Stein, 42.

From that chance encounter 20 years ago came the idea for Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions and the Last People Keeping Them Alive (2024).

Stein's book now serves as a custodian too. It tells 10 tales from five continents. Among these are the stories of ...

· A man in Japan with knowledge of the secret ingredient in a 700-year-old recipe for soy sauce. · A 27th-generation West African griot or bard (he can recite the entire Epic of Sundiat, about the 13th-century founder of the Mali empire).