{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Amazonian_Tortoise_Myths/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Amazonian_Tortoise_Myths","id":"wikisource_Amazonian_Tortoise_Myths","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Amazonian_Tortoise_Myths","summary":null,"tags":["1875_works","Mythology","PD-old","Validated_texts"],"text":"AMAZONIAN\n\nTORTOISE MYTHS\n\nBY\n\nCH. FRED. HARTT, A. M\n\nPROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY\n\nIN\n\nCORNELL UNIVERSITY\n\nITHACA, N. Y .\n\nRIO DE JANEIRO\n\nWILLIAM SCULLY, PUBLISHER\n\nTypographia\u2014Academica\u2014rua Sete de Setembro n. 73\n\n1875\n\nTO MY ESTEEMED FRIEND\n\nMAJOR OLIVER CROMWELL JAMES\n\nTHIS LITTLE PAPER\n\nIS\n\nRESPECTFULLY DEDICATED\n\nTen years ago to-day, on placing foot for the first time on Brazilian soil, at the Palace Square of Rio de Janeiro, I directed myself to the first person I met, and asked the way to the office of the \"Thayer Expedition.\" It was an incident apparently of no importance, but it has nevertheless deeply influenced the course of my subsequent scientific life.\n\nAs if providentially, and just at the fortunate moment, I met one, not only well acquainted with Brazil and it people, but who, as the result of several years of expeditionary work in the \"Far West\" in the service of the United States Government, together will a long, and intimate acquaintance with the mining industries of Pennsylvania, was fitted to take a deep, and intelligent interest in my own scientific work.\n\nTo the aid and sound advice of this friend, I owe much of the success of my journey, as an attach\u00e9 of the \"Thayer Expedition\" in 1865 and 1866.\n\nAfter my return to the United States, I planned with him my Expedition to the Brazilian coast in 1867, the accomplishment of which would not have been possible but for his generous pecuniary aid.\n\nIn the preparation of a volume on the \"Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil\", I was helped in many ways by the same friend, who even went so far as to make, under my direction, a journey in the Province of S\u00e3o Paulo, for the purpose of ascertaining the general geological structure of this part of the Brazilian plateau. His carefully made observations have since been verified.\n\nThe same friend acted as my agent in connection will the two \"Morgan Expeditions\" to the Amazonas in 1870 and 1871, and to his judicious management was largely due the success of these two Expeditions, as well as the safety of the collections. But for his constant assistance and encouragement I would not be in Brazil to day; indeed, but for Major O. C. James, I should long ago have been forced to abandon Brazil as a field for research.\n\nIn deference to his express wish, I have hitherto reluctantly refrained from making a full acknowledgement of my indebtedness; but to day, with it brought freshly to mind, I cannot refrain from giving this expression to the feelings of my heart.\n\nCh. Fred. Hartt.\n\nRio de Janeiro, April 23rd. 1875.\n\nAMAZONIAN TORTOISE MYTHS\n\nThe Geologist on the Amazonas who is not interested in some other branch of science, must lose much time, because geological localities are so widely separated, that he must often travel, for days together, without being able to make an observation of importance.\n\nIn 1870, I found myself on the great River, reviewing the work of Professor Agassiz, and occupied in a search for evidence to establish or disprove his hypothesis of the glacial origin of the Amazonian valley.\n\nBrought into very intimate contact with the Indian population of the country, I became interested in the Lingua Geral, or modern Tup\u00ed, as spoken at Erer\u00e9, Santarem, and on the Tapajos River, and I employed my leisure time in its acquirement, making fair progress in collecting material to illustrate its structure.\n\nMr. Henry Walter Bates, in his charming sketch of his life on the Amazonas, and Madame Agassiz, in her \"Journey in Brazil,\" had called attention to the number of myths existing among the Amazonian Indians. These myths had never been studied, and, being aware of their great value, I set myself to work to collect them.\n\nFor a long time I was baffled, for the whites, as a general rule, were unacquainted with the Indian folk-lore, and neither by coaxing, nor by offers of money, could I persuade an Indian to relate a myth. The story-teller of the locality was always represented to be an old woman, who could make one split his sides with laughter at odd stories about the Kurupira and the Yurupar\u00ed, and all sorts of animals, that used to talk and play pranks on one another, in the olden time when speech was not the exclusive possession of man. But quite invariably, this old woman was absent, or inaccessible. Once only, at Erer\u00e9, did I find an ancient squaw, said to be a wonderful repository of lendas, but nothing could I obtain from her.\n\nOne night, while wearily paddling up the parand-mir\u00edm of the Ituk\u00ed, near Santarem, my faithful steersman, Maciel, began to talk to the Indian boatmen in Tup\u00ed to keep them from going to sleep. I listened with all my ears, and, to my great delight, found him recounting a story of the Kurup\u00edra. I followed him as best I could, jotting down in my note-book the leading points in the story, meanwhile joining heartily in the laughter of the men to encourage the narrator. The next day, I took the first opportunity to tell Maciel how much I had enjoyed his story, and to beg that he would dictate it to me in Lingua Geral. He had already received a long training in dictation, and my first Tup\u00ed myth was soon recorded; but, for a long time it was all in vain that I coaxed him to tell me another.