Warao Myth 1: The Owner of the Sun

The Warao of Delta Amacuro State have made their homes in the hundreds of distributaries called caños that make up the Orinoco delta and adapted to life in a watery world that changes with the rise and fall of the tides.

Their palafito houses rise up from the river mud on stilts and their name, Warao, means "boat people". Most travel and nearly all trade is done in the curiara canoes that the Warao hollow from a single giant tree trunk and it is said that Warao babies learn to paddle before they learn to walk.

There are over 36,000 Warao in Delta Amacuro, Monagas and Sucre states, according to the 2001 census, and they speak an independent language that was once thought to be linked to Yanomami.

They have a complex tradition of myths, healing rituals and music that survives to this day and Warao women are noted for their excellent weaving skills and the baskets and hammocks they weave from moriche palm fibres.

This myth, which relates how Ya, the Sun, and Guaniku, the Moon, came to light up the sky, is taken from Maria Manuela de Cora's book "Kuai-Mare: Mitos Aborigenes de Venezuela" (1957, Editorial Oceanida).

Long ago, at the beginning of everything, the sun did not light up the rivers or warm the conuco gardens, because a man who lived in the land up above, towards the East, had locked up Ya, the Sun, in a large bag and did not let him rise up over the clouds.

A Warao who lived in one of the branches of the Orinoco discovered the way in which Ya was hidden and decided to send his oldest daughter to the east to see if she could make the man release the sun.

The girl had to walk for a long time through the jungle and had a hard job clearing a path through the forest and crossing the steep riverbanks before she finally arrived at the distant place where the owner of the Sun lived.

When she arrived in front of him she said: "My father wants you to release the Sun from the hiding place you're keeping him in and to put him on the sea above (the sky) so he can shine his light on everybody.

The owner of the Sun pretended not to understand the girl's words, he looked at her warmly and finding her pretty wanted to take her for his wife.

She did not want to give in to his desires but the man rudely forced her to accept him and then sent her away, taking no notice of her father's request.

When the girl got home to the village she told her father everything that had happened and how the owner of the Sun had laughed at his request.

The father, undeterred by this, decided to send his second daughter, to see if she would have more luck than her sister.

The Warao's second daughter also had to cross the jungle and walk a long way, although she took less time than her sister to arrive at the house of the owner of the Sun, who she asked to release Ya and let him pass freely through the clouds.

But the man also ignored the girl's request and made her his wife like the other one, because she was also pretty and had awoken his desire.

Afterwards, he said: "Off you go now to the land below and don't come back and bother me."

Instead of obeying these cruel words as her sister had done, she relied angrily: "How dare you speak to me like that? Are you not going to release the Sun?"

And while she spoke to him, she looked around anxiously to see if she could discover the place where Ya was hidden, until she spied a strange and very large bag tied to the wooden posts of the wall and stared at it intently, suspecting that this was it.

Seeing that the girl was looking at the bag, the man said quickly: "careful! Don't even think about touching that!"

By the tone of his voice the Warao girl knew for sure that the Sun was hidden there and ignoring the man's threats she leapt towards the bag in a single bound and ripped it open with a swipe of her hand.

The bright face of Ya, the Sun, appeared immediately, orange and dazzling, and began to diffuse its heat and the light of its rays over the clouds of the sea above and over the hills and woods of the Earth. Its light reached to the very bottom of the rivers and the realm of the spirits who live beneath the water.

Seeing that his secret had been discovered and he could not contain the power of Ya again, the man pushed it towards the East and hung the ripped bag in the West, which was lit up by the rays of the Sun and became the Moon.

The girl ran home to her hut to tell her father how she had managed to free the Sun from its hiding place.

The Warao was very happy and did nothing more than contemplate the beauty of Ya, shining from the sea above. But when less than half a joyakaba (tide) had passed the Sun disappeared behind the hills, leaving the rivers lit only by the reflection of Guaniku, the moon.

The Warao said to his daughter: "Go again to the East and wait for the Sun to start his trip over the clouds. Just as he is starting out, carefully tie a tortoise behind him, so he travels more slowly.

The girl did what her father had told her and managed to hook Guaku, the tortoise, to the Sun's tail, stopping Ya from racing too much with its slow pace and so making sure the Earth was illuminated for the period of joyakaba and joajua (the tides).

Since then it has done just this every day and it only hides away at night, disappearing little by little over the waters of the rivers to sleep and refresh itself by drinking, because if it didn't it would die of the heat given off by its rays.

Meanwhile, Guaniku follows Ya's path, reflecting the light of the Sun from the West.

