it so frightening that they fled back home with no desire to
return to the End of the Sky.
Sky, light, and darkness. Myths in which the sky, usu-
ally associated with light, is related to the origins of night are
also common. The following story is told by the Cuiba, who
live in the western plains of Colombia and speak a language
of the Guahiboan family. In ancient times there was no
night, only an endless daytime. People could not sleep. A
woman who had gone out of her mind wanted to break the
sky. Her husband, who was a shaman and had had a dream,
warned her to be careful and not to damage the sky, which
belonged to the locusts. But she paid no attention and hurled
a stone that broke the sky, which was made of mud. Directly
it became dark and the earth was invaded by locusts as big
as iguanas. They ate the eyes of everybody except the sha-
man. Then the swallows, who are able to carry heavy loads,
brought all the necessary mud and repaired the sky again.
Other stories about the origin of the night suggest that
it was created because girls, or wives, would not grant their
favors to their lovers, or husbands, since it was always day-
time. A Tupi myth from central Brazil indicates that night
was kept in a coconut that was opened against the formal
prohibition to do so.
Sun, moon, and stars. The sun and moon play impor-
tant roles in many South American myths. Their origins, like
those of stars and constellations, are due in many cases to the
transformation of humans at turning points or denouements
in the mythical stories. Many versions of the widespread
myth of the “twins and the jaguar” end with the heroes’ as-
cending to the sky to become the sun and moon. This is per-
haps the most ubiquitous myth of South America, found
from Panama to the Gran Chaco and from the eastern coast
of Brazil to the Amazonian forests of southern Peru, among
dozens of tribes that speak mutually unintelligible languages.
Different versions of this story diverge considerably, but the
following summary contains a number of essential points
common to a great number of stories known to widely scat-
tered groups. A mysterious god or a civilizing hero impreg-
nates a woman and then abandons her. While walking alone
in the forest carrying twins in her womb, she is killed by one
or more jaguars, but the jaguars’ mother takes care of the ba-
bies and raises them. A bird or other animal tells the twins
how their mother died. The twins determine to avenge their
mother and prepare themselves to do so through several or-
deals. They finally kill all the jaguars except one, which es-
capes and becomes the ancestor of present-day jaguars. After
some quarreling, the twins climb to the sky, where they can
be seen as sun and moon. As an example of the differences
between many versions of this story, it may be mentioned
that in the rich Mashco account of this tale the twins do not
appear; in this case the extraordinary boy Aimarinke kills the
jaguars and then goes up to heaven and becomes Yuperax,
the god of lightning.
The pre-Columbian Carib of northern South America,
speakers of one or another language of the extensive Carib
family, were skilled navigators of the Caribbean Sea and had
a rich lore about stars and constellations, some of which has
survived to the twentieth century. One of their stories tells
about a newly married girl who was seduced by a man in the
shape of a tapir who asked her to follow him eastward to the
place where earth and sky meet. Serikoai, her husband, acci-
dentally cut off his leg with an ax and, after being cured by
his mother, set out in search of his wife. He finally found
her in the company of Tapir, whom he shot, severing Tapir’s
head. He implored his wife to return, saying that if she re-
fused he would follow her forever. She hurried on, chased
by her lover’s spirit and her husband. On arriving at the
earth’s steep edge, she threw herself into the deep blue sky.
On a clear night, one can still watch her; she has been turned
into the Pleiades, with Tapir’s head (the star cluster Hyades,
the star Aldebaran being Tapir’s red eye) close behind, and
Serikoai (Orion, with Rigel indicating the upper part of her
husband’s sound limb) in pursuit.
MYTHS OF DESTRUCTION. Stories about the destruction of
the world and humankind by a deluge—be it from excessive
rain, or by high tides, or both—are fairly common in most
regions of South America. Another type of myth of wholesale
destruction is that of the world fire. In some cases these sto-
ries may recall actual catastrophes, but their significance
seems to be symbolic of divine punishment for transgression
of traditional taboos. Often, the destruction is believed to
have occurred in the past; sometimes, however, the world fire
is projected into the future.
The Deluge. The earliest recorded American myth of
the deluge comes from the Taino, whom Columbus met on
his first voyage of discovery. According to this version of the
myth, a young man who wished to murder his father was
banished and later killed by him. The old man kept his son’s
bones in a calabash where he and his wife could see them.
One day they accidentally overturned the gourd and the
bones turned into fish. Another day, as the man was out in
the fields, four brothers, whose mother had died at their
birth, took the calabash and ate all the fish. Hearing that the
father was returning, they hurried to hang the vessel back in
place, but it fell to the ground and broke. The water from
the calabash filled the whole earth and from it also came the
fish in the sea. The theme of the Deluge as a consequence
of killing forbidden fish is still present among the contempo-
rary Mataco of Argentina and southern Bolivia. In the Ande-
an countries, Deluge myths are generaly associated with a
magic mountain where humankind takes refuge. As the wa-
ters rise, the mountain also rises, thereby saving the lives of
those who have reached the top. One of the best-known ex-
amples of this motif was recorded as early as the seventeenth
century; its memory persists to this day among the speakers
of dialects of the Araucanian language.In the native traditions of the Huarochiri area of Peru
that were collected from Quechua speakers early in the sev-
enteenth century, the Deluge is caused by a god whose pres-
ence is not recognized by people who are reveling. Enraged,8588 SOUTH AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIONS: MYTHIC THEMES