\n\nI soon found that the Indian myth was always recited without mental effort, its function being simply to please, like a ballad, and not to communicate information, and that when the Indian, unsurrounded by the evening circle of listeners about the camp-fire, and by all those circumstances that make story-telling proper and enjoyable, is soberly asked to relate a mythical tale, he is incapable of the mental effort required to to recall it, and, for that reason, he promptly and stoutly pleads ignorance. So, the myth collector will usually go empty away, if he attempts to gather a harvest simply by asking. The only way is to seek for, and create occasions when story-telling would be natural, and, if necessary, to set the ball rolling by recounting some native myth, with which those present are known to be well acquainted, taking care not to show too much curiosity in the stories it elicits.\n\n\"Ce n'est que le premier pas qui co\u00fbte.\" After one has obtained his first myth, and has learned to recite it accurately and spiritedly, the rest is easy. I may here remark, in passing, that one must be on his guard on the Amazonas, and elsewhere, for that matter, among savages or people of low culture, not to ask a leading question, for an Indian will always unconciously acquiesce with the interrogator, who is thus likely to be misled. On one occasion, talking of this peculiarity with the captain of my little steamer, he suddenly stepped up to the Indian pilot, who stood by the rail gazing stolidly ahead, and, pointing out a palm by the riverside, said: \"That palm is called Urub\u00fa, is it not?\" \"Sim, Senhor!\" answered the Indian gravely, without moving a muscle. The question was repeated with the same result. The captain then asked: \"What is the name of that palm?\" when he promptly answered \"Jauar\u00ed\".\n\nIf the myth collector wishes to obtain the myth in its purity, and prevent his own personality entering into it, he must, above all, avoid asking of his pundit a leading question, either in writing out the myth for the first time, or in its after revision.\n\nThe Indian myths are, so far as my experience goes, rarely ever heard in Portuguese, those of the Tupi speaking population being quite invariably related in the Lingua Geral. Their form is a stereotyped one, and the same myth may be found, with but little variation, from near the mouth of the Amazonas, to Tabatfnga, on the frontier of Peru.\n\nWhile some of the myths have clearly been introduced, and others, with the advent of civilization, have suffered more or less modification, the great body of those still preserved in the Tup\u00ed are, I believe, of native origin.\n\nThe question has arisen, whether many of the stories I have given that bear so close a resemblance to Old World fables, may not have been introduced by the negroes, but I see no reason for entertaining this suspicion, for they are too widely spread, their form is too thoroughly Brazilian, they are most numerous in just those regions where negroes are not, and have not been abundant, and moreover, they occur, not in Portuguese, but in the Lingua Geral.\n\nAmong the myths that I Lave collected are those in which figure the Pait\u00fana, the wonder-working son of woman belonging to a tribe of females with only one husband, a legend from which, not unlikely, originated the story of the Amazonas; the wood-devil or Kurupira; the evil Yurupari, a sort of were-wolf; the Oidra or water sprite, and other anthropomorphous beings. But the most interesting of all are the animal stories, in which are recounted the exploits of monkeys, tapirs, tortoises, buzzards, and a host of other animals.\n\nIn this paper I propose to treat of one class of these animal stories, of which the Indians are very fond, namely: those relating to the Brazilian land-tortoise.\n\nThe Jabut\u00ed, as it is called by the Portuguese, or Yaut\u00ed, as it is termed in Lingua Geral, is a small species of tortoise very common in Brazil, and much esteemed for food. It is short-legged and slow, weak, and silent, yet it plays the same part in Amazonian mythology that the fox does in that of the Old World. Inoffensive and retiring, the Jabut\u00ed, nevertheless, appears in the myths of the Lingua Geral as vindictive, cunning, active, full of humor and fond of discussion. \"\u00c9 verdade!\" said an Indian at Itait\u00faba to me on his finishing a tortoise myth, \"\u00c9 o diabo; e tem feito estrago!\" (He is the very devil, and has worked havoc!)\n\nIn 1870, my guide, Lourenco Maciel Parente, dictated to me at Santarem, in Lingua Geral, the following story of \"The Tortoise that outran the Deer.\" Of this I published in the \"Cornell Era\" of Ithaca, New York, a version that attracted the attention of a writer in the \"Nation\" of New York, who gave a variant of the same myth found among the negroes of one of the Carolinas.\n\nIn 1871, when I revisited the Amazonas, I took especial pains to inquire for this myth, being rewarded by hearing it related by the Indians wherever I went. My friend Dr. Joaquim Xavier de Oliveira Pimentel, Captain of Engineers in the Brazilian army, has sent me a variant of the same story from Tabat\u00ednga, and Dr. Couto de Magalh\u00e3es has recently found the same myth in Par\u00e1, so that it appears to be current wherever the Lingua Geral is spoken. I was told in Santarem in 1870 that the myth was of Munduruc\u00fa origin, but this I now doubt, as it appears to be inseparably connected with the Lingua Geral.\n\nThe story runs as follows:\u2014\n\nHOW THE TORTOISE OUT-RAN THE DEER\n\nA Jabut\u00ed met a deer and asked: \"Oh deer! what are you seeking?\" The deer answered: \"I am out for a walk, to see if I cannot find something to eat; and, pray, where are you going, tortoise.\"\n\n\"I am also out walking; I am looking for water to drink?\"\n\n\"And when do you expect to reach the water?\" demanded the deer.\n\n\"Why do you ask that question?\" returned the tortoise.\n\n\"Because your legs are so short.\"\n\n\"Well!\" answered the tortoise, \"I can run faster than you can. If you are long-legged you cannot run so fast as I.\"\n\n\"Then let us run a race!\" said the deer.\n\n\"Well!\" answered the tortoise, \"when shall we run!\"\n\n\"To-morrow.\"\n\n\"At what time?\"\n\n\"Very early in the morning.\"\n\n\"Eng-\u00e9ng!\" assented the tortoise, who then went into the forest and called together his relations, the other tortoises, saying: \"Come, let us kill the deer!\"\n\n\"But how are you going to kill him?\" inquired they.\n\n\"I said to the deer,\" answered the tortoise, \"let us run a race! I want to see who can run the faster.