Translated by Russell Maddicks

Wayuu Myth 2: Pulowi and the Jewels

Wayuu Myth 2: Pulowi of the Land and Pulowi of the Sea

This myth taken from Michel Perrin's book "El Camino de Los Indios Muertos" tells the tale of two of Juya's wives, Pulowi of the Land and Pulowi of the Sea, who are fierce nature goddesses. Juya, a hunter who controls the rain, was married to Pulowi but later left her for Mma, who gave birth to plants. That is why the spurned Pulowi is so dangerous to people today and can turn those who look upon her to stone, or seduce them in the form of a beautiful woman and then devour them. The jewels that the troupial is sent to steal are tu'uma, made from red jasper or coral. Tu'uma are considered so precious by the Wayuu that they can form part of the "bride price", which is paid by the groom's parents to the bride's parents. Some tu'uma necklaces are considered equal in value to several dozen cattle. Alijuna are outsiders, non-Indians.

The Pulowi from the bottom of the sea
And the Pulowi that lives on land
are the wives of Juya.

The Pulowi from the bottom of the sea is richer.
Her "cattle",
are the turtles, the fish
and all the other food in the sea.
She owns a great deal of tu'uma
and jewels of every kind.

The Pulowi of the Land is poor.
Her "cattle",
are just the deer, the roe deer, the foxes,
and some other animals.

One day, she decided to steal a bag of tu'uma
from Pulowi of the Sea.

"Why don't you send me,"
said the Si'a bird, the troupial.
"Do you have supernatural powers
to try and bring me the jewels?"


"Yes, I am pulashi (magically powerful),"
replied the small Si'a bird to Pulowi of the Land.
"Well go then!"
"And return with the best jewels!"
"I will say you are pulashi
only when you have brought from Pulowi of the Sea,
the best bag of jewels."

The Si'a bird travelled very far,
to the seashore.
Then he went to the home of Pulowi of the Sea,
a very big house,
where her children also lived,
her daughters, the daughters of Juya.

"Hey Guajiro!"
"I've never see you before! Where are you from?"
"What are you after,
Indian who comes from far away from here?"
Pulowi asked him.
"I like to explore the world,
and I want to meet you."

"So you came to stay here?"
"Hang a hammock for this Guajiro!"
Pulowi said to her daughters, the daughters of Juya.

Pulowi of the Sea was very rich.
Her house was very big, very tall.
She had a great number of cattle,
turtles, fish and all sorts of sea birds.

Si'a stayed with her.
A hammock was put up for him
in which he could sleep.

The third day, at dawn,
while everybody was asleep
he flew up above the bags of jewels,
which were suspended very high, under the roof of the house.
He examined them.


One of them was small
but it contained the best jewels.
"This is the one I shall take,"
he said to himself.

When he came down,
he took the form of a Guajiro again
and stretched out in his hammock.

The next night,
he was the only one who did not go to bed late.
Finally, everybody went to sleep.
The old ones were sleeping and snoring.
Pulowi was sleeping.

Si'a was watching the susu
- the woven bags that contained the jewels -
"Where is the fastening for this one?"
"Is it tied to the other one?"
he asked himself.
He went to undo the small bag,
the bag that was secured at both corners.
He put it on his back,
and fled.

He went to deliver it to Pulowi of the Land,
who is also Juya's wife.

When Pulowi of the Sea woke up,
she looked up at her bag of jewels.
The bags weren't there any more!
They had been brought down to the ground.
The smallest, the most precious, had disappeared...

Pulowi could not see the Guajiro any more.
She went to check his hammock.
It was empty.
"Oh, help me," she cried.
"That man has left with my small woven bag!"

Pulowi's children woke up.
"Weren't you with him?"
she asked them.
"Yes, but he seemed asleep."
"I didn't notice anything..."
"What are we going to do?" said Pulowi.
"The bag is very far now,"
said the daughters.

Pulowi jumped into the sea after the Guajiro.
"Ou! Ouuuuuuuuuu! Ou! Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu...!"
She always does that when she is robbed.
Pulowi was foaming at the mouth, following him.
But he was far away already.
The sea could not reach him now.

Si'a was now close to Pulowi of the Land.
"So have you brought them?" she asked when he arrived.
"Take this bag!"
"You'll find the best she had!"
replied the Si'a bird.
"Let me see!" said Pulowi.

From the bag of jewels she took out the tu'uma
and many necklaces, kakuuna and korolo...
She passed each one to her bag.

Pulowi gave the bag that had served as a wrapping
back to the Si'a bird.
"Take it!"
"Make yourself a hammock from this bag from a far away land,"
she told him.
From that time,
the Si'a bird has had a very good hammock of woven straw.

Do you know the nest of this bird Alijuna?
Have you seen the house of the Si'a bird?
When it's hanging down it looks like a woven bag
whose bottom has come untied.
We call it a chirana.
It was given to the bird by Pulowi.

