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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



Tauptu does not cause illness, but when people get 

 sick he begins to eat away the flesh and finally 

 kills them and eventually takes their bones to 

 his abode in the sky. The missionaries told me 

 that when the first airplane appeared in Nambi- 

 cuara territory the Indians ran into the forest 

 and hid because they believed the airplane was 

 tauptu. Shamans sometimes visit the land of 

 tauptu by riding up to the sky on the back of 

 urutai, the night hawk or goat sucker. Julio 

 claimed that his father-in-law, who was a power- 

 ful shaman, had visited the realm of tauptu while 

 in a trance. 



The Waklitisu fear most of all the spirit arma- 

 dillo called uluru. When someone sees bits of 

 manioc cake and charcoal floating on the river 

 near the village, he comes back and tells the 

 shaman, who then goes to examine the signs. If 

 the shaman decides that it is uluru, immediate 

 action must be taken to save the world from 

 destruction. The women and children shut them- 

 selves in their huts while the men take their 

 wooden sword clubs (hulukisu) and go to the bank 

 of the river. The shaman then digs a deep hole 

 in the bank, into which he is lowered with a rope. 

 When he has grasped uluru by the tail he signals 

 the men on the surface to pull him out. The 

 shaman remains at the mouth of the hole with his 

 arm thrust in, holding uluru by the tail while with 

 his other hand he marks points on the ground 

 which are directly over the head, heart, and 

 stomach of uluru. One by one the men thrust 

 their sword clubs into the ground at the places 

 marked by the shaman. As they push the blades 

 in they twist them to make sure that they kill 

 uluru. After the spirit armadillo has been killed, 

 the men go back to the village leaving the sha- 

 man alone with the dead uluru. The shaman 

 then cuts up the spirit armadillo, washes the 

 pieces in the river, and begins to sing. When the 

 ghosts of the dead Nambicuara hear the song they 

 come and eat the pieces prepared by the shaman, 

 after which they go away happy because the 

 Nambicuara have been saved. 



The Waklitisu say that if they should ever fail to 

 kill uluru, a terrific storm would appear followed 

 by an earthquake, for when uluru gets under the 

 village he will turn the world upside down, tauptu 

 will fall down from the sky, and the Nambicuara 

 will be buried again. In short, they will go back 



under the ground from where oklihditlisu, the 

 culture hero, once released them. They add that 

 they expect this to happen some day. 



The man who is responsible for guarding the 

 band against evil spirits is the shaman (waningi- 

 disu). In this task he is assisted by the ghosts of 

 dead shamans of his own band. The spirit or 

 ghost of a dead shaman is known as anunsu and is 

 sharply distinguished from the ghosts of non- 

 shamans (aydnkadisu) . The anunsu of other bands, 

 however, are considered evil for they bring 

 thunderstorms. When speaking about shamans 

 and shaman spirits in Portuguese, the Nambi- 

 cuara refer to both as "trovao" (thunder). This 

 has led many observers to the conclusion that the 

 Nambicuara believe in a thunder spirit. Among 

 the Waklitisu, at least, "trovao" or thunder is 

 nothing more than a shaman or a shaman spirit. 

 Actual thunder, which is caused by a shaman spirit 

 is called tliditu. A shaman spirit may also enter 

 the body of a jaguar (yendru), and cause harm to 

 people. 



The Nambicuara do not like heavy and pro- 

 longed rainstorms, for they say that the winds 

 blow down their houses, the lightning sometimes 

 kills people, and the rains wash away the tracks 

 so that they and their dogs have difficulty in 

 following game. To pacify the evil anunsu, who 

 has caused the storm, the shaman makes a cigar- 

 shaped bundle (yakudendnsu) out of certain dry 

 leaves, which he ties with cotton twine, leaving 

 long tails at each end. When he wants to stop 

 the rain he lights one end of the bundle, and as it 

 begins to smoke he waves it in the direction of 

 the storm, telling the rain to go away. "Go away, 

 go away, don't be angry at me," he says as he 

 waves the bundle four times. If this does not 

 stop the rain the shaman takes the sword club 

 (halunkisu), which appears to have magical 

 powers, and cuts the rain. If the rain still persists, 

 he lights three smudges made by mixing "para 

 toda" leaves with the yakimdendnsu leaves. 

 When the smoke rises from the smudges he takes 

 a burning brand and waves it against the storm 

 telling it to stop. 



The shamans of one band also practice sorcery 

 against individuals hi another band by asking 

 their anunsu to inject objects into their bodies. 

 When a shaman wishes to inject an object into his 

 enemy he retires into a special hut (sihdentsu) and 



