The Mythology Book

258

M

ayakoto, a hunter in the

Orinoco Delta, lived with

his two wives, who had

each given him a baby son. The

younger baby’s name was Haburi.

Mayakoto carried a flute that he

played when he was returning

home from fishing as a signal for

his wives to light the cooking fire.

One day Mayakoto was

swallowed by the snake god

Hahuba, who assumed Mayakoto’s

form and went home to his wives.

The wives, however, knew that

something was amiss because

their husband had not played his

flute as he returned. So they

gathered their children and fled

into the jungle. Hahuba chased

after them, but they managed to

escape. One of them scattered

locks of her hair on the ground,

and it turned into a fence of thorns.

The wives came to the house

of Wauta, an old frog-woman. At

first, Wauta would not let them in,

Warao Indians in a dugout canoe,

in the Orinoco River Delta, Venezuela.

The Warao (boat people) live by fishing,

hunting, and gathering berries, and

still use canoes for transportation.

THE CANOE WAS

A WONDER

THE FIRST CANOE

IN BRIEF

THEME

Escape from the

supernatural

SOURCE

Folk Literature of the

Warao Indians, collected by

Johannes Wilbert, 1992.

SETTING

The Orinoco Delta in

northeastern Venezuela,

the homeland of the Warao.

KEY FIGURES

Mayakoto A hunter, also

known as “The Roaster.”

Haburi One of Mayakoto’s

two children.

Hahuba A double-headed

snake god.

Wauta An elderly frog-woman.

Dauarani A goddess known

as the Mother of the Forest.

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THE AMERICAS 259

See also: Fire and rice 226–27 ■ Viracocha the creator 256–57 ■ The sky makes the sun and earth 260–61

but once she heard the cries of

the babies she relented. Hahuba,

who had caught up with the group,

banged on Wauta’s door. The frog-

woman opened it a crack and,

when Hahuba peeped through,

she decapitated the snake god

with an axe. Its headless body

ran off into the jungle.

Wauta’s greed

Mayakoto’s wives settled in

Wauta’s household, but one day

while they were out gathering food,

Wauta turned the babies into men.

When the wives returned to find

the babies gone, Wauta pretended

not to know what had happened.

The men did not recognize their

mothers, and the women did not

recognize their sons. Wauta made

the men hunt birds for her, and took

the best of their haul for herself.

Their mothers were given only

small birds to eat, and Wauta

urinated on those before handing

them over.

Matters became worse after

Haburi unwittingly committed

incest with his mother. One day

while the men were out hunting,

some otter people told them about

their mothers’ true identity. When

the men returned to Wauta’s house

and told their mothers the truth

about their parentage, they decided

they should all flee.

Haburi attempted to fashion

canoes so that they could escape.

He tried to do so with clay, and

then wax, but neither held. Finally,

he made a perfect canoe with the

bark of the cachicamo tree—the

world’s first canoe. The men and

their mothers paddled away. Wauta

splashed after them and managed

to clamber aboard. It appeared they

were stuck with her, but then

Wauta spied a beehive. The greedy

woman jumped off and threw

herself on the tree to suck off the

honey. The quick-thinking Haburi

threw a tree trunk on Wauta,

trapping her, and she later

transformed into a frog for good.

At world’s end

The men and their mothers paddled

to the mountains at the world’s end,

where the Warao believe the gods

reside. When their journey ended,

the canoe changed into a giant

female serpent and the paddle

turned into a man. The couple

became lovers and returned to the

Orinoco Delta, where the woman

became the goddess Dauarani, the

“Mother of the Forest.”

Dauarani, who did not like the

damp swamps, left her lover for the

mountains at the edge of the earth.

Her soul lived in the east where the

sun rises, and her body in the west

where the sun sets. ■

The head fell on the floor,

bouncing up and down.

Folk Literature of the

Warao Indians

Hahuba

The Warao see their world as

being totally surrounded by the

sea. In the center, beneath the

landmass that is the Warao’s

home, lies a double-headed

snake god known as the “Snake

of Being,” or Hahuba. He

encircles the Warao’s land, and

the gap between his two heads

is the mouth of the Orinoco

River, where it flows into the

Atlantic Ocean.

Hahuba’s movements are

what cause the movement of

the tides, and the sandbanks

are parts of Hahuba that have

emerged above the water.

The Warao live on the highest

ground and build their houses

on stilts for protection from

the annual floods.

When a baby is born, the

Warao believe that Hahuba sends

a warm breeze to welcome the

child. In day-to-day life, babies

and small children often hang on

to their mothers’ necks in order to

get around. Living in the swampy

environment of the Orinoco River

Delta, in Venezuela, many Warao

learn to swim and paddle before

they can even walk.

The extensive network of inlets

and tributaries, shown in this

satellite image of the Orinoco Delta,

is home to around 20,000 Warao.

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