Translated by Russell Maddicks

Wayuu Myth 1: The Way of the Dead Indians

Wayuu Myth 3: Kasipoluin the Rainbow

Wayuu Myth 4: The Origin of Fire

Video of the Wayuu People and Their native Land

Timote-Cuica: Caribay and the Five White Eagles of Merida

Timote-Cuica Myth 1: Caribay and the Five White Eagles

This myth from Merida is taken from Maria Manuela de Cora's book "Kuai-Mare: Mitos Aborigenes de Venezuela" but was originally collected by the noted Merida historian and writer Don Tulio Febres Cordero (1860-1938). The Timote-Cuica were a pre-Colombian collection of loosely-linked Chibcha-speaking chiefdoms living in an area that encompasses the current Andean states of Merida, Trujillo and Tachira. Their chief God was Ches, the Supreme Being, but they also worshipped Zuhe, the Sun, and Chia, the Moon, and venerated the mountain peaks and lakes. This myth tells the tale of Caribay, wind spirit of the high paramos, and the origin of Merida's five highest peaks - Bolivar (5007m), Humboldt/Bonpland (4942m), La Concha (4922m), El Toro (4775m) and El Leon (4743m).

High among the rocky crags of the Andes mountains, with their jagged peaks and hills, the Mirripuyes Indians lived a hard life, fighting frequent wars with their neighbours. In their vegetable plots, they grew corn, yucca, ocumo and different fruits. They hunted the abundant rabbits and deer in the forest and the birds that soared in the clear mountain sky.

One of the fierce Indian chiefs had a daughter, Caribay. She was so beautiful that people from the tribe thought she must be the daughter of Zuhe, the Sun, and Chia, the moon, because her eyes and her skin were so bright that they seemed to be made of pure light.


Caribay liked to wear necklaces of bone or painted clay and adorn her hair with coloured feathers.

One day, she was on the bank of a river looking for shiny flat stones to decorate her cotton shawl when she saw five gigantic condors fly past, their white plumage shining like silver in the sun.

Caribay had never seen birds like these before. Straight away, she felt a desire to adorn herself with their feathers and she began to run after the shadows they cast on the ground, hoping they would tire of flying before she tired of chasing them.

So she ran from hill to hill, jumping over ravines and the streams formed by the meltwater that blocked her path, until, overcome with fatigue she reached one of the highest summits of the mountain, a place bare of any vegetation, where the silence made her feel she was in the presence of Ches (the Supreme Being of the Timote-Cuica tribes).

When the birds got there they stopped for moment and then began to fly higher until they disappeared from view.

Caribay stopped. She was surprised at how far she had run. From the peak where she was standing she could see on one side, far away, the wide savannah at the foot of the mountain, and on the other side the great Laguna de Coquivacoa, in which the mountains of the sierra were reflected as if they rose up from the lake itself.

Above her head the mist which guards the realm of Ches was closing in as night began to fall.

Caribay felt cold and was afraid. She began to cry, calling on Zuhe, the Sun, to help her. But her cries bounced off the rocky crags until they turned into a terrifying whistle that echoed through the mountains. The Sun, however, unheeding of her pleas, began to set behind the Andes.

"Will you help me Chia!" said the girl, turning to the Moon.

As the wind dropped, Caribay´s words could be clearly heard. Chia, the Moon, appeared. Her radiance blocked out the light from the stars and lit up the sky, suddenly highlighting the five white eagles, which began to fly towards the Earth.

Filled with joy, Caribay began to sing a slow, rhythmic chant - like flute music - as the eagles descended lower and lower, until they touched down on the high Andean mountains close to the girl, cleaving to the rocks with their claws, each one on a different peak.

There they remained, motionless, their faces pointing north and their wings extended to form the white mountain peaks that stand out even in the dead of night.

"Now I can pluck some of their feathers," Caribay said to herself, and ran with new energy towards the birds, holding out her arms to reach them.

But when she touched their hard feathers, she stopped, afraid, and fled - giving out a long cry, because the condors had turned to ice and stone in their positions.

On hearing the young girl's cry, which resounded around the peaks like the echo of a great wind, Chia hid herself in the clouds and the five eagles awoke and furiously beat their wings, their white feathers falling down in a flurry of snowflakes that covered the mountains completely.

Caribay was lost that night among the peaks and became the spirit of the Andes. The eagles - still and silent in their high perches - became the five enormous mountain peaks that make up Merida's high sierra, perpetually covered in snow.

Nowadays, when Caribay, the spirit of the mountains, gives out her shrill lament - which is the howl of the storm - the eagles once again awake and shake off their feathers as falling snow and all the mountain peaks once again become white, in the heavy snow storms.

