Across Unknown South America Part 20

The Bororos were great lovers of minute detail. So it was that, in their music, strange, weird effects were attempted, wonderfully complicated in detail.

Bororo singing occasionally took the form of a recitative, with the chorus joining in the refrain--this princ.i.p.ally when chanting the merits of a deceased person, or during some calamity in the _aldeja_, or village.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bororo Child showing strong Malay Characteristics.]

The only musical instruments I was able to find in the various settlements of Bororos I visited consisted chiefly of single, double, or treble gourds, the latter with perforations at the two ends, used as wind instruments and producing deep ba.s.s notes. The single gourd had a cane attachment intended to emit shrill high notes. Then there were other dried gourds filled with pebbles which rattled as they were shaken at the end of a long handle to which the gourds were fastened.

The cane flutes were slightly more elaborate, with ornaments of rings of black feathers. There was only one rectangular slit in the centre of the flute, so that only one note could be produced--as was the case with most of their rudimentary musical instruments.

CHAPTER XVI

Bororo Legends--The Religion of the Bororos--Funeral Rites

THE Bororos believed in spirits of the mountains and the forest, which haunted special places in order to do harm to living beings. Those spirits came out at night. They stole, ill-treated, and killed. In rocks, said the Bororos, dwelt their ancestors in the shape of parrots. The Bororos were greatly affected by dreams and nightmares, which they regarded as events that had actually happened and which generally brought bad luck. They were often the communications of evil spirits, or of the souls of ancestors. The Bororos had many superst.i.tions regarding animals, which they individualized in their legends, giving them human intelligence--especially the _colibri_ (humming-bird), the macaw, the monkey, the deer, and the leopard.

The stars, according to these savages, were all Bororo boys. Let me give you a strange legend concerning them.

"The women of the _aldeia_ had gone to pick Indian corn. The men were out hunting. Only the old women had remained in the _aldeia_ with the children. With an old woman was her nephew, playing with a bow and arrow.

The arrows had perforated sticks, which the boy filled with Indian corn.

When the boy had arrived home he had asked his grandmother to make a kind of _polenta_ with Indian corn. He had invited all the other boys of the _aldeia_ to come and eat. While grandmother was cooking the children played, and among them decided to go to heaven. In the _aldeia_ there lived an old woman and a red macaw. Both could speak. The boys, having eaten the _polenta_, cut off the woman's arms, cut out her tongue and eyes, and tore out the tongue of the speaking bird. Having done this, they went into the forest, where they found a liana twisted into innumerable steps (in the Bororo language, _ippare_, young; _kugure_, mult.i.tude; _groiya_, step). They could not speak for fear of drawing attention, nor ask any one for help. They had taken the precaution of setting free all the captive birds in the _aldeia_, and they had flown away, except the _pio duddu_ (the _colibri_), which they took with them into the forest. The boys gave a long liana, like a rope, to the _colibri_, requesting him to fasten it to the top of the highest tree, and another long liana which he must tie to the sky where they all wished to ascend. The _colibri_ tied the vegetable ropes as requested, and all the boys climbed up.

"The mothers, missing their children, went to the old woman and the speaking macaw.

"'Where are our children?' said they in a chorus.

"No answer. They were horrified when they perceived the mutilated woman and bird. They rushed out of the hut and saw the children--up--up--high, like tiny spots, climbing up the liana to heaven. The women went to the forest, to the spot where the boys had proceeded on their aerial trip, and showing the b.r.e.a.s.t.s that had milked them, entreated them to come down again. The appeal was in vain. The mothers, in despair, then proceeded to follow their children skyward up the liana.

"The youthful chieftain of the plot had gone up last. When he perceived the mothers gaining on them, he cut the liana. With a sonorous b.u.mp, the mothers dropped in a heap to the ground. That was why the Bororo women were resigned to see their sons in heaven, forming the stars, while they--the women themselves--remained the transmigrated souls of their mothers upon earth."

The Bororos also said that the stars were the houses of deceased children.

The Bororos believed that the sky vault, or heaven, formed part of the earth, and was inhabited. They proved this by saying that the vulture could be seen flying higher and higher until it disappeared. It went to perch and rest upon trees in heaven. The Milky Way in the sky--the _kuyedje e 'redduddo_ (literally translated "stars they cinders")--consisted for them merely of the flying cinders from the burning stars.

The sun, they stated, was made up entirely of dead _barih_, or medicine-men, who rose daily with red-hot irons before their faces. The _barihs_ prowled about the earth at night, and went to the east in the morning on their return to the sun. The hot irons held by the _barihs_ were merely held in order to warm the people on earth. At sunset the orb of day "came down to the water" beyond the horizon, and from there marched back to the east. The Bororos maintained that the heavy and regular footsteps of the sun walking across the earth at night could be heard plainly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bororo Girls.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bororo Girls (side view).]

The moon, which was masculine to the Bororos, was the brother of the sun, and was similarly the home of _barihs_ of minor importance.

The legends of the Bororos were generally long and somewhat confused.

