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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



morcego) and sometimes as King of the Congo. The latter 

 expression the old man had heard from the fugitive slaves 

 or farm workers and applied it to the black Tumehi. 

 Tumehi belongs to the oldest kinship group just as Kamu- 

 schinf, Mero and Ewaki and probably his real name is 

 Semimo, since tumehi and tumeng are adjectives. Before 

 the water reached the falls, this was his stone house; it 

 is not astonishing that the bat should be considered the 

 builder of clefts, as it prefers these clefts for its "habitat" 

 and that these with one or the other outstanding rock above 

 them be considered a house. Tumehi was also a mason. 



Keri and Kame asked Tumehi to build a stone house 

 for each of them. Tumehi, in order to obtain stones, 

 blew on termites: it was thus that stones originated. 



They also learned other things from Tumehi at the 

 waterfall. The grandfather, rich in knowledge, showed 

 them how to make and lay out bow-nets and how to catch 

 fish, matrincha, in them. He taught them, also, how to 

 make a grill to roast the fish. 



Keri and Kame had now come so far that they might 

 be taken for adult men, they had obtained everything 

 they needed: the sun and the moon, the hammock and 

 sleep, the fire, the best river with a waterfall and fish, 

 houses and fireplaces. Their life had started in heaven 

 and is told up to the time when the real history of the tribe 

 begins in the oldest Bakairf settlement near the Parana- 

 tinga Falls. 



The Bakairf lived with Keri: his house was on the east 

 side of the falls. They made a hill on the western side 

 from where they could overlook the whole area. First, 

 Kame built a ceremonial hut and a flute. He invited 

 Keri and his people. Everyone danced to the tune of the 

 flute, stamping with their feet and shaking their arms in 

 response to the music, marching from their houses to the 

 flute house and back again. Kame offered his guests pogu 

 and beijus. In exchange they gave him arrows and cotton 

 thread. 



After this, Keri also called his people together for a 

 dance; they danced and drank pogu in the afternoon in 

 the big square, which still can be seen near the falls; then 

 they made garments of burity, makanari and imiga, shook 

 their rattles and played the flute. Now Keri, too, could 

 invite Kame and his people. Many of them came and 

 Keri was the owner of the imeo dance, which lasts two 

 days and nights, refreshing themselves in the morning 

 with a bath in the river. 



But because of the people the brothers began to fight 

 during the dance. Keri had made many Bakairf of ubd 

 cane, whereas Kame had made none. Keri blamed him 

 for his laziness; they quarreled and Kame, the weaker one, 

 fled. He escaped to the southwest, made a hill at the 

 Beijaflor River, a left tributary of the Paranatinga, and 

 there he made the tribes: Apiaka, Paressf, and Guana. 

 It is very interesting to note that the Guana are also 

 mentioned here, being a widely spread tribe, from Para- 

 guay, of whose existence, in this part of the country 

 nobody had heard; a very, very long time ago, they also 

 lived aiong the Beijaflor River. 



Keri climbed a hill at the Paranatinga and from there 

 he could see the smoke far awav. He went to visit Kame 



and there found many, many people. He scolded Kame, 

 furiously, "Why did you make so many people?" Once 

 again they began to quarrel, but Kame abandoned the 

 Paressf with whom he was living, and returned with Keri 

 to the falls. Within a short time a new misunderstanding 

 arose because of the people. Keri had made more, and 

 Kame escaped, but this time to the Arinos. Keri looked 

 for him, found him and brought him back again to the 

 Paranatinga Falls. It seems that these fights and wander- 

 ings are narrated to give both of them the possibility to 

 create a number of different tribes, which live at great 

 distances. Keri created the Bakairf, Kayabf, Boror6, 

 Nahuqua and Mehinaku; and Kame the Apiaka, Paressf, 

 Guana, Maue\ Suya, Munduruku, and all "Arinos tribes." 

 I have already given consideration to the fact that all 

 eastern tribes may be assigned to Keri and all western 

 ones to Kame (...) and mentioned that there exists a 

 difference between sun-east and moon-west and that Keri, 

 although his name in Arawak means moon, really should 

 be taken as chief of the eastern tribes (...) as the 

 Bakairf hero with his moon name, which he received from 

 Arawak women, naturally would be the owner of the sun- 

 east, for the Bakairf. All tribes were made out of reeds, 

 of which arrows are made, and the Portuguese of a dark 

 kind of the color of a gun stock. In the first place, Keri, 

 of course, gave the gun to the Bakairf, but they did not 

 know how to handle it, one shot past another person's ear. 

 They were so scared of shooting as "we saw among the 

 people on the Kuliseu." Then Keri gave the gun to the 

 Caraibas. 



Parting of Keri and Kame. Keri and Kame leave the 

 falls and Keri names Arimoto chief of the remaining 

 Bakairf. Arimoto was also born at the Falls. This chief 

 abused his position and killed many Bakairf. "Was he 

 not himself a Bakairf?" I asked. "Probably but he was a 

 vile scoundrel. Had he been good, his descendants 

 would still be the chiefs of the Bakairf." This time Keri 

 and Kame went to the Kuliseu. The Bakairf, in great 

 need, followed them and accused Arimoto. Keri and 

 Kame returned at once, killed the traitor who defended 

 himself violently and tried to kill Keri. 



This is the end of the deeds of Keri and Kame, according 

 to the principal myth. They left the Bakairf with many 

 matrinchas and went up the hill, from where they once 

 more answered the wildly crying Bakairf and then "went 

 along the trail. No one knows where they went. The 

 ancient ones did not know where they had gone. Today 

 we know much less where they went." 



Even though the myth has such a tragic ending, the 

 people had their own opinion about it. Tumehi — not to 

 forget the old bat — left together with Keri. What hap- 

 pened to Kame? "He was always together with Keri. 

 Perhaps he is dead now." And Keri? The divine ancient 

 Caetano, who could adjust himself excellently to new 

 conditions, declared that Keri was the Emperor in Rio de 

 Janeiro, D. Pedro II. The good Bakairf patiently answered 

 all my innumerable questions, because I had told them 

 that I had to report ever3 r thing to the emperor. And this 

 was of great importance to them. I inquired "and what 

 if the emperor in Rio de Janeiro should die?" "If the 