Translated by Russell Maddicks

Yanomami: The Origin of Eating the Dead

Yanomami Myth 2: The Origin of Eating the Dead

This myth comes from the book "Literaturas Indigenas de Venezuela" (Monte Avila, 1975), an anthology of myths from many Venezuelan indigenous groups collected by Father Cesareo de Armellada. It explains the origin of the Yanomami practice of endocannibalism, consuming the ashes of their dead in a plantain soup. This is a unique practice among tribal peoples today, but endocannibalism was once widespread among Panoan-speakers in South America and was only banned among Aboriginal groups in Australia in the 1960s. The photo comes from a trip I made to La Esmeralda and the Yanomami community of El Cejal.

Poreími was a talented, generous Yanomami with a magnificent intelligence. He is the one who gave the Indians stone axe blades. All the stone axe blades that are found at ancient sites are from Poreími.

At that time, there was a terrible scarcity of food in the world and the Yanomami had to eat meat raw, as they did not possess fire yet.
At that time, Poreími went to the jungle and built a magnificent house to live in with his wife Poreímiyoma.

One day some Indians came to visit them, and as a gift, they left different kinds of plantains, including a very large variety called "pareamu". That is what the one they were presented with is called.

Later, Poreími received another visit from Wayaromi, who as a present left "wabu", a fruit that is eaten when better foods are in short supply. As 'wabu" is poisonous in its natural state, Wayaromiriwa (the spirit of Wayaromi) showed Poreími how it should be prepared, cutting it into small slices with a tortoise shell.

Then Wayaromi turned himself into a bird.

Later, some other Yanomami arrived at Poreími's house. Not with presents this time, but with... empty stomachs.

They brought with them a frightful hunger. Poreími, moved by their plight, gave them abundant food to eat and on saying goodbye gave them several kinds of plantains, urging them to plant many, especially the "pareamu". He also gave them the "wabu".

The vistors then returned to their village. In their gardens they planted many plantains, harvested them in great quantities and since then have not suffered hunger any more.

Grateful for the precious presents they had received they sent a delegation to pass on their thanks to Poreími.

Arriving at his house they found him very upset: his son had died.

At that time the Yanomami used to bury their dead.

Poreími told his guests how he had carried out his son's funeral: he had burnt the body, collected the bones, ground them to ash and eaten the ashes in a soup of "pareamu" plantains.

When he said goodbye, he urged them to do the same with their own dead.

Since then, the Yanomami no longer bury the dead but burn them and consume their ashes mixed with plantain soup.

Translated by Russell Maddicks

Click here to read Yanomami Myth 1: The Origin of Fire

Video of Sanema Shaman Ritual with Bruce Parry

Click here to return to Venezuelan Indian main page

Pemon: The Great Flood and Creation of Roraima

Pemon Myth 3: The Great Flood and the Creation of Roraima

This myth continues the story of Makunaima and his brothers after they find a magical tree in the jungle which has all the fruits and crops in the world growing from its branches. It recounts the cause of the great flood, the origin of fish and the creation of Mount Roraima. The text is taken from Maria Manuela de Cora's book "Kuai-Mare: Mitos Aborigenes de Venezuela" (1957, Editorial Oceanida). It was originally collected by the German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg during his 1911-1912 expedition to the Pemon villages near Roraima.

Not many moons had passed since Makunaima and his brothers had first eaten the fruit from the magic tree Wazacá when Ma'nápe came up with the idea of cutting it down, and just like that he told the others.

But Akuli (agouti), who was very intelligent, told him:
- How can you think such a thing? The Wazacá provides us with its fruits and all of us can eat from it. If you chop it down not only will we all lose out, but it will create a huge flood as well.

Ma'nápe listened to everything, thinking he would ignore it, because he was very stubborn, and then he went to the corner where he kept his enormous axe, hefted it on to his shoulder and walked across the valley and into the jungle towards the tree of life.

Akuli followed behind to see if he could avert the flood. And walking one behind the other they soon arrived at that far place, draped in shadows and heavy with perfume, where the Wazacá tree raised its leafy bulk over the roof of the forest and and high above it.

Ma'nápe approached the tree with determination and tested his axe against its impenetrable bark. The axe bounced off the wood without leaving the tiniest sign it had even grazed it.

So Ma'nápe had another go at the Wazacá but this time he intoned in a powerful voice that reverberated through the whole forest:
- Mazapa-yeg, élupa-yeg, makupa-yeg.

With this spell he invoked the mazapa, mamao and cariaca trees, which have very soft wood, to see if the wood of the Wazacá would soften.

No sooner had he said the magic words when the wood of the Wazacá tree became soft and Ma'nápe's axe bit deep into the trunk and started to cut deeper and deeper.

