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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



and Zuapanyua. One day Mero visited her daughter- 

 in-law while Oka was out hunting; "she did not want 

 him to have sons by a Bakairi woman," because she hated 

 and ate them. With her claws she tore out Nimagakan- 

 iro's eyes and went away. Nimagakaniro died, but uncle 

 Kuara — a jaguar, who in heaven practices the "Caesarian 

 operation" on a dead woman — opened her womb and 

 took out the twins Keri and Kame whom he put in a 

 calabash like young parrots. Then he and his men cut 

 Nimagakaniro into pieces, roasted and ate her. When 

 Oka came home, they offered him the leftovers which he 

 ate unsuspectingly. After he heard what had happened, 

 Oka became very angry and ran to kill Mero but desisted 

 when she said "I am your mother." A jaguar foster 

 father raised Keri and Kame; he let them ride on his back 

 and taught them to shoot with arrows. One day they 

 asked him about their mother; he had not told them 

 about her death because he was ashamed to have eaten 

 of her flesh, and even then he did not tell them. However, 

 their grandmother, or Aunt Ewaki, who belonged to the 

 Bakairi race, and who is mentioned here for the first time, 

 told the two about Mero's crime. Keri and Kame went 

 and killed Mero although she received them kindly, 

 greeting them, "Oh, my grandsons." 



"Damned Mero (Antonio hated her with all his heart) 

 was not buried, oh, no, she was burned." Keri and Kame 

 made a stake, lighted it, then they dug a hole from where 

 they could watch. Mero burned bopopopo . . . The 

 fire can still be seen today in the big Magalhaes cloud. At 

 that time Keri and Kame did not yet have human form. 

 Kame was curious and crawled out of his hole and caught 

 on fire. He burned and died. Keri blew on him and 

 made him a nose and hands and feet as men have. But 

 Keri too caught on fire (the small Magalhaes cloud is the 

 fire of Keri and Kame), burned and died. Kame blew on 

 him making life return to him and gave him a human 

 form. Then there came three animals which can still be 

 seen in the sky, the small otter which took Keri and Kame's 

 tails, the big otter (ariranha) who took their hands and 

 feet, and the toucan took their beaks. Keri's beak was 

 bigger than Kame's. 



Now the two appeared in human form and began, 

 shortly, their activities in benefit of the living. But then 

 what did Kamuschini, Mero and Oka look like? "Oka is 

 the spotted jaguar?" "Yes." "And he shot with ar- 

 rows?" "Yes, then the Jaguar shot with ar- 

 rows." "He shot the Bakairi and ate them." Mero had 

 some resemblance to the ja6 (Crypturus noctivagus) and 

 the macuco {Tinamus brasiliensis) , two gallinaceous birds. 

 But her claws were as big as thumbs. "Then the mother 

 of the jaguars was a bird?" "Yes, they say that even 

 today the jaguars will not eat ja6 nor macuco." This 

 again is a typical Indian reason for an absurd relationship 

 between the jaguar and the wild forest hens. Should 

 there be a historical reason it is inseparably amalgamated 

 with the zoological one. "Mero ate so many Bakairi, 

 that hardly any were left. Keri had to make new ones." 



Kamuschini is also connected with animal life and 

 although we can conceive his story in heaven we need an 

 even greater imagination to understand it. He "is black, 



has sparse hair, and makes threads like a spider." "Spiders 

 come every year in July and breed; in August and Septem- 

 ber, when the rains come, they make threads and go up to 

 heaven leaving the thread hanging down behind them." 



Keri and Kame now have human forms. Now also 

 they avenge the death of their mother on their foster 

 father. But they do not dare do it and want others to do 

 it for them. They ask the jaguar to make arrows for 

 them. The two brothers put these upright in the ground 

 in a circle and blow on them. "Thus came" the Kayabf, 

 neighbors of the Paranatinga Bakairi, who, so we are told, 

 lived in peace with one another in former times but 

 became deadly enemies because of stone axes and women. 

 The arrows, which the jaguar made for Keri and Kame 

 and to which by magic, they added the Kayabi; were 

 stems of burity leaves, for at that time Keri and Kame 

 were still children and used children's arrows. Keri told 

 the Kayabi to shoot Oka but they missed him. In view of 

 this, Keri resolved to shoot him; the arrow went into the 

 jaguar's knee, "the jaguar jumped into the water and 

 escaped." The myth then says simply that "then they 

 killed their father," but Antonio added "if the jaguar had 

 been killed there would not be any today." 



The Sun. Then, Ewaki, the aunt of Keri and Kame, 

 ordered them to get the sun, who was kept by the red 

 urubd or urubd-rei (vulture.) Everything that was told 

 up to now took place during the night before the urubd-rei 

 came. In the zenith there was a red hole which belonged 

 to the urubus. Because it was a dark night, the tapir, 

 which can be seen in the Milky Way, fell into the hole. 

 Keri saw the tapir and went in as his paw. 44 Kame, 

 however, went in as a small yellow singing bird, which 

 resembles the bemtevi, and sat on a branch from where he 

 would be able to inform Keri, who could not see, of all 

 that happened. The red urubd opened the sun, it became 

 light and the urubus discovered the tapir. All the urubus, 

 black ones and white ones — only the red one still stayed 

 at a distance — attacked the tapir. They brought cip6 

 cords, with which, after much work, they pulled him out 

 of the hole. Then they wanted to cut him up. At that 

 moment, Kame, who saw everything from his branch, 

 sang "nem, nem, nem". Keri blew and the urubus could 

 not open the tapir with their beaks. They asked the 

 urubu-rei to help them. When he came near Kame 

 stopped saying "nem, nem, nem". The urubd-rei opened 

 the tapir with his beak but at that moment Keri attacked 

 him and held him so firmly that he nearly killed him. 

 Keri told him he would let him live if he would give up the 

 sun. Then the urubd-rei sent his brother, the white 

 urubd, to bring the sun. The white urubu returned, 

 bringing the red of the sunset. "Is this right," Kame 

 asked Keri who had to hold the urubd-rei. "No, it was 

 not the red of the sunset that I asked for," replied Keri. 

 Then the white urubd brought the moon. "Is this right?" 

 asked Kame. "Of course not!" replied Keri. Then the 

 white urubd brought the sun and when Kame asked 



u Old Caetano told me that Keri made the tapir of aka, a wood as soft a 

 manioc, and then he made small flies which caused the tapir to smell bad so 

 that the urubu would be attracted. 



