Kauní looked at the dead animal Takâ held in his hands in a mix of interest and disgust. "What's this?" She asked.
Her friend Takâ put down both halves of the small beast together on the ground. "It's hard to tell, but seems like a
Kii-Buú 1 to me, If you don't consider the large claws, long teeth and all the rest..."
It pained Kauní just to look at the distorted, uneven thing. Her grandmother, being the tribe's
Yaí, had made sure that she grew up knowing every animal in the forest and the ways they were all part of the World's harmony. Yet in these dangerous days much of the original balance was lost, and that little abomination was another bitter proof of that.
"So, why did you bring that... thing here? You know it's dangerous."
"I didn't bring it. I caught whatever this is on our side of the water. It moved unsteadily, as if drunk, but was on
our side! I don't think it could swim, but maybe it rode on some floating trunk..."
Kauní felt as if a cloud eclipsed the sun. "I must tell grandma. You, gather some people and search for more along the
igarapé 2."
Takâ nodded and ran back into the dense woods, his pale skin reddened by the sun. After all the time they have been friends it still seemed odd to Kauní. Everyone else in the tribe shared the same dark brow tone, therefore no one ever got that pinkish red, even after spending the whole day under the sun.
And, she knew, Takâ was well aware of that difference. That was the reason behind his insistence on getting the ritual tattoos, just like Kauní and all the others. Yet even those lines and symbols looked
different on his arms and legs, the dark marks in stark contrast with that milky canvas.
Soon, she recalled, it would have been eight years since Takâ, that back them called himself Tiago, showed up on a small boat, alone and half-dead. It was the last time they had any news about the people and the vast World beyond the Amazonian forest, a world that was becoming more and more a distant, blurred legend.
Her grandma took care of the young man, that had just turned 16, curing whatever had made him throw out anything he tried to eat and feeding him until he eventually got better. And then they gathered to hear the news the boy carried, and found they were even worse than the tribe's elders feared.
That strange disease everyone called simply "The Rash" had spread to all places, driving that proud and reckless civilization to collapse. What remained were scattered, frightened and desperate people, fleeing from their cities, fighting for food and medicines.
Also, as it has been heard before, the disease also affected all animals that suck at their mother's teats, except cats. Grandma nodded when Tiago told that part, as if she understood why. One day, she said, Kauní would understand too.
The tribe's council, she remembered, gathered for three long days, and then came with a conclusion. The Creator, the Universal Grandfather, must had decided to take a nap, and the dark spirits that hate humankind seized the chance to unleash that terrifying disease while He slept. The tribe should wait in their land for the day He would wake up and cleanse the world.
Until then they would cut all ties with the other lands and people, indigenous or not. No one should leave their lands, except for fishing, and only when the sun was up, for the dark spirits were afraid of the light.
Later they would find out how to deal with marriage, because they wouldn't be able to meet people from other tribes as was customary, and marrying inside their own tribe was undesirable, almost incestuous. Hopefully, the elders said, the Creator would wake up soon and that wouldn't become a problem.
Luckily their lands formed a large island, nested between the great river and a smaller channel. Her grandmother, that held the
Kumu knowledge about the spiritual world, claimed the good water spirits, summoned with the proper incantations, would protect the tribe.
And then Tiago was given the choice between staying as one of them or leaving, forever.
While walking to grandma's
maloca 3, Kauní relived how happy she was when the boy announced that he would stay. They were roughly the same age, and she liked to hear his stories about the world beyond the forest, and also the many fantasy worlds from the books he had read. Sadly the tribe had few books, and they were for study, not to hold amazing tales.
Tiago decided to adopt a new name for his new life, and surprisingly asked Kauní for a name. That made her very happy and a bit insecure, because naming people was an important gesture, usually reserved for the elders, since names carried power and could influence a person's fate.
After some hesitation Kauní suggested Takâ, the name of a white mushroom she liked. To her great relief Grandma approved, saying that was a wise choice, and had her teaching the boy about the tribe's ways from that day onward, until Takâ knew them as well as anyone born on the island.
---
All that crossed Kauní's mind while she walked, good memories that helped her put aside the fear from the disease and the monsters it created.
Her grandmother, Kaunana, was inside, cooking. When she saw the worry on Kauní's face she stopped and gestured for them to sit together on a small bench. A great sadness descended upon her when Kauní told about the beast.
"The incantations must be waning. After some time the water spirits get distracted, or go to other places, because the rivers are so vast." Grandma paused, as if her mind was wandering somewhere else. "Isn't it ironic? When we finally get rid of those miners and farmers that wanted to destroy the forest and the rivers to satisfy their greed, then we have to face this... darkness."
Kauní nodded in agreement. "So all it takes is that you make new incantations? And the good spirits will come back?"
"I wish it was that easy, my dear." She stood, walked to the fire and began to stir the cooking with a wooden spoon. "I'm getting older, and I'm afraid no longer having in me the strength needed to summon the spirits."
She tasted the food, added a few herbs and pointed at Kauní with the spoon. "It will have to be you, my dear, to do it."
"Me?!" Kauní replied. "But... I'm not ready! There's so much I don't know! You taught me many things, but we never spoke about this. I'm not a
Yai yet, and surely not a
Kumo! I... I wouldn't know where to start!" She stopped, noticing a faint smile at her grandma's face. "What's the funny part?"
"My dear child, I had exactly the same reaction when
my grandma said I'd have to heal our land because the previous harvest had been so meagre. I doubted, but she new I had the ability, and I know you will be capable to do that, as soon as the ritual is complete."
"You mean... the peregrination?"
"Yes. You must visit the sacred places to gather the knowledge. Then you will became a
Kumo and have the power to do what has to be done."