Akuli, meanwhile, became very afraid and begged Ma'nápe again not to try and cut the tree down; but seeing that Ma'nápe was not listening to him, he began frantically collecting bees wax and fruit husks to try and fill the gashes opening up in the tree trunk and see if he could avert the flood that way.

But Ma'nápe continued even faster in his destruction of the tree of life, with his invocations of soft-wood trees.

He named them all - one by one - and then finally he said:
- Palulu-yeg.

The trunk went really soft and the axe went so far into the Wazacá tree that it opened an enormous gash that left it held together only by a sliver at one end, because with those words Ma'nápe had invoked the wood of the papaya tree, which is extremely soft.

Meanwhile, all the brothers had arrived at the spot where Ma'nápe and Akuli were fighting to achieve their contrary wishes. Just at the moment when it looked like Ma'nápe was going to get his wish, there was a furious shout that was heard above all the sounds of the jungle:
- Waina-yeg!

It was Anzikilán, who had run all the way to save the tree of life.
And with his spell, the Wazacá tree suddenly became very hard again because Anzikilán had invoked the wood of the Waina tree, which grows in the highest mountains and whose trunk is as hard as the rocks that form the Euteurimá Waterfall.

The axe was stopped, it could not advance further, but Ma'nápe, blinded by his obsession and without giving up, shouted out again with all his strength:
- Elupa-yeg, palulu-yeg!

And the tree of life, which had its trunk opened up like a huge, deep cavern, was rapidly torn asunder and crashed to the earth, its wide branches thrown out to the winds; its high crown laden with fruit, shaking, its powerful roots, creaking.

In its fall, the Wazacá tree threw up stones and mud, plants, bushes and lianas, and pushed over the trees Élu'yeg and Yaluwazáluima'yeg, forming the mountains called by those names today.

And from its immense trunk, roots and branches was formed the great mountain Roraima, which rises like a giant from the savannah and silently watches as time, suns, moons and people pass by.

The crown of the Wazacá tree, heavy with its fruits, rolled down to the northern side of the mountain, and that is why there are so many plantain trees over there that nobody planted. They are eaten by the evil Mawari spirits, who have their houses on Mount Roraima and other mountains close by.

If the crown of the tree had fallen towards the south, it would be the Arekuna (Pemon) who could enjoy its fruits.

The noise of the Wazacá tree's fall - which reached the furthest corner of the forest and the savannah like a great sigh - had not yet subsided when a huge spout of water shot out of the trunk and began to flood everything, rapidly sweeping past Makunaima and his brothers and battering them with bright drops of water, as sharp as arrows.

The foaming water carried with it thousands of fish and the brothers watched them and tried to catch them but the current was too strong.

The largest fish disappeared immediately from view, leaving only the small ones lagging behind, so that neither Makunaima or the others could catch the ones they most wanted.

And so it was as Akuli had predicted in those far off times: the Earth and men experienced the great flood.

Translated by Russell Maddicks

Pemon Myth 1: The Legend of Makunaima
Pemon Myth 2: The Tree of Life
Auyan-tepui, Angel Falls and Pemon myths
Canaima: Pemon Spirit of Death

Click here to return to Venezuelan Indian main page

Auyan-tepui, Angel Falls and Pemon Myths

For the Pemon Indians of Venezuela's Gran Sabana region the imposing tepuis - the taple-top mountains which rise dramatically out of the jungle and the savannah - are believed to be the abodes of gods or spirits. The whole landscape, in fact, is represented in their myths and legends, with mountains, waterfalls, rivers and rocks all serving as reminders of the origins of their world and the culture heroes who brought it into being.

Tepui, the name the Pemon give to these mountains, literally means "house of the spirits" or "house of the gods".

Auyan-tepui, or Aiyan-tepuy, from which Angel Falls cascades 979m into the record books, means "Devil Mountain", according to Father Cesareo Armellada's "Diccionario Pemon".

Parekupa-meru, the Pemon name for Angel Falls, comes from the Pemon words kupa meaning "deep water", pare meaning "more", and meru meaning "waterfall". Together they could be translated as "waterfall of very deep water".

Kerepakupai meru is another Pemon name for the falls, recorded more recently, which translates from Pemon as "waterfall of the deepest place".

Roraima is the highest of the tepui's and the most easily climbed. Its name comes from two Pemon words: roroi meaning "blue-green" and ma meaning "great" or "powerful". The pemon also refer to Roraima as "The Mother of all Waters", because it feeds into three major river systems: The Orinoco in Venezuela, the Essequibo in Guyana and the Amazon River in Brazil.

Kukenan, the mountain next to Roraima, is better known to the Pemon as Matawi-tepui, meaning the "the house of the dead". The Pemon believe that the spirits of the dead reside there. The name Kukenan refers to the river which flows from the summit.

Wei-tepui comes from Wei, the Pemon sun god.