\" Now I am going to cheat that deer. Do you scatter yourselves along the edge of the campo, in the forest, keeping not very far from one another, and see that you keep perfectly still, each in his place! To-morrow, when we begin the race, the deer will run in the campo, but I will remain quietly in my place. When he calls out to me, if you are ahead of him, answer, but take care not to respond if he has passed you.\"\n\nSo, early the next morning, the deer went out to meet the tortoise.\n\n\"Come,!\" said the former, \"Let us run!\"\n\n\"Wait a bit!\" said the tortoise, \"I am going to run in the woods.\"\n\n\"And how are you, a little, shortlegged fellow, going to run in the forest?\" asked the deer surprised.\n\nThe jabut\u00ed insisted that he could not run in the campo, but that he was accustomed to run in the forest, so the deer assented and the tortoise entered the wood, saying: \"When I take my position I will make a noise with a little stick so that you may know that I am ready.\"\n\nWhen the tortoise, having reached his place, gave the signal, the deer started off leisurely, laughing to himself, and not thinking it worth his while to run. The tortoise remained quietly behind. After the deer had walked a little distance, he turned around and called out: \"U'i yaut\u00ed!\" when, to his astonishment a tortoise a little way ahead cried out,\"U'i suast\u00fa\"\n\"Well,\" said the deer to himself, \"that jabut\u00ed does run fast!\" whereupon he walked briskly for a little distance and then cried out again, but the voice of a tortoise still responded far in advance.\n\n\"How's this?\" exclaimed the deer, and he ran a little way, until thinking that, he surely must have passed the tortoise, he stopped, turned about, and called again; But \"U'i suas\u00fa!\" came from the edge of the forest just ahead.\n\nThen the deer began to be alarmed and ran swiftly until he felt surely that he had passed the tortoise when he stopped and called; but a jabuti still answered in advance.\n\nOn this the deer set off at full speed, and, after a little, without stopping, called to the tortoise, who still from ahead cried: \"U'i suas\u00fa!\" He then he redoubled his forces, but with no better success, and at last, tired and bewildered, he ran against a tree and fell dead.\n\nThe noise made by the feet of the deer having ceased, the first tortoise listened. Not a sound was heard. Then he called to the deer, but received no response. So he went out of the forest and found the deer lying dead. Then he gathered together all his friends and rejoiced over the victory.\n\nThe myth as found in Tabat\u00ednga, appears to have the same form as that which I have just related. I give it below in Dr. Pimentel's own words. Dr. Pimentel informs me that there is found on the Amazonas a variant of the same myth, in which the race was between a deer and a carapato. The latter at the beginning of the race laid hold of the tail of the deer. During the contest, when the deer called out to the insect, the answer came from so near, that the deer, exerting himself more and more, died at last of fatigue.\n\nThe myth of the race between the tortoise and the deer as found among the negroes of South Carolina is as follows:\n\n\"Once upon a time,\" so the story runs, \"Brudder Deer and Br. Coutah was courtin,' and de lady bin lub Br. Deer more so dan Br. Coutah. She did bin lub Br. Coutah, but she lub Br. Deer de morest. So de noung lady say to Br. Deer and Br. Coutah both, dey mus hab a ten mile race, and de one dat beats, she will marry him.\n\n\"So Br. Coutah say to Br. Deer: 'You has got longer legs dan I has, but I will run you. You run ten miles on land, and I will run ten miles on water!'\n\n\"So Br. Coutah went an' git nine of his family, an' put one at ebery mile post, and he himself, what was to run wid Br. Deer, was right in front of de young lady's door, in de broom grass.\n\n\"Dat morning at nine o'clock, Br. Deer met Br. Coutah at de first mile post, wha de wos to start from. So he call: 'Well, Br. Coutah, Is you ready? Go long!' As he git on to de next mile post, he say: 'Br. Coutah!' Br. Coutah say 'Hullo!' Br. Deer say: 'You dere?' Br. Coutah say: 'Yes, Br. Coutah, I dere too.'\n\n\"Next mile post he jump, Br. Deer say: 'Hulloo, Br. Coutah!' Br. Coutah say: 'Hulloo, Br. Deer you dere too?' Br. Deer say: 'Ki! It look you gwine for tie me; it look like we gwine for de gal tie!'\n\n\"When he gits to de nine mile post he tought he git dere first, 'cause he mek two jump; so he holler: 'Br. Coutah!' Br. Coutah answer: 'You dere too?' Br. Deer say: It look like you gwine tie me.' Br. Coutah say: 'Go 'long, Brudder, I git dere in due season time,' which he does, the deer being beaten in the race.\"\n\nGrimm gives a similar story of a race between a hare and a hedgehog. The latter places his wife at the end of a furrow in a plowed field, while he himself takes up his position at the other end. The hare, mistaking one for the other, acknowledges himself beaten. In Northamptonshire the fox is substituted for the hare, but, in other details, the myth is identical with the German.\n\nSometimes, in Old World mythology, it is a hare that runs a race with a tortoise but who, confiding in his swiftness, goes to sleep, while the tortoise, persevering slowly, first reaches the goal.\n\nIn Siam the myth takes the following form:\u2014\n\n\"The bird Kruth, no doubt a limited and particular form of Garudas, wishes to eat a tortoise (here perhaps the moon) which lies upon the shores of a lake. The tortoise consents to be eaten under the condition that the Kruth accepts a challenge to a trial of speed, and arrives soonest on the other side of the lake, the bird to go through the air and the tortoise through the water.\n\n\"The bird Kruth accepts the wager; and the tortoise calls together millions and millions of tortoises, and places them all in such a way that they surround the lake, each distant a few steps from the water. Then he gives the signal to the bird to commence the race. The Kruth rises up into the air and flies to the opposite bank; wherever he essays to alight, he finds the tortoise has been there before him.