Kuikuro
The appearance of the Caraíba
"Caraíba"
are the whites. Narrative by chief Atahulu (Ipatse village,
Upper Xingu River, State of Mato Grosso):
- Listen! The ancestors of the caraíba arrived a long
time ago.
- The caraíba ancestors came to the great river [Culiseu
and/or Culuene], camped at Tugi, built many canoes of jatobá
husk and placed many next to one another to kill our ancestors.
- "Let's go", they said. They were in Angahuku [headwaters
of the Buriti River] and came to the people of Agaha [Agaha ótomo].
It was still dark, almost dawn, and the people from Agaha were
dancing nduhe kuegü. Hidden, the soldiers shut the people
inside the houses. They hit those who were still almost sleeping
and tried to run away. They died. Blood ran like a stream and
the axes were stained with blood.
- "Let's go!". They went to that other people and got
there also at dawn. They tried to run away between the soldier's
legs. They caught them. Blood ran. They piled the dead together
and asked: "Where is the chief?". There was no chief
among the dead. The caraíba continued their journey. "Let's
look in another direction." Those who had run away slowly
came back to the village, after the caraíba were gone.
- "Let's go!". The caraíba went to the people
of Ugihihütü, at night, as always. Again they tried
to run away between the soldier's legs. They piled the dead together
and asked: "Where is the chief? Where is Kujaitsí?".
There were no chiefs, not Kujaitsí, nor Agahi, nor Painingkú.
The caraíba left, they were searching for them, they were
looking for Kujaitsí. The village was empty after the caraíba
went through it killing.
- Then they went to the people of Agatahütü. There
were only the people who were in a field house, they were few.
They too were attacked with knives. In front of the dead piled
up together the caraíba asked: "Where is the chief?
Let's look in the direction of Ajikugu.".
- Kuigalu was in Ajikugu, tying up buriti (a kind of palm) leaves.
A buriti tree fell down after being cut onto to the canoes of
the caraíba ancestors. The canoes sank. That was Kuigalu.
- Next they went to the people of Uahütü. They died
and once again in front of the dead: "Where is the chief?
He is not here among the corpses.".
- They went to the people of Uagihütü, during the time
nduhe kuegü was danced. They went to oti [the field]. There
were three of our canoes in the port. "Are they jaburus (jaburu
is a kind of stork)?". "Where?". "It must
be a group of jaburus that got together by the water. Let's look!".
"Hey, there's something on the jaburus' heads." .It
was Agahi [their chief at the time]. "Is it the caraíbas
that are coming to kill us? Let's look.". They went to the
water's edge, in óti.
- "Yes, they are caraíba, let's ran away!",
said Agahi to his wife. "Listen! Let's run away! Those are
the ones who are coming to kill us!", said Painingkú.
So they ran away with their wives.
They were Kujaitsí and Agahi, they were the chiefs. At
dawn the caraíba attacked. Some ran away quickly, but those
who tried to escape more slowly were hit. Then the dead were piled
up together. They were many, it was a large village. They looked
among the dead: "Where is the chief?". There were no
chiefs.
- The caraíba left. They docked on the port of the people
of Sahutaha. They crossed the river looking for Kujaitsí,
the chief. They arrived at dawn. Some were quick to run away,
others died. In front of the dead, the caraíba asked again:
"Where is their chief?". There were no chiefs. They
had run away. They kept looking for Kujaitsí.
- Next the caraíba went to kill the people of Kunagü.
Some ran away fast; those who were going slowly were hit by the
circle of houses. There were no chiefs among the corpses piled
up together. It was almost impossible for them to find Kujaitsí.
- Then they went towards the people of Ahakugu, during the time
of the nduhe kuegü celebration. They couldn't find the way.
"Where is their river? Let's take this shortcut.". There
was only a narrow passage for the canoes. They could not find
the entrance to the river. "Where do we go?". They went
to the people of Isangá, to the port of Isangá.
- There the women asked themselves "Who are they? Let's
look!" It's the caraíba!" - said those who had
married in the village (the nephews). "Itseke [spirits]!".
"No, they are caraíba, let's run away!". "No,
let's look!". They were wrong. Only one went too look, with
his wife. Ihikutaha ran away. "Mother, let's run away! The
caraíba are here to kill us.". The caraíba
ancestors were unable to kill the chiefs. It is said that the
chiefs ran away and ended up taming the old caraíba. "Let's
run away, mother!". "Let me stay here.". "Won't
the caraíba hit you?". He ran away with his wife.
The caraíba killed those who had stayed in the houses.
The caraíba killed the people of Isangá, they deceived
them.
- They went to Intagü. They were our ancestors, the people
who lived in Angahuku. The old ones didn't know the caraíba.