From the beach at Canaima camp the three tepuis you can see, from left to right are Nonoy-tepui, meaning "Buzzard Mountain", Kuravaina-tepui, meaning "Deer Mountain", and Topochi-tepui, meaning "Blowpipe Mountain".

One myth says that the deep holes in the top of the tepuis are the cooking pots of Mawarí, the god of rain and thunder.

For the Pemon, the world falls into two camps. The world of the Kamarakoto, the Arekuna and the Taurepan - as the different Pemon groups are known - and that of the Te-pon-kén, the foreigners, the outsiders, the Creoles and tourists who visit their land.
By Russell Maddicks

Pemon Myth 1: The Legend of Makunaima
Pemon Myth 2: The Tree of Life
Pemon Myth 3: The Great Flood and the Creation of Roraima
Canaima: Pemon Spirit of Death
Video of Angel Falls
Return to Venezuelan Indian main page

Canaima: Pemon Spirit of Death

For most people who visit Venezuela, the name Canaima conjures up images of jungle tours, boat trips in dugout canoes up the Rio Carrao and visits to the base camp below Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world.

But for the Pemon Indians of the Gran Sabana, Canaima is nothing less than the evil spirit which lurks in wait for them in the dense forest, the poisonous snake in the underbrush, the sharp branch that catches them in the eye.

According to Venezuelan writer Jose Berti, the Pemon, "like most pre-Colombian tribes don't believe in a natural death; and in order to explain their eternal disappearance from this world, they have created a symbolic character, Canaima, who pursues them without rest and who in the end defeats and kills them."

Canaima, the Indians say, can take the form of a jaguar in the forest, or a spirit who passes through their huts at night. Every mishap that ends in cuts and bruises is laid at his door.

"If an Indian suffers from pneumonia, they say that Canaima has blown on his chest, if he has a stomach ache, it is put down to the evil work of Canaima, so that Canaima, or Death, is his implacable and eternal enemy," he adds.

I experienced the Pemon fear of Canaima first hand a number of years ago when I was working in Canaima camp as a tour guide. I had started working there with the idea that I would spend all my time leading tour groups to Angel Falls and the tepuis but my first weeks were spent at the small airstrip fighting the other guides for the few tourists who arrived in air taxis from Ciudad Bolivar.

One morning, the drowsy stupor of the airstrip was broken by shouts that something was happening down at the lagoon.

It seems that an American tourist had gone for a swim in the cold, tea-red waters of the lagoon and had never come back. He was with a young Venezuelan woman and her child and when they lost sight of him they had called the National Guard and the staff at the beach bar to help them look, but nobody could find any trace of him.

She said he was a strong swimmer and had insisted on swimming beyond the area marked out near the beach with small bouys and out towards the Hacha Falls.

Later, somebody said a reward had been offered for anybody who found him. It was feared he had drowned but the National Guard needed proof.

Next day, the rumours of a reward had spread all over the camp. People came down from the base camps to help in the search. As the day wore on it seemed the reward changed with whoever you asked until it reached several thousand dollars, a small fortune for most people marooned out here in the middle of the jungle.

Soon, nearly all the Indians had launched their wooden curiaras (canoes) and fashioned long branches and poles so they could probe the bottom of the lagoon and find the unfortunate US tourist. Some even brought out old diving masks, useless in the dark waters, and dived in again and again to feel with their hands along the deep, murky bottom.

It seemed like everybody had come out to try their luck that day and the day after.

But it was only after they'd all given up, on the third day, that the body was found- just floating on the surface. Again I was at the small airstrip when the word came and we all rushed down to the small church in the camp to see what they'd found.

The Pemon Indians from the village next door had already arrived and were holding cloths or their T-shirts over their mouths and noses so as not to be infected by any vapours from the corpse.

The body had set rigid and the man, who was at least six foot, looked like a large action figure, his legs caught in the action of kicking out against the eddies and swirling currents that had dragged him down. He must have been head first down in the water because his shoulders were enormous and pink, puffed up like a superhero. His face was contorted with the effort of saving his skin. The fish had nibbled away at his ears.

But the strangest thing was his ankle. The Indians were all pointing to some marks on his ankle, like the puncture marks a snake might make, only it would have to be a mighty large snake to make those kind of marks.

"Anaconda bite", one young Indian said. I'd seen small anacondas in the lagoon and on the beach but never anything that could hold a grown man under the water like that.

Like, where's Jennifer Lopez when you need her?

But the older Pemon were shaking their heads: "Canaima", an old man said in a sort of whisper, as if it was a word you shouldn't say out loud. "It was the Canaima who took him down to its lair in the calm waters behind the falls."

And that was it. Case closed. All anybody could talk about was the Canaima. And nobody went swimming, at least for a week, until the tourists started to arrive en masse and we were all too busy to think about the strange case of the big, scary snake in the lagoon.

