Kariña Myth 2: Kaputa and the Great Flood

This Kariña myth recounts the arrival on Earth of the creator god Kaputa, who comes to warn his people that a great flood is coming. Many similarities have been drawn between this story and the Biblical flood story of Noah and the Ark. The idea of all the animals entering the great canoe in pairs and the seeds of all the plants also being stored is very similar.

Whether it is an adaptation of the biblical story passed on to the Kariña by missionaries and adapted by them, or an original Kariña myth is almost impossible to say, although the annual flooding of the major rivers in Venezuela during the rainy season has given rise to many myths. The text is taken from Father Cesareo de Armellada´s book: "Literaturas Indigenas de Venezuela" (Monte Avila Editores, 1991).

The Great Canoe

One day Kaputa came to the land of the Kariñas to tell them that the world was going to be flooded and nobody would survive unless they quickly built a great canoe and got in.

- My children, a great rain is going to fall. It will rain for many nights and many days.

But out of all the Indians only four couples were afraid; the rest didn't believe him.

- My children, help me to build a canoe we can all get in before the rains swell the rivers. That way we won't drown.

- What do you mean everything's going to be flooded? That just couldn't happen, they said, unconvinced.

- I am Kaputa, the father and creator of the Kariña. I don't want my children to die

- You're not Kaputa, the Indians said, except for the four couples who began to build a great canoe.

When they had finished they began to put different animals inside in pairs, and a seed for each plant.

Then the day turned to night as the sky darkened and it began to rain for months without stopping.

The rivers broke their banks and flooded the land. The water rose so high that it covered the highest trees.

When the flooding began everybody wanted to get into the great canoe but Kaputa said:

- You thought I wasn't kaputa! You didn't want to build the canoe! Well, now you will drown.

Translated by Russell Maddicks

Kariña Myth 1: The Twins and the Origin of Yuca

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

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Pemon: The Tree of Life

Pemon Myth 2: The Tree of Life

This creation myth describes a time when the ancestors of the Pemon suffered from great hunger and how the agouti, then a man, discovered a magical tree in the jungle which was laden down with all the fruits and vegetables in the world. The translation is taken from Maria Manuela de Cora's book "Kuai-Mare: Mitos Aborigenes de Venezuela" (1957, Editorial Oceanida). The photograph of three Pemon men with blowpipes is taken from Theodor Koch-Grunberg's 1917 book "Vom Roroima Zum Orinoco".

Many moons ago, the great Caroni valley was called Uek-tá, which means land of the mountains. That was because in the vast plains watered by the rivers Yuruaní, Tiriká and Aichá, arose the mountains Iru-tepui, Aparmán, Apakará, Chimaté and Auyan-tepui, the motionless spirits of the plains that Wei, the Sun, would hide himself behind every night, and from where the breezes came which rustled the Moriche palms that dotted the savannah.

At the edge of the valley was the jungle, closed off by gigantic trees covered with lianas and reverberating with animal sounds. The jungle was far away, but the brown immensity of the plains made it appear closer.

In this land of mountains lived five brothers: Makunaima, who was big and bad, Zigué, which means chigger; Wacalambé, a whirlwind; Anzikilán, a partridge; and Ma'nápe, which means melon seed.

In that far off time there were no conucos (gardens), because people did not know how to grow things and had not learnt to hunt or fish yet. The five brothers were always very hungry and could find no way to sate their hunger.

Close to where they lived, resided a man called Akuli (an agouti). Later on he became a rodent and that is how we know him today.

Back then Akuli was very light and ran all over the place, sometimes passing through the thick vegetation bordering the savannah to enter the jungle.

One day Akuli ventured quite far into the jungle when he saw a huge tree he had never noticed before. It was the marvellous Wazacá tree, which produced several kinds of plantains as well as papaya, cashew, maize and many other fruits and vegetables.

Akuli was filled with awe looking at that tree. It was so big he couldn't see all of its trunk in one look.

He had a taste of all the delicious fruits and vegetables and - in a very happy mood - he marked the place where it grew so he could always find it when he wanted to.

So, every day, as the the valleys of the Aichá and the Kuaná were lit up by the sun, Akuli went off into the jungle, found his marvellous tree and ate the fruit until he could eat no more. The he went home, telling nobody about what he had found.

But one day, Makunaima noticed how well Akuli looked and suspected that something had to be making him so fat.

So he waited until night time, when Akuli returned from one of his forays and slyly said to him:
- Why don't we turn in, brother-in-law? We should do it now as the wind is bringing the breeze from the Moriche palms.
Akuli thought it was a good idea and fell straight into a deep sleep. Makunaima carefully opened his mouth so as not to wake him and saw that he had a bit of fruit stuck between his teeth; a small piece of Wazacá plantain - a long, delicious and magnificent plantain.
Akuli was so fast asleep he didn't notice anything.