Again the caraíba hit them, they attacked them. They died,
the dead were piled up together. "Let's go back. They'll
come to kill us once more.". Those who went back to take
a look at the village, once more, would be killed.
- Kuigalu was there to kill the chief of the caraíba.
- Kuigalu had run away with his nephew. He dug a hole on the
water's edge in order to kill the chief of the caraíba.
The caraíba arrived, burning the forest. "Let's go",
said the nephew. "No, wait!". When it was still dark
the soldiers went to bathe; in the middle of them was their chief,
who was carried to the water. When he was laying on the water
"Fine, uncle. Kill him!". They hit him with an arrow.
Kuigalu ran back to hide in the hole. The soldiers carried the
chief to the camp. They waited for Kuigalu and his group to show
up. They waited for the fugitives to show up. They missed their
dead chief, who had been killed by Kuigalu. There the caraíba
buried their chief, very deep, while Kuigalu and his companion
observed. The guys shot at random. They buried with him his arrows,
knives, axe, blanket, scissors, everything, and closed the hole.
There they remained for four days, waiting for the avenger [Kuigalu].
"Let's go, my uncle! Let's look.". "Wait! The caraíba
are still around. Let us not let them kill us.". A day passed
and the caraíba waited for the avenger. Little by little,
those who had run away reappeared in the village. "Here is
the one who killed our chief ", said the caraíba ancestors.
"Let him come closer.". The caraíba were on the
look out while they [the village people] were coming back. Then
the caraíba killed them. The guys [the caraíba]
left after their chief's death; they went back to their place.
"OK, let's go! Look! They killed them when we were about
to leave, just as you were telling me: let's go, my uncle.".
On the tomb there was a cross made by the caraíba. "Here
are the things that were buried along with him. Let's dig!"
They unearthed everything: knives, axe, scissors. Then they covered
back the hole. They kept the things that belonged to the caraíba.
It was their chief who had brought those things and had been killed.
They stayed here. Said the caraíba: "Let's see those
who got together.".
- They came when the village was empty. They came to see the
criminal, the avenger. They left. The others escaped in the middle
of the way to other villages, it is said. That was the last time.
They caught Kujaitsí. "No, we're not going to kill
him.". They moved on by canoe. Then they caught Agahi. "No,
we're not going to kill you; come with us!". So they convinced
both to go where the caraíba ancestors lived. Then they
caught Painigkú. Next they came back from óti. "Let's
go!". Those were Agahi, Kujaitsí, Painingkú,
Ihikutaha. After they had caught the chiefs, after having them
dressed up with shirts, pants and shoes, they came here, to the
people of Ipatse, in order to kill other tribes. "Shall we
kill them?". Agahi, Painingkú and Kujaitsí
were with them. They shot some, at random. Our people ran away
in fear, everybody ran away.
- They went to the stream of the küá palm trees,
where Kuigalu was cutting down a very tall palm tree. When the
caraíba arrived, Kuigalu toppled the palm tree down and
hit the caraíba canoes, which sank down to where the itseke
live. That was Kuigalu; it was he who did that in order to kill.
- They left. They split up, the caraíba; canoes and things
were in the bottom of the river. They found a very black genipap
tree and climbed it. Many shotguns were left leaning against the
trunk. Kuigalu said "Let's see their guns!". That took
place while the caraíba were on top of the genipap tree.
Soon Kuigalu, our avenger, came to get the guns. He tried to carry
all them but they were too heavy. He grabbed just two. "He
is not killing us", said the old caraíba. They came
down the genipap tree. "He is not killing us; he is stealing
the shotguns.". "It's true.". They laughed. Kuigalu
was already far and had taken the shotguns. The old caraíbas
laughed. "Let him take them.". And he took only two
shotguns.
- Then they, the caraíba, came. They no longer killed.
Kujaitsí didn't let that happen any more. "Shall we
kill them?". "No, stop that.". "All right!".
The caraíba ancestors just caught Kujaitsí; they
came back but they no longer killed our old ones, they stopped
killing. Now, while looking for Kujaitsí's people, they
ended up catching Painigkú, but they stopped killing. So
our old ones continued to be many.
- Again they came once more. The people of Kujaitsí and
of Agahi brought them back tamed. "Those are no longer our
murderers.". "The massacres that you used to do will
not get us anymore.". "Yes, we shall see!". Kujaitsí,
Painingkú, Ihikutáha, Agahi brought them back.
- The caraíba came and gave presents to the old ones,
gave them the things that they had. Kujaitsí, Painingkú,
Agahi, Ihikutaha ordered the caraíba to give presents.
In spite of that some [of ours] ran away. Those who stayed in
the village got presents. The same happened in other villages.