\" De Gubernatis suggests that the Siamese myth may represent the relation of the sun to the lunations.\n\nIn the East Indian \"fable of the ant and the grasshopper,\" of which the former represents \"the cloud or the night, or Indras or the Aurora in the cloud of night, or the earth, and the latter the leaping one the moon; the ant passes the grasshopper in the race, not because it walks faster, but because the two runners must necessarily meet, and therefore one must pass the other.\"\n\nIn Old World mythology, the myths of the race between the tortoise and some swift animal, as well as between the hare and the hedgehog, etc., have been explained as referring to the race between the slow one, the sun, and the swift one, the moon, and it seems to me eminently probable that the similar Amazonian myth may have the same signification. Perhaps one reason why the moon is called a deer may be owing to her being horned. In Sanskrit myths she is represented by a stag or a gazelle.\n\nDr. Couto de Magalh\u00e3es gives me the following story, which I will entitle\n\nTHE JABUTI THAT CHEATED THE MAN.\n\nA jabut\u00ed was dancing in a hole in the ground, when he was found by a man and caught. The man carried him to his house, put him in a box, and went out. By and by the jabut\u00ed began to sing. The man's children listened, and the jabut\u00ed stopped. The children begged him to continue when he said: \"If you are pleased with my singing, how much more would you be pleased if you could see me dance!\" So the children put him in the middle of the house, where he danced, to their great delight. Presently, however, he made an excuse to go out, and fled. The children, frightened, procured a stone, painted it like the tortoise, and placed it in the box. By and by the man returned, and, wishing to cook the jabut\u00ed, took out the painted stone, and put it on the fire, where it soon became heated and burst.\n\nMeanwhile, the tortoise had hidden himself in a thicket, in a burrow having two openings. While the man was looking in at one hole, the jabut\u00ed would appear at the other, and then when the man came to this opening, he would quickly go to the first; so that we have here, once more repeated, the story of the race between the slow tortoise or sun, and the swift moon or man. We have already seen the tortoise escape from the jaguar by going into a burrow by one opening and retiring by another, just as the sun appears to go into its burrow in the west, and come out in the east.\n\nThe following tale was related to me in Santarem by Louren\u00e7o Maciel:\u2014\n\nHOW A TORTOISE KILLED TWO JAGUARS.\n\nOne day a jabut\u00ed tortoise was amusing himself by climbing a hill, drawing into his shell his head and legs, and allowing himself to roll down to the bottom, which was reached in safety.\n\nA jaguar, happening to pass by, observed the proceeding and inquired:\u2014\n\n\"What are you doing, jabut\u00ed?\"\n\n\"Oh, I am playing, jaguar,\" answered the tortoise.\n\n\"Let me see how you play,\" said the jaguar.\n\nThe jabut\u00ed then ascended the hill, and, as before, came rolling down. The jaguar was much pleased and said:\n\n\"I am going to play also.\"\n\n\"Well\", returned the tortoise,\" climb the hill and then come rolling down as I did.\"\n\nThe jaguar attempted to imitate the jabut\u00ed, but, at the foot of the hill, struck his head against a tree and was killed.\n\nBy and by, there came along another jaguar, to whom the tortoise remarked that he was going to play. So the jabuti said to a tree: \"Open!\" and the tree obeyed. Then the jabut\u00ed, entering into the trunk, said: \"Shut tree!\" and the trunk closed up, imprisoning the jabut\u00ed, but when the latter commanded it to open, it obeyed, and he walked out. The jaguar, who had been watching, then said:\n\n\"Jabut\u00ed, I want also to play as you have done.\" So he said: \"Open tree!\" The trunk opened and the jaguar entered in. He then commanded it to close upon him and it obeyed, and when he said: \"Open tree!\" he walked out much pleased. But this did not satisfy him, and he said to the tortoise: \"I want to play again.\" So the jaguar repeated the experiment; but, when he had entered into the tree, the jabut\u00ed said: \"Shut tree for ever!\" and the jaguar being imprisoned, died.\n\nBoth parts of this story appear to have the same meaning, and represent the victory of the sun over the moon during the lunations. In the first part of the story, the sun rolls down the western sky to appear again unhurt, but the moon in attempting to follow the example is extinguished. The myth, if this be the true explanation, seems incomplete, and I would suggest that perhaps, on search, the perfect form might be found, which would probably be as follows:\u2014\n\nThe jaguar, or new moon, meets the sun, or jabut\u00ed, as he has just rolled down the western sky and desires to follow his example. Next day, and for many days, he is successful, but by and by, after losing his strength gradually, the jaguar (the old moon) descends and is extinguished.\n\nIn the second part, the setting sun, or tortoise, cleaves the forest in the evening and disappears in it, to issue again safely on the morrow. The moon, or jaguar, follows his example safely, but on repeating the experiment is destroyed, the extinction of the old moon probably appearing to the Indiana destruction, the new moon being another moon, or a second on\u00e7a.\n\nThat the tortoise should enter into, be imprisoned in, and issue unharmed from the forest, is a most natural form for the myth; for, in a forest-clothed country like the Amazonas, the sun ordinarily seems to set among, and rise out of the trees. The sun also has the power of splitting the trunks of trees; in which latter case he performs the action from a distance, as if by command.\n\nThe splitting of the earth, and of rocks and trees by solar heroes is common in mythological tales, the world over, and the second part of the story just related has many parallels.\n\nIn Bleek's Hottentot fables, the Nama woman and her brothers, when pursued by the elephant, address a rock with these words: \"Stone of my ancestors, divide for us!