Kauní was caught in a mix of emotions. Surprise, excitement, pride... and a growing fear of not being good enough for the task. However she trusted grandma. If she believed...
"When?" She asked, her voice a bit unsteady.
"Tonight. Mother moon
4 will be high in the sky. I'll guide you
5."
---
They sat face to face at a clearing right in the middle of the island, a small fire burning close. Kauní observed the light from the flames dancing on her grandmother's face and, farther away, a few members of the tribe, forming a circle around them. Her parents were there, her brothers and sisters, Takâ, Curú and a few more she couldn't recognize in the dark.
The moon had reached the highest point in the sky while they both sang and smoked the sacred cigars, and everybody and everything seemed to move slowly, dreamily, following the song's slow rhythm. Kauní's eyelids were getting heavier and heavier...
Grandma gestured her to lie down on a cushion of leaves they had set, and so she did, still grasping the old woman's hand, suddenly extremely aware of every detail on the wrinkled skin. They looked at each other and spoke, simultaneously, in blurred tones. "Now we sleep, and our souls travel together."
The moon seemed to fill the whole sky as Kauní closed her eyes and let herself drift away.
---
She was walking on a narrow strip of sand next to a large river, so large that she couldn't see the opposite margin, and grandma was there, holding her hand. There were fireflies everywhere around them, and the tattoos that covered their bodies seemed to give out a soft bluish glow, just like the small insects. Actually, she noticed, the trees, the sand... everything seemed to glow a little in blue tones.
"Now, my child, we don't have time to visit all the sacred places this time, for they are many. Each place, or
Wametisé as we
Kumoa call it, houses a part of the knowledge the Universal Grandfather, or its demiurges, gifted to our ancestors when they, still in spiritual form, arrived on these lands inside the mighty snake-boat, coming from the sunrise."
"I know the legend."
Grandma smiled. "Forgive me, dear. A part of me you will always see you as a child. Come, walk with me." She said, and they headed for the river, and, to Kauní's surprise, began to walk on the water. They didn't sink, just walked over the surface, as if there was something solid beneath their feet. Grandma didn't seem surprised, though.
"Now there are three places we must visit so that you can relive the knowledge inside your soul and become aware, capable of connecting with the spirits.
The first will be the house of language. That will enable you to communicate with the spiritual beings.
Then we will go to the house of incantations, so you know the proper rites to summon them and how to ask for their protection..."
"And that's all?" Kauní asked. She wanted to begin. She felt that doing this was her destiny, the purpose of all she have learned since childhood, when Grandma begin to teach her the names of each plant and animal.
"I said three, remember? In the end we will return to the great hole next to the
Ipanoré waterfall, the Place of Birth, where our ancestral spirits became human at the end of their journey. We will go inside, and when we emerge you will be able to fully use the knowledge and hold it forever inside your soul."
That didn't seem hard to Kauní, even if she had no idea on how the knowledge would get inside her. But she trusted grandma would. "How hard that could be? Let's go!"
Grandma smile widened. "Yes, let's do it. We are lucky because the places are far away, but distances in thought work in a different way. The better you remember a place, the faster we get there, and I've been in those places when I was young. Come!"
And they walked over the water, and there was a veil ahead, like a curtain made of heavy rain. They crossed it, and Kauní looked back. She could no longer see the river and the trees. There was just dark, still water under them, and a dark sky above. A few stars could be seen, above and below.
"Where are we?"
"We are in between, the place that it's not."
"And how we get to our destination? I see nothing."
Grandma pointed at her own head, and then at Kauní's. "It's all in here. It has always been. Remember."
Kauní tried to remember, to imagine the
Wametisé of language. First came sound, voices speaking on many languages, and then a new veil of rain appeared ahead of them. Through it she could see the blurred outlines of rocks and trees.
"See? I told you."
"Is this... my memory? Or yours?"
"Ours. They have been passed forward by our ancestors since they became humans."
Kauní was considering that when she heard a noise behind them, as if something heavy had dropped on the water.
NotesThis story is inspired by the fascinating
Tukano indigenous mythology and in the little that I gathered about their traditional practices, but I'm not by any means a specialist in that field, so there may be things that are misunderstood or simply wrong. There wasn't time to make a deep dive into that rich culture... So this story is
not intended to be a truthful depiction of their beliefs and traditions.
And of course I mixed things a bit, inserting Stand Still Stay Silent's own mythology, trying to make an interesting story.
And yes, of course I plan to write what happens next.
BTW It isn't easy to find content about these people and their culture, and it's even harder in English. Here's the Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucano_people (but that is more focused on languages, geographical distribution, etc... and really overlooks their mythology)
Additional Notes referenced in the text:1: The Tukano name for the agouti (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agouti), a large rodent similar to a Guinea Pig, (Agouti is also called "Cutia" in Portuguese).
2: Igarapé is the indigenous name for a small, nameless river or channel, similar to a brook. Note that "small" as compared to very large amazonian rivers, meaning that an igarapé might still be 20 or more meters across.
3: Amazonian typical indigenous hut, with low walls and a high, sloped roof. It has a wood structure and is covered with straw. The floor is just compacted ground, and people many times sleep in hammocks.
4: In their mythology mother moon and father sun had one child, earth.
5: The dream ritual is entirely my creation, even if they do smoke sacred cigars and sing on their rituals. I also don't have evidence on how woman participate on them. The info I have just points that a
Kumo (plural
Kumoa) usually visits the sacred places "in thought", using the tales from older people to be able to locate and recognize the places. Nevertheless they do have actual locations in maps and, when possible, they physically visit these places.