They were the outcome of extremely imaginative and extraordinarily retentive minds. Their imagination frequently ran away with them, so that it was not always easy to transcribe the legends so as to render them intelligible to the average reader, unaccustomed to the peculiar way of thinking and reasoning of savages. Yet there was generally a certain amount of humorous _vraisemblance_ in their most impossible stories.

Their morals, it should be remembered, were not quite the same as ours.

There were frequently interminable descriptive details which one could on no account reproduce in print, and without them much of the point of the legends would be lost. So that, with the confusion and disorder of ideas of the Bororos, their peculiar ways of expression, and the mutilation necessary so as not to shock the public, the legends were hardly worth reproducing. Still, I shall give here one or two of the more interesting legends, which can be reproduced almost in their entirety.

"The sun and moon (two brothers, according to the Bororos) while hunting together began to play with arrows with blunt heads, such as those used by Bororos for catching birds alive. They hit each other in fun, but at last the sun shot one arrow with too much force and the moon died from the effects of the wound. The sun, unconcerned, left his dying brother and continued hunting; but afterwards returned with medicinal leaves which he placed on the wound of the moon. According to Bororo fashion, he even covered the dying brother entirely with leaves, when he saw his approaching end. When he discovered that the moon was dead he became frightened and left. That is why the moon, which when alive was once as bright as the sun, is now of less splendour. It is because it is dead, and the sun is still alive."

The Bororos firmly believed that formerly the world was peopled by monkeys. This was rather an interesting legend, as it would point out that the Bororos, in any case, were aware that the world was once inhabited by a hairy race, which they called monkeys. It is quite remarkable that a similar legend was found among many of the tribes of the Philippine Islands and Sulu Archipelago, and along the coast of the Eastern Asiatic continent. The Bororos stated that they learnt from monkeys how to make a fire. Monkeys were their ancestors. The whole world was peopled by monkeys in those days. Monkeys made canoes, too.

"One day a monkey and a hare went fishing together in a canoe in which they had taken a good supply of Indian corn. While the monkey was paddling the hare was eating up all the corn. When the corn had been entirely disposed of, in its irresistible desire to use its incisors, the hare began to gnaw the sides of the canoe. The monkey reprimanded the hare, and warned it that the canoe would sink, and as the hare was not a good swimmer it would probably get drowned, or be eaten by fish which swarmed in the stream. The hare would not listen to the advice, and continued in its work of destruction. A hole was bored in the side of the canoe, which promptly sank. The hare being a slow swimmer--according to Bororo notions--was immediately surrounded by swarms of _doviado_ (gold fish) and speedily devoured. The monkey--an excellent swimmer--not only was able to save its life, but, seizing a big fish, dragged it on sh.o.r.e.

"A jaguar came along and, licking its paws, asked whether the monkey had killed the fish for its (the jaguar's) dinner.

"'Yes,' said the monkey.

"'Where is the fire for cooking it?' replied the jaguar.

"The sun was just setting. The monkey suggested that the jaguar should go and collect some dried wood in order to make the fire. The sun was peeping through the branches and foliage of the forest. The jaguar went, and returned with nothing; but in the meantime the monkey, with two pieces of soft wood, had lighted a fire and eaten the fish, leaving a heap of bones. When the jaguar arrived the monkey leapt in a few jumps to the top of a tree.

"'Come down!' said the jaguar.

"'Certainly not!' said the monkey. Upon which the jaguar requested its friend the Wind to shake the tree with all its fury. The Wind did, and the monkey dropped into the jaguar's mouth, from which it immediately pa.s.sed into the digestive organs. The monkey little by little moved its arms in the close quarters in which it found itself, and was able to seize the knife which it carried--in the most approved Bororo fashion--slung across its back. Armed with it, it split the jaguar's belly and resumed its daily occupation of jumping from tree to tree."

I was able to record yet another strange legend on the preservation of fire.

"An otter," said the legend, "in days long gone by, had with great difficulty lighted a fire on the bank of a river. The sun first came to warm itself by the fire, and while the otter had gone on one of its aquatic expeditions, the moon arrived too. The sun and moon together, feeling in a mischievous mood, put out the fire with water not extra clean. Then they ran for all they were worth. The otter, feeling cold, came out of the water and, to its amazement, found the fire had been extinguished.

"'Who did it?' cried the furious otter, wishing to kill whoever had put the fire out. While its anger was at its highest the otter perceived a toad, which was accused of extinguishing the fire because its legs were as red as fire.

"'Do not kill me!' appealed the toad. 'Put your feet on my belly.' The request was at once granted. The toad opened its mouth wide, and with the pressure of the otter's paws upon its body a burning coal was ejected from its interior anatomy. The otter spared the toad's life in recognition of its services in preserving the fire. That is why the otter and the toad have been friends ever since."

It was not easy to collect legends from the Bororos, as only few of them were inclined to speak. The same legend I found had many variations, according to the more or less imaginative mind of the narrator.

Here is an extraordinary explanation of the origin of lightning.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bororo Women, showing Method of carrying Children.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bororos showing Formation of Hands.]