At the end of the night as Wei rose again over the mountains, Makunaima called Kali (Guianan squirrel), who was also a man at that time, and told him to follow Akuli and not to let him out of his sight until he discovered where Akuli was getting the fruit.

So Kali went with Akuli into the heart of the forest, pretending not to spy on him, and every now and then he asked him:
- What tree is this? What's this other one called?

But Akuli didn't answer him, and even when they passed in front of the tree with all the fruits - which many parrots and macaws were feasting on - he did not stop as usual, and so Kali never learnt where it was.

Makunaima was furious when he learned of Kali's failure and decided to send his brother Ma'nápe the next day, believing that he was smarter and would discover Akuli's secret.

Ma'nápe agreed to acompany the other two and together they entered the jungle. They went quite far, passing many bushes and trees, but Akuli did not stop at any of them.

At last they stopped in front of the Zaú tree, whose fruit has a very nasty taste, and to play a trick on Ma'nápe, Akuli said to him:
- You can stay here and collect the fruit from this tree. We are going to continue on to see if we can find another one.

Without replying, Ma'nápe stayed where Akuli told him to.
Meanwhile Akuli and his companion carried on walking and eventually arrived at the place where the Wazacá tree stood.

Akuli stopped there and and said:
- This is the tree that has all the different fruits. Look how many there are on the floor. Why don't you eat them?

But Kali said:
- It looks to me like the ones up there are better. I'm going to go up and get some.
- There are also lots of wasps up there and they will sting you, said Akuli, better not to climb up.

But Kali was very stubborn and he climbed as best he could up the enormous trunk until he reached the first branches, bent under the weight of the fruit, which cast shadows on the ground like giant condors with hundreds of heads.

Just as Kali reached out for a large plantain, one of the best fruits, he felt a terrible buzzing around him as a cloud of wasps swarmed all over him and stung him on the eyelids.
Kali fell to the ground dazed and in pain. He said to Kali:
- Oh, friend, that stuff about the bees was right, and for not listening to you look what's happened to me!

And that is why Kali has had swollen eye-lids ever since.


When Makunaima saw Kali with his eyes all swollen he thought something odd must have happened.

He was also angry with Ma'nápe for stupidly staying where they had told him and for not discovering anything. So he said:
- Tomorrow, after sunrise, you will go with them; but when they get ahead of you hide yourself on side of the trail and find out where they are hiding the plantains. Then you can eat them anytime you want as well.

Ma'nápe did as his brother had told him and protected by the branches of a macanillo tree, waited for the other two to return. But Akuli suspected something was up that day and hid the fruits further away, in a more isolated spot than usual.

So when they approached the place where Ma'nápe was lying in wait for them, they were not carrying any fruit in their baskets or their hands, and there was no sign they had eaten anything - not even in their mouths.

Several times Ma'nápe tried the same ruse, but he was always outsmarted by Akuli and Kali, and many suns passed without him finding anything.
Then Makunaima said to him:
- Don't hang back on the path. You have to follow them wherever they go. That's the only way you can catch them out.

Ma'nápe agreed and next time they entered the jungle when they got to the spot where they used to leave him, he said to Akuli:
- This time I shall come with you further.

Akuli tried all his tricks to shake off Ma'nápe, but seeing that he couldn't do it he led him to the tree and showed him all the fruits.

There it was. The world tree.

Thicker and taller than any other tree, it was like a great mountain in the middle of the jungle. The knots in its bark were like rocky gorges embedded in the trunk. So lush was its vegetation that the sunlight stopped when Wei passed over the top of its high canopy.

In the halflight that pentetrated past its branches, wasps, parrots, macaws and many other birds fought over the delicious fruits, which gave off a fragrant aroma and never ran out.

Ma'nápe was struck dumb as he tried to take it all in and then he turned to the others and said angrily:
- How could you come here every day and fill your bellies without telling anybody?
- Don't be angry, said Akuli apologetically. We only wanted to play a trick on you.

But Ma'nápe wasn't listening. He was too busy nibbling away at the fruits that were on the floor and the ones he could reach from the lowest branches.

When he was full he made basket of palm fibres so he could take some to his brother.
- Mind the wasps, Akuli warned, seeing him climb up the tree.

But Ma'nápe said that they would not sting him, and so it was. The wasps let him pick the fruit without attacking him.

When the basket was full, Ma'nápe marched happily back to the valley and told Makunaima everything that had happened and all about the strange tree that produced every kind of fruit.

And Makunaima was happy and the brothers ate and ate until they were full.

Translated by Russell Maddicks

Pemon Myth 1: The Legend of Makunaima
Pemon Myth 3: The Great Flood and the Creation of Roraima
Auyan-tepui, Angel Falls and Pemon myths
Canaima: Pemon Spirit of Death

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