\" The rock divides and they pass through, but when the elephant addresses it in the same manner, the rock opens, only to close upon him and kill him.\n\nThe rock-house, Itohe-likantum-jambali, opens and shuts at the voice of its master. So also when Kurangutuku said to the rock: \"Open for me, open!\" it obeycl, and he hid himself in it.\n\nAfanasieff in the observations to the first book of his Russian Stories, refers to a Slavonic tale, in which a hare shuts up a bear in the trunk of a tree.\n\nThe following is one of the most interesting of the Jabuti stories, and the Indians always relate it with much gusto:\u2014\n\nHOW THE TORTOISE PROVOKED A CONTEST OF STRENGTH BETWEEN THE TAPIR AND THE WHALE.\n\nOne day a jabut\u00ed went down to the sea to drink. A whale saw him and called out:\u2014\"What are you doing, jabut\u00ed?\" To which the latter responded:\n\n\"I am drinking, because I am thirsty.\"\n\nThen the whale made sport of the tortoise because of his short legs, but the latter replied:\u2014\"If my legs are short, I am stronger than you, and can pull you on shore.\"\n\nThe whale laughed, and said:\u2014\"Let me see you do it!\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the jabut\u00ed, \"just wait until I go into the forest and pull a sip\u00f3!\"\n\nAway went the tortoise into the forest, and there he encountered a tapir who demanded, \"What are you looking after, jabut\u00ed?\"\n\n\"I am looking after a sip\u00f3.\"\n\n\"And what are you going to do with the sip\u00f3?\" asked the tapir.\n\n\"I want it to pull you down to the sea.\"\n\n\"Ya!\" exclaimed the tapir, surprised, \"I'll pull you into the forest, and, what's more, I'll kill you; but never mind, let's try who may be the stronger! Go get your sip\u00f3!\" The tortoise went off, and presently came back with a very long sip\u00f3, one end of which he tied around the body of the tapir.\n\n\"Now,\" said the jabut\u00ed, \"wait here until I go down to the sea. When I shake the sip\u00f3, run with all your might into the forest.\" Having attached one end to the tapir, he dragged the other down to the sea, and fastened it to the tail of the whale. This accomplished, he said, \"I will go up into the forest, and when I shake the sip\u00f3, pull as hard as you can, for I am going to draw you on shore.\"\n\nThe jabuti then went into the wood, midway between the whale and the tapir, shook the sip\u00f3, and awaited the result. First the whale, swimming vigorously, dragged the tapir backward to the sea, but the latter, resisting with all his might, finally gained a firm foothold, and began to get the better of the whale, drawing him in toward the shore. Then the whale made another effort, and, in this manner, they kept tugging against one another, each thinking the tortoise at the other end of the sip\u00f3, until at last, both gave up the struggle from sheer exhaustion.\n\nThe tortoise went down to the shore to see the whale, who said: \"Well! you are strong, jabut\u00ed; I am very tired.\"\n\nThe tortoise then untied the sip\u00f3 from the whale, and having dipped himself in the water, presented himself to the tapir, who thought the tortoise had been pulling against him in the water.\n\n\"Well tapir,\" said the jabuti, \"you see that I am the stronger.\"\n\nThe tortoise then released the tapir, who went off saying:\u2014\"It is true, jabuti, you are indeed strong.\"\n\nIn the Lingua Geral, the word I have rendered \"whale,\" is pir\u00e1-as\u00fa, literally, the big fish, this being the name applied by the Indians to the cetacean which is to them, the fish par excellence. It cannot be the Amazonian dolphin, because this bears the name p\u00edra-yau\u00e1ra, or tiger-fish. The word paran\u00e1, which I have translated \"sea,\" is applied also to a river. Maciel assured me that the big fish was a \"bal\u00eaa do mar grande\"\u2014a whale of the ocean.\n\nDr. Pimentel has kindly sent me a variant of this myth, which I give in a somewhat condensed form.\n\nA jabut\u00ed who had been surrounded by the rise of the river, threw himself into the water to reach terra firma. In the middle of the stream he met the cobra grande, or mythical great serpent. \"Adeos, comadre,\" said the to the snake.\n\n\"Adeos, compadre,\" replied the latter, \"where are you going?\"\n\n\"I am going,\" said the tortoise, \"to cut down a fruit-tree, to get something to eat.\"\n\n\"What? Are you strong enough for that?\" asked the cobra astonished.\n\n\"Ora! Do you think so little of me as to doubt it? Let us see which is the stronger. But I shall have to be on land, because in the water, I have no strength.\"\n\n\"And I,\" added the cobra grande, \"must remain in the water, for on land I have no strength.\"\n\nThe tortoise begged the cobra to carry him to land. The snake assented, and the jabut\u00ed, climbing on his back, was quickly deposited on shore.\n\nThe day for the trial was set, and the jabut\u00ed went away, intending not to return.\n\nA few days after, a jaguar came across the tortoise, and was about to dash him to pieces against a tree and devour him, but the jabut\u00ed did not forget himself, and said to the on\u00e7a:\u2014\"O jaguar, you treat me in this way because I am on land. If I were in the water you would not dare do so.\"\n\nThe jaguar was not very hungry, and being curious as to what the jabut\u00ed would do in the water, carried him down to the river and threw him in.\n\nAs soon as the cobra grande saw the tortoise, he took him to task for not having kept his appointment. The jabut\u00ed excused himself as best he could, and said that he would immediately get a sip\u00f3, so that the two might pull, one at one end, the other at the other, to determine which was the stronger. Then, going close in shore, he said to the jaguar:\u2014\"Cut a long sip\u00f3.\"\n\nThe jaguar did so. Then the jabuti said:\u2014\"Give me one end, and when I make a signal, pull with all your might.\" But the jabut\u00ed gave his end of the sip\u00f3 to the cobra grande, and told him to wait until he had reached the land. The jabut\u00ed then gave the signal, and hid himself, and the cobra and jaguar began to tug at the sip\u00f3, each thinking the tortoise at the other end.