"A boy had violated his own mother. His father, discovering the misdeed and wishing to punish him severely--in fact, get rid of the boy altogether--sent him to several dangerous places to collect various things for him, such as wild fruit, etc. The son, fearing disaster, went to his grandmother for advice. She in turn called first one bird and then another for their advice. The father had sent his son to fetch some small gourds (_bappo rogo_), which grew floating on or suspended above the water of a lagoon. But the lagoon was filled with the souls of deceased Bororos and evil spirits. In the first instance the grandmother begged for the help of the _pio duddo_ (or _colibri_). This obliging bird accompanied the boy to the lagoon and, flying over the water, with its beak cut the twigs of the small gourds, and one by one brought them to the boy, who had wisely remained on dry land in order not to be seized by the evil spirits which lay concealed in the water. When the bird was about to bring the dried gourds back, the seeds which were inside rattled and aroused the evil spirits of the lagoon. Up they all sprang--but the _colibri_ was too swift for them, and the gourds were safely delivered to the boy. The boy brought them to his father, who, amazed at seeing his son still alive, sent him next to fetch some large gourds--such as those used by the _barih_ at funerals and in high ceremonies.

"The boy went once more to his grandmother, and she this time recommended him to a dove (_metugo_). When the dove and the boy arrived at the lake the dove cut some large gourds, but, unfortunately, in so doing made a noise. The souls and evil spirits of the lake leapt out and dispatched numerous arrows to kill the dove, but, as luck would have it, dove and _bappo_ (gourds) escaped unhurt. The boy handed the large gourds to his astounded father, who could not imagine how the boy had escaped death a second time.

"The Bororos used in their dances the nails of wild pigs, which they attached to their feet in order to produce a noise something like castanets. That ornament was called a _b.u.t.tori_.

"The father next ordered his son to go and bring back a complete set to form a _b.u.t.tori_. For some reason or other--according to the legend--the _b.u.t.tori_ was also found suspended over the lagoon swarming with souls and evil spirits. The grandmother on this occasion advised the son to accept the services of a large, beautifully coloured locust--called by the Bororos _mannori_. The _mannori_, however, made so much noise while on its errand that it became riddled with arrows from the angry spirits of the lake. To this day, say the Bororos, you can see a lot of white spots all over the body of the _mannori_. Each marks the spot of a former wound. But the _mannori_, too, faithfully delivered the foot ornaments to the youth. The youth brought them to his father, who, in amazement and vicious anger, ordered his son to go with him on the mountain to seize the nest of the _cibae_ (vulture). According to the notions of the Bororos, the souls of their dead trans-migrate into the bodies of birds and other animals.

"The young fellow again paid a visit to his wise grandmother, who was this time greatly upset. She handed him a stick and requested him to insert it at once into the vulture's nest, when they had arrived in the hollow in the rock where the nest was. The boy departed with his father up the precipitous mountain side. When they had nearly reached the nest the father placed a long stick across a precipice and ordered his son to climb on it and seize the nest. The son duly climbed--carrying with him his grandmother's stick. When he had reached the top the father did all he could to shake the son down into the chasm, and even removed the long stick on which he had climbed. But the lucky boy had already inserted his grandmother's stick into the creva.s.se and remained suspended, while the father--really believing that he had at last succeeded in disposing of his son--gaily returned to the _aldeia_ (village). The son, taking advantage of a liana festooned along the rock, was able to climb to the very summit of the mountain. There, tired and hungry, he improvised a bow and arrow with what materials he could find, and killed some lizards. He ate many, and hung the others to his belt. He went fast asleep. With the heat, the fast decomposing lizards began to smell. The odour attracted several vultures, which began to peck at him, especially in the softer parts behind (for he was sleeping lying on his chest and face, as Bororos generally do). The boy was too tired and worn to be awakened. The vultures then seized him by his belt and arms, and, taking to flight, soared down and deposited him at the foot of the mountain. There the boy woke up, famished. His supply of lizards had been eaten by the vultures.

He searched for fruit and ate some, but he could not retain his food owing to injuries caused him by the vultures. (Here a good portion of the legend has to be suppressed.)

"As best he could, the boy went to look for the _aldeia_, but it had vanished. He walked for several days, unable to find traces of his tribe.

At last he found the footmarks which they had left upon their pa.s.sage. He followed them, and came to a fire freshly made, left by the Indians. He went on until he identified the footmarks showing where his grandmother had gone. He made sure they were hers by the extra mark of her stick on the ground. With the a.s.sistance of a lizard, then of a big bird, then of a rat, then of a b.u.t.terfly, he discovered the whereabouts of the old lady. He was by then an old man. Upon perceiving his grandmother he again became a boy, and hurried on--making a noise so that she might know him again. She asked another nephew--'Look and see who is behind!'--The nephew turned round and recognized his eldest brother--who was also his father. The grandmother embraced him tenderly.

"The eldest fellow persuaded his grandmother and brother not to return to the _aldeia_ where he had suffered so much from the hands of his father.