I guess I'll never know what caused those marks on the dead man's ankles, but for a moment, standing in that church with most of the Pemon village crowded in around me, the idea that he had been drowned by a malignant spirit taking the form of a giant anaconda seemed to make perfect sense.

Russell Maddicks

Pemon Myth 1: The Legend of Makunaima
Pemon Myth 2: The Tree of Life
Pemon Myth 3: The Great Flood and the Creation of Roraima
Auyan-tepui, Angel Falls and Pemon myths

Return to Venezuelan Indian main page

Pemon: The Legend of Makunaima

Pemon Myth 1: The Legend of Makunaima

This creation myth describes how the first Pemon, the Sun, found a wife after meeting a water-creature known as Tuenkaron. The text is taken from "Tauron Panton" a book of myths collected by Father Cesareo de Armellada and published in 1989. The photographs are taken from the 1917 edition of German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg's book "Vom Roroima Zum Orinoco", which - unbelievably - has never been translated into English.

A long time ago Wei, the Sun, was an Indian who spent his time clearing and burning the mountain to make a conuco (jungle garden) to plant ocumo (Xanthosoma sagittifolium, a tuber eaten like cassava).

The Sun ate only ocumo. His face shone brightly.

One day, after work, he went to drink water and bathe himself in a stream. As he got closer he noticed a ripple across a pool of water as if somebody had submerged themselves. And he thought to himself, what could that be?


The next day he returned to the pool, but more quietly this time, and saw a small woman with very long hair that reached down to her feet. She was bathing herself and playing and beating the water with her hair.

When she noticed the Sun was coming she went down into the depths of the pool. But the Sun managed to grab hold of her hair.

"Not me, not me" shouted the creature, who was called Tuenkaron.
And she added: "I will send you a woman to be your companion and wife."

So the Sun released Tuenkaron's hair and let her go.

The next day, the Sun was cleaning his conuco and gathering trees to set fire to them when he saw a white woman that Tuenkaron had sent to him.

"Have you cleared the conuco yet?" asked the woman.

"Not yet. I've only just cleared this this bit you can see and made a few piles," the Sun answered.

"Pull out those ocumos that I roasted from the embers, so we can eat," the Sun said to the woman.

The woman took them from the embers and and said: "Here they are." And they ate them.

Then the Sun said to the woman: "Set fire to the wood I gathered". And she set fire to the piles with a split stick and dry shells.

When she had started a fire she said "it's done".

"Go and fetch water now", said the sun, so the woman went to the stream with her camaza (gourd) and bent down to collect water.

But while she was filling the camaza the ends of her fingers began to go soft and then her arms and then her whole body.

And she ended up in a heap, like a pile of clay.

Because the woman was made of white mud.

As the woman did not return, the Sun went to look for her. When he got to the stream, he found the water in the pool was the colour of mud; it was the woman who had muddied the water as she had dissolved.

The Sun was upset and said: "This is what Tuenkaron sends me, a woman who can't even collect water".

After that he went upstream to to drink water that wasn't muddied. And as it was already getting dark, the Sun went to sleep in his house.

When he awoke the next day, the Sun went back to his conuco to continue clearing it.

While he was working, at midday, just as he was going to eat, Tuenkaron sent another woman who was black, like somebody from that race.

"Have you cleared the conuco yet", the woman asked the Sun.

"Yes and no", he answered, "I've only cleared this little bit you can see."

Then he said: "Go and fetch some water so we can eat together."

The woman went to the stream, fetched water and they ate the ocumo together. After eating the Sun went back to work and said to the woman: "While I carry on making piles, you set fire to the piles I've already made."

The woman took a split stick to start a fire. She knelt down with some embers and blew on them to start a flame but the fire heated up her face and from there she started melting: her arms and then her whole body, until she ended up in a heap like a pile of wild wax.

Because she was made from wax.

The Sun turned round several times to see if she was starting a fire but as he never saw smoke rise from any of the piles he went to see what the woman was doing. And he said to himself: "But I told her to set fire to the piles".

What a surprise he had when he got closer and found the woman melted and turned into a pile of wax.

So the Sun went to the stream and said: "How bad and tricky is Tuenkaron . Well, now I'm going dry up this stream, I'm going to dry up all the water".

But Tuenkaron, without letting herself be seen said: "No don't do that, wait and I'll send you a woman."

But that night the Sun's heart was not calm. That night he went to bed angry.

The next day, the Sun woke up and, as usual, went to work in his conuco. And there leaning over her work was another woman with red skin (like sandstone) and a cooking pot in her hand.

The woman, coming forward, asked him: "Have you cleared the conuco yet?"