\n\nThe jabut\u00ed had stipulated that the one who was vanquished in the struggle, should forfeit his life. Both jaguar and cobra soon became fatigued, and abandoning the contest, fled as fast as possible, while the jabut\u00ed escaped.\n\nDr. Couto de Magalhaes has found this same myth in Par\u00e1, but, for the tapir or jaguar, is substituted the ka\u00e1-p\u00f3ra (the forest-dweller), a sort of mythical giant of the woods.\n\nThis myth is, perhaps, susceptible of more than one interpretation. The tortoise, or sun, has a trial of strength with the jaguar or tapir, the moon, and vanquishes by substituting another in his place, in which case, we have simply a different form of the myth of the Tortoise and Deer. It has, however, suggested itself to me that the tortoise, in this myth, might perhaps be the sun or moon, provoking the everlasting tidal contest between the sea and the land. It is worth noting that Brazil is so situated geographically, that the sun and moon are rarely seen to set in the sea. On the Amazonas, however, the sight of their disappearance behind a water horizon is a familiar one to the Indian. If this myth is really of native growth, it would be interesting to discover whether it originated on the Amazonas, or on the coast.\n\nThe following is a somewhat free translation of another story I obtained in the Lingua Geral, at Santarem:\u2014\n\nHOW A TORTOISE KILLED A JAGUAR AND MADE A WHISTLE OF ONE OF HIS BONES.\n\nA monkey was high up in an Inaj\u00e1 tree eating the fruit, when a jabut\u00ed came up underneath, and, seeing the monkey, asked:\n\n\"What are you doing, monkey!\"\n\n\"I am eating Inaj\u00e1 fruit,\" answered the monkey.\n\n\"Throw one down to me,\" said the tortoise.\n\n\"Climb up, jabut\u00ed,\" retorted the monkey.\n\n\"But I cannot climb.\"\n\n\"Then I will descend and fetch you.\"\n\nDown went the monkey and carried the tortoise up into the tree, placing him on a bunch of the fruit. He then went away, leaving the tortoise, saying that he would presently return.\n\nThe jabut\u00ed ate until he was satisfied, and waited for the monkey, who did not return. He desired to descend, but was unable, and so he remained looking down, afraid to let himself fall, lest he might be killed.\n\nBy and by, a jaguar came along, and, looking up into the tree, saw the jabut\u00ed.\n\n\"U'i yaut\u00ed!\" said he, calling to the tortoise, \"what are you doing up there?\"\n\n\"I am eating Inaj\u00e1 fruit,\" answered the jabut\u00ed.\n\n\"Throw me down one!\" said the jaguar. The tortoise plucked a fruit and threw it to the jaguar, who, having eaten it, said: \"S\u00e9 ret\u00e9! Throw down another!\" The tortoise obeyed.\n\n\"Why don't you come down?\" asked the jaguar. The tortoise answered that he was afraid lest he should be killed.\n\nNow the jaguar wanted to make a meal of the tortoise, so he said:\n\n\"Don't be afraid! Jump! I will catch you!\"\n\nThe tortoise leaped down, but the jaguar missed his aim, and the tortoise, striking him on the head, killed him. The jabuti, unhurt, then went off to his hole.\n\nA month afterwards he came out and took a walk, to look at the remains of the jaguar, and finding the skeleton, he carried away one of the bones, out of which he made a sort of gaita or fife, on which he piped, as he walked about: \"Yauaret\u00e9 kaungu\u00e9ra sereny'my' '!\" The bone of the jaguar is my fife.\n\nNow it happened that another jaguar, passing by, heard the sound, and stopped and listened. \"Yauaret\u00e9 kaungu\u00e9ra sereny'my,\" piped again the jabuti. The jaguar, determined to investigate the matter, followed the tortoise, who presently came to the mouth of his hole.\n\n\"U'i yaut\u00ed!\" cried the jaguar, \"What is that you are saying?\"\n\n\"How is that?\" asked the tortoise.\n\n\"Did I not hear you saying: \"Yauaret\u00e9 kaungu\u00e9ra sereny'my' '!\"?\n\n\"No,\" said the tortoise, \"I said \"Suas\u00fa kaungu\u00e9ra sereny'my' '!\" and immediately he entered his hole, from which he piped: \"Yauaret\u00e9 kaungu\u00e9ra sereny'my' '!\"\n\nThe jaguar,on hearing this, turned towards the hole and said: \"I am going to eat you, by and by, jabut\u00ed.\"\n\nThe jaguar remained watching for the tortoise, but the latter escaped by another hole, eluding the jaguar. A monkey in a tree, seeing the latter waiting, called out to him and asked him what he was doing. The Jaguar answered: \"I am waiting for the jabut\u00ed to come out that I may eat him.\"\n\nThe monkey laughed and said: \"You are a stupid fellow, the jabut\u00ed has gone away. He will not appear until it rains.\"\n\n\"Well, if that is the case,\" rejoined the jaguar, \"I will go and take a walk,\" and he went away, cheated by the tortoise.\n\nIn another version of this story, the jabut\u00ed is represented as spreading out his tauar\u00ed, to dry in the sun, before the mouth of the hole. The jaguar caused a wind to blow the tauar\u00ed about, hoping in this way to entice out the tortoise, but the latter, too wary, sent out another animal to look after the tauar\u00ed and himself escaped.\n\nIn a variant of this myth obtained by Dr. de Magalh\u00e3es the jaguar is represented as reaching down into the burrow and catching hold of the tortoise, who, resisting, cries out: \"Oh, you foolish fellow! You think you have caught me when it is only the root of a tree that you have secured.\" The jaguar there upon realises his hold.\n\nDr. Silva de Coutinho has found the same myth among the Indians on the Rio Branco. Here, however, the jaguar left a toad on guard at the mouth of the burrow of the tortoise. The jabuti seeing him asked why his eyes were so red and swollen, and persuaded him to rub them with a certain plant, which, being caustic, blinded him. The tortoise then escaped. The jaguar wished to kill the toad but the latter jumped into a pond. The jaguar then called an alligator which speedily drank up the water, so that the jaguar was able to catch and kill the toad.