Another myth taken from Michel Perrin's book "El Camino de Los Indios Muertos" explains the origin of Kasipoluin, the rainbow, and the connection between Kasipoluin and Juya, the rain.
Without Kasipoluin, the rainbow, it would rain without cease,
but the rainbow came to tell Juya, the rain, to stop.
He comes to disperse the rains.
The rainbow comes out at the same time as Juya,
to tell him to stop:
"Don't rain any more, Juya," he tells him.
They say that the Rainbow is the tongue of a snake,
that lives in the Earth, like a root.
What comes out of its mouth, appearing like a smoke, is three-pronged:
green or blue, yellow and red.
But the snake itself is unique,
having the same colours as the rainbow.
I know a child, who was running and
arrived at the place where a rainbow was coming out.
He saw a coiled up snake.
Frightened, he ran away immediately.
He did not try and get closer.
But he clearly saw a rainbow emerge from the snake.
The Guajiros say that,
snakes are the enemies of Juya.
And Juya is the enemy of snakes.
He strikes them with his lighting bolts when he sees them.
It is his fault that the largest ones are dead.
Some people say that the rainbow always comes from the boa, Sarulu.
Others say that it can come from any snake,
or an iguana or the caiman, Maliwa.
Translated by Russell Maddicks
Wayuu Myth 1: The Way of the Dead Indians
Wayuu Myth 2: Pulowi and the Jewels
Wayuu Myth 4: The Origin of Fire
Video of the Wayuu People and Their Native Land
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