But the Sun didn't answer, as if he hadn't heard. He was on his guard after the last deceptions.

"Why don't you answer me?" the woman asked him.

"Because you're all fakes, you all dissolve or melt," the Sun said.

"If it's like that, I'm going back to Tuenkaron," said the woman.

"Well", said the Sun, "let me test you," and he sent her to start a fire, and she did, without melting. And he sent her to fetch water, and she fetched it without dissolving.

Then he sent her to cook ocumo in the pot and the Sun watched as she put it on some rocks and how she made the fire. The Sun watched carefully all her skills and customs.

When it started to get dark the woman said to the Sun: "I came to go back".

"Well, make me dinner and you can go back," answered the Sun.

And when she had done it the woman said: "I'm going, I'm going to come back tomorrow early".

"Yes, come back tomorrow", said the Sun.

The next day, the Sun went to work earlier than usual. The woman also came early.
Again the Sun put the woman to the test: he sent her to fetch water, he sent her to make fire, he sent her to cook food. And seeing that she did not go soft, or melt, or crack he started to like her and he fell for her.

In the afternoon they went to bathe together stream and the Sun saw very well that the woman was of a reddish hue; like the bits of fiery stone that are usually found in the riverbeds. She was not white and she was not black.

The Sun said to the woman: "Let's go to my house". But the woman said; "I didn't tell Tuenkaron."

"So what," answered the Sun.

"There is no way I can do that," said the woman.

"Well, come very early to prepare my food," said the Sun.

"Okay, and I shall also tell Tuenkaron, so I can stay with you," she said.

And sure enough, the next day the woman came very early, she cooked the food, she roasted the ocumo, dug up cassava roots, grated them and made cassava bread. That day she stayed the night and slept with the Sun and since then they have always lived together.

And they had several children, and these were the Makunaima.

Some Indians say the name of the mother was Aromadapuén. And the names of the children were: Meriwarek, the first-born; then Chiwadapuén, a daughter; Arawadapuén, the second daughter; and Arukadarí, the youngest, who is very often called Chiké.

Translated by Russell Maddicks


Pemon Myth 2: The Tree of Life
Pemon Myth 3: The Great Flood and the Creation of Roraima
Auyan-tepui, Angel Falls and Pemon myths
Canaima: Pemon Spirit of Death


Click here to return to Venezuelan Indian main page

Yanomami-Sanema

The Yanomami

The Yanomami are easily the best-known of Venezuela's indigenous peoples. But not for the best of reasons. A series of National Geographic articles describing them as Stone Age savages or isolated survivors of a prehistoric age have only perpetuated stereotypes about the group. The main person responsible for this depiction of the Yanomami as warlike and primitive is anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon, whose book "The Fierce People", perhaps the most succesful anthropological book ever published, focuses on warfare between different groups.
Yanomami groups are found in Venezuela and Brazil and appear under a host of different names in the literature: Yanomami, Yanomame, Yanomam, Yanam, Ninam, Guaika, Waika, Guaharibo, Guajaribo, Sanuma, Tsanuma, Sanema, Samatari, Samatali, Xamatari, Chirichano and Shirishano.

Yanomami vs. Sanema

Some people classify the Sanema and Yanomami in separate linguistic groups, but generally they are lumped together as Yanoama speakers, an independent group not linked to the main Arawak, or Carib language families found in the region.
There are four branches to the Yanoama language family: the Yanomami, who make up over half the population, the Yanomam, who represent about a quarter, the Sanema, who represent just under a quarter, and the Yanam (or Ninam), who are the smallest group.
In Venezuela, the Yanomami are mainly found in the Orinoco basin and the Sanema in the Caura River basin. The Yanomam live mostly in Brazil and the Yanam are divided into communities living on both sides of the border.

Russell Maddicks

Click here to read Sanema Myth on Origin of Fire

Click here to read Yanomami Myth 2: The Origin of Endo-Cannibalism

Video of Sanema Shaman Ritual with Bruce Parry

This Blog

What's it all about?

I lived in Venezuela from 1989 to 2001 and it's an experience I shall never forget, especially trips to the Gran Sabana, the Rio Caura and the Orinoco.
One day, if I win the lottery or get a decent job offer I shall go back there permanently. In the meantime, I try and go back every year to keep up with what's happening.
This Blog is my attempt to put together all the threads from my investigations into the myths and legends of Venezuela's Indigenous peoples.
I also want to cover all the latest news stories about Venezuelan Indians, all the books that deal with the subject and any important features that I come across.
I also hope to publish stories from sources in Spanish that have never been translated into English before.
As much as a diary of my progress towards a published book I want this to be a place where others interested in Venezuela and its indigenous peoples can come together and swap stories and photos of their travels.
So get in touch and let me know how I'm doing.

Russell Maddicks