\n\nIn this myth the jabut\u00ed is still the sun, who conquers and kills the jaguar moon. The taking of one of the bones of the latter, for a fife, naturally suggests itself to the Indian, who is accustomed to make whistles of the bones of his enemies. Another jaguar, or another moon, gives chase to the jabut\u00ed, who, entering his burrow by one hole, escapes by another, as the sun, descending into the earth in the west, comes up out of the east.\n\nTHE JABUTI AVENGES HIMSELF ON THE TAPIR\n\nA tapir met with a jabut\u00ed in a wet place, and stepping upon him, buried him deep in the mud, where the tortoise remained two years before he could extricate himself. When, at last, he succeeded, he said to himself: \"Now I will take my revenge on the tapir!\" So off he started in search of that beast. Pretty soon he found a mass of the droppings of the tapir covered with grass, and inquired of it:\u2014\"O Teputi! Where is your master?\" The Teputi answered, \"My master left me here a long while ago. I know nothing of him, but, when he left me, he went off in this direction. Go after him!\" The tortoise followed in the direction indicated, and presently found another heap, of which he asked as before: \"O Teputi! Where is your master?\" receiving the answer:\u2014\"My master left me here about a year ago. Follow in his track, you will come up with him.\" The tortoise continued his journey, and, before long, met with another heap, which, on being interrogated as before, answered: \"My master is not far away. If you will walk rapidly you will come up with him to-morrow!\"\n\nThe next day he found a perfectly fresh mass which said, \"My master has just left me here, I can hear the breaking of the branches as he goes through the forest. Go after him!\" The tortoise followed, and soon came up to the tapir, whom he found lying fast asleep. He looked at the tapir carefully, and then very quietly went up to him, and fastened his jaws into his thigh. The tapir awoke with a start and dashed into the forest, the tortoise keeping a firm hold, and, maddened with the pain, he ran on until, at last, overcome by fatigue, he fell dead. After a month, the tortoise came back and found the skeleton, from which he took a bone to show to his friends, as proof of his exploit.\n\nIn the Pantchatantram, a collection of Sanskrit stories, there is one of the elephant and hares, that bears a close resemblance to that just related. It runs as follows:\u2014\n\nOn the shores of the lake Tchandrasaras live the hares in numerous burrows. The elephants, driven by thirst, come down to the lake to drink, and break in the burrows as they walk, killing and maiming the hares. The hare, in the name of the moon, in which is the palace of the hare-king, remonstrates with the elephant-king, saying that the moon is angry. The hare shows him the reflection of the moon in the water. The elephant, disturbing the water, causes the reflection to be multiplied. The hare tells him that the moon is more angry still, whereupon the elephant king begs pardon and retires, leaving the hares in peace.\n\nAccording to Gubernatis, the elephant is the sun who goes down to drink at the lake of the moon: \"the hare warns the elephant that, if he does not retire, if he continues to crush the hares on the shores of the lake, the moon will take back his cold beams, and then the elephants will die of hunger.\"\n\nIn the African Kanur\u00ed tale, an elephant sits down upon a cock, and the latter, in revenge, picks out one of the elephant's eyes.\n\nThe Amazonian story seems susceptible of the following interpretation:\u2014The tapir is the sun, the tortoise the moon. The rising sun extinguishes the old moon, and buries her, but after a time, the new moon appears and begins the pursuit of the sun. The fact that the race continues day after day, and that the scent grows constantly stronger suggests, however, that the pursuer may, after all, be the sun. May not the story, perhaps, have become confused through an interchange of characters?\n\nTHE TORTOISE KILLS THE OPOSSUM BY INDUCING HIM TO BURY HIMSELF.\n\nA jabut\u00ed made a bet with a muk\u00fara, or Amazonian opossum, to see which could the longer stay buried. The jabut\u00ed was first interred by the muk\u00fara, and came out in good order. The jabut\u00ed then buried the muk\u00fara under a heap of dried leaves, and left him. A few days after, when he came to look at him, he found only a swarm of flies.\n\nHere the solar tortoise, who buries himself daily, without harm, induces the nocturnal mukura, or moon, to follow his example, resulting in the extinction of the latter.\n\nTHE TORTOISE SENDS THE JAGUAR ON A FOOL'S ERRAND\n\nA jabut\u00ed and a spider entered into a sort of copartnership, and lived together. The jabut\u00ed had killed a tapir, and was engaged in cutting up his flesh, when a jaguar came along.\n\n\"Well jabuti\", said he to the tortoise, \"what are you doing?\"\n\n\"I have killed a tapir, and am dressing him,\" answered the jabut\u00ed.\n\n\"I'll help you,\" said the jaguar, who immediately fell to and helped himself, much to the disgust of the jabut\u00ed. Presently the latter said to the jaguar:\u2014\"I am very thirsty, and am going to get some water. Spider, go on storing away the flesh in your house!\"\n\nThe tortoise went off a short distance, wet himself in the dew, and returned.\n\n\"Where is the water?\" asked the jaguar, \"for I also am thirsty.\"\n\n\"Go off in this direction,\" said the tortoise, pointing with his finger. \"The water is just beneath the sun. Go straight ahead, following the sun, and you will find it\". The jaguar walked and walked, but found no water; so, disgusted, he returned to finish the cutting up of the tapir. But the jabut\u00ed and spider had worked diligently while the jaguar was gone, and had stored all the flesh in the house of the spider, leaving only the bones for the jaguar.\n\nThis tale is exactly matched by the following African story given by Koelle:\n\nA weasel and a hyena, wishing to cook an animal killed in the chase, sent out the weasel to search for fire. The weasel went, but returned unsuccessful. The hyena, on seeing the sun set in the west, thought that it was fire, arose, and said to the weasel:\u2014\"Look after our meat, while I go and \"fetch the fire.