It was Kujaitsí who ordered them to do it. They came back
again once more. The old ones had very few of those caraíba
things. It was the old ones of other tribes who had them. The
knives, the axes - few of them - arrived. In the old times it
was another instrument that was used for cutting, it is told.
It is told that in order to clear a roça (planting field)
they first cut the small bushes, then they took down the big trees
with red piranha's teeth. They made great fires in their roças.
On the following day they continued the cutting, it is told. That's
how it was in the old times. The sharp knives appeared. Some axes
appeared with which roças began to be cleared. They became
owners of these things. They cleared roças with knives
and shovels. Those who did not have a knife, who was not an owner,
asked "I want your knife.". "Yes, you may take
it.".
- "I will keep it for so many days.". "All right,
you may take it.". So they finished the work in the roças
and then they returned the instruments. The same happened with
those who were not the owners of the shovels. They borrowed the
cutting instruments, the axes. Little by little the caraíba
arrived, so little by little there were more knives, small knives
came for everyone.
- Some time later, when there were many children, Kálusi
(Karl Von den Steinen). [Where is Kálusi's village?] arrived.
He came to Kuhikúru, that happened at the time that the
caraíba were already good. "Here are the caraíba.".
"Don't kill us!". "No, I'm here to give this to
you.". "All right.". The chief was in the house.
Then they took the things to the center of the village to divide
them up. The chief said "Come here, come here!". "Let's
look!". They left the houses, the old ones. The women formed
a line. "Come here, close to the chiefs!". The chiefs
put necklaces in the hands of women, white necklaces, 'fish eye'
beads. They were beautiful. All the necklaces were given out.
Next was the distribution of knives for the men, small knives,
axes, fishhooks. The old ones didn't have fishhooks. Then the
wives made necklaces, a necklace for this one, another for that
one. Many necklaces for the women; they didn't give blue beads.
Then he exchanged all that for snail necklaces, at that time it
was difficult to find them. It was Kálusi (Karl Von den
Steinen) who brought the beads a long time ago, the women say.
The very first one was Kálusi. They shared the things that
Kálusi gave, the knives, the shovels.
- But then the deaths began. Diseases/spells [kugihe] arrived.
Few of us remained. At the time the caraíba came; they
brought the diseases/spell, they, the old ones, the spell owners.
The arrows/spell flew. Many died. The people from Kuhikugu disappeared,
believe it, during the times of the caraíba travels. The
old ones tell that the 'fish eye' necklaces, the women's necklaces,
were buried with the dead.
- Kálusi left. One year passed and the people from Kuhikugu
traveled to the caraíba, to the village of the Bakairí
(Poto). From there, it is told, they brought the cough with them.
They went there in order to bring knives. They were given knives,
scissors, axes. The cough came.
- The caraíba say about us: "Let's take their land!
Let them without land! Let's leave the people from Kuhikugu without
land.". Why is that? Why does that happen, as I can see?
Why don't they leave us in peace here? I know that a long time
ago their ancestors always killed us, coming from the caraíba
villages, our ancestors were here, the caraíba came after
us. That's why, on the other hand, that now children are few.
In the old times, it is told, the caraíba killed us. Running
away from them our people changed villages many times. Here are,
you see, the descendants. Why did you take our land? I know that
you are on our old villages. The caraíba say of us: "Quick,
take their lands!". I ask why you take our land, what you
say about us. Listen! Such were the caraíba of old times,
I know, those who killed our old ones. Now we have tamed the caraíba.
Listen! That's the end of the story. Those are the last words.
About the narrative
Testimony collected by Bruna Franchetto (anthropologist
and linguist, Museu Nacional/ UFRJ), previously published in:
Franchetto, Bruna. "A História nos Discursos Kuikuro",
in: Viveiros de Castro, E. & Carneiro da Cunha, M. (org.)
- Amazônia. Etnologia e História Indígena,
NHII/USP/Fapesp, 1993.
Of the encounter with whites
By Bruna Franchetto:
This narrative (akinhá, in the kuikúro
language, part of the karib family) was told by chief Kuikuro
Atahulu (today Kujame), on September 21, 1982, in
the village of Ipatse, where some 350 kuikuro live, in the region
of the Upper Xingu River, in the Southern part of the Xingu Indigenous
Land, in the State of Mato Grosso. This narrative tells episodes
that took place between the end of the 18th Century and the beginning
of the 20th. It talks about the first encounters with the caraíba
(whites), of the bandeirantes – the Indian and gold hunters
who pushed into the interior of the continent and extended the
borders of Brazil to the West – (called jaburus by the kuikuro
ancestors), of massacres, of captured chiefs taken from their
villages, of Indian resistance, of the arrival of ethnographer
Karl Von den Steinen in the end of the 19th Century, of diseases,
of the invasion of Xingu lands.