\"\n\nWhile the hyena was gone, the weasel hid the meat in a hole. The sun set as the hyena was going toward it and he returned. The weasel said that two men had stolen the meat and hidden it in the hole. The weasel went into the hole, promising to tie the meat to the hyena's tail; but instead he tied the tail to a stick, so that when he called out to the hyena to pull, the latter found himself fast, and in his struggle broke off his tail.\n\nI add also the following story of a conversation between a jabut\u00ed and a tapir, which however appears condensed and incomplete.\n\nA jabut\u00ed met a tapir in the forest, and asked him where he was going. The jabut\u00ed said:\u2014\"I am going to marry the daughter of a humming-bird.\" The tapir laughed, and told him that he had such short legs that he would never reach her house.\n\nThe jabut\u00ed then asked the tapir where he was going, when the latter replied that he was on his way to ask the daughter of the deer in marriage. The tortoise laughed in turn, and answered:\u2014\"Ya! You will never marry the deer's daughter.\" \"Why not?\" asked the tapir. \"Because she will run away from you,\" replied the jabut\u00ed. \"Well,\" said the tapir \"I also can run. I break down the branches before me as I go.\"\n\nBesides the jabut\u00ed stories, there are others found on the Amazonas that seem to me to be solar myths, but the limits of this article will not allow me to do much more than refer to them.\n\nIn one of these stories, the kingfisher marries the daughter of the muk\u00fara, and with his wife goes out fishing. The uairir\u00e1mba or kingfisher, shakes his marak\u00e1 rattle; a big tukunar\u00e9 fish comes up, and he pounces upon him, and brings him to land. The muk\u00fara is jealous, and insists upon fishing also in the same way, So he borrows his son-in-law's rattle and follows his example, being speedily swallowed by the fish. His wife runs home in distress and calls the son-in-law, who promptly rescues him, in rather a poor state of health.\n\nIn the continuation of this story, the kingfisher is represented as being obliged to flee from the muk\u00fara, who is angry because the kingfisher has laughed at his plight. The wife of the latter then takes for her husband a carapato, and soon after the pair go out to gather green Brazil-nuts, the carapato climbing the tree, plucking the fruit, and throwing it down to his wife. After he has finished, he plucks a leaf, and holding on to it, comes safely to the ground. Then the jealous muk\u00fara must needs follow his example, but when he attempts to descend by holding on to the leaf, he falls with a crash to the ground.\n\nThe myths I have placed on record in this little paper have, without doubt, a wide currency on the Amazonas, but I have found them only among the Indian population, and they were all collected in the Lingua Geral. All my attempts to obtain myths from the negroes on the Amazonas proved failures. Dr. Couto de Magalh\u00e3es, who has recently followed me in these researches, has had the same experience. The probability, therefore, seems to be that the myths are indigenous, but I do not yet consider the case proven. Whether of native or foreign origin, they exist and are current among the Indian population, and they deserve careful collection and critical study.\n\nFortunately we are not without historical evidence as to the existence of celestial myths among the ancient Indians. Claude d'Abbeville tells us that the Tup\u00ed Indians of Maranh\u00e3o gave names to many of the stars and constellations. The evening star they called Pira-panem, the pilot of the morning. Among the constellations were Ouegnonmoin, the crab; Yassatin, called after a bird of the same name; Tuyau\u00e9, the old man; Conomy manipo\u00e9re ouar\u00e9, the boy that eats manipoy; Yandout\u00edn, the white ostrich that eats the ouyra-oupia or birds' eggs, two stars in the vicinity; tapity, the hare; Gnopou\u00ebon, the mandioca oven, etc. etc. What is, however, most interesting is the statement that the name iaou\u00e1re or dog, (more properly jaguar), was given to a large star that follows close to the moon, and which was supposed by the Indians to pursue her in order to devour her. After the rains, when the moon made her appearance, ruddy in color like blood, the Indians went out, and facing her, beat on the ground with sticks, saying:\u2014\"Eycob\u00e9 chera moin go\u00e9 go\u00e9; Eycob\u00e9 chera main go\u00e9, hau' hau\"\u2014My grand-father, may you always be well!\n\nIn the myths I have given, I have interpreted the jaguar to be the moon, having been led to this opinion from analogy. It may, however, be fairly questioned whether it may not, at least, in some instances, mean the star just named. The question cannot be settled with the facts on hand. On another occasion I shall discuss this whole matter more thoroughly.\n\nSince the above was in type, Dr. Silva de Coutinho has informed me that the Indians of the Amazonas not only give names to many of the heavenly bodies, but also tell stories about them. The two stars that form the shoulders of Orion are said to be an old man and a boy in a canoe, chasing a peixe boi, by which name is designated a dark spot in the sky near the above constellation. The Indians say that originally the old man, the large star, was in the bow, the boy, the small star, being in the stern, steering. When the man caught sight of the peixe boi he became too much excited to shoot, and so he exchanged places with the boy. There is a constellation called by the Indians, the palmtree, and near by is a line of stars which they call monkeys coming to eat the fruit. Another constellation is called the jabur\u00fa crane (Ciconia) and another the white crane.\n\nDr. Coutinho has found on the Rio Branco and Sr. Barbosa has reported from the Jamund\u00e1 a myth, in which the moon is represented as a maiden who fell in love with her brother and visited him at night, but who was finally betrayed by his passing his blackened hand over her face.\n\nThis work was published before January 1, 1931, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.\n\nPublic domainPublic domainfalsefalse","title":"Amazonian Tortoise Myths","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":8639}