Sararuma, an evil spirit, lit such a fire on the ground that only one person managed to survive, and only because he guessed to climb into the hole and at the same time take with him food for several days. To know whether the fire was over or not yet, from time to time he stuck a twig out of his hole, held it in the air for a few minutes, and then pulled it back into his hole. For two days in a row the branch returned to him red and hot, and on the third day it returned black and cold. Realizing that the fire was over, the man came out of his hole and saw that the earth had become completely bare. And he wandered off, homeless and hungry. So Sararuma met him and said:
“I was the cause of all this disaster.” But I feel sorry for you. Take it.
And he gave the man a handful of seeds and ordered him to throw them into the ground. The man threw the seeds, and suddenly, as if by magic, a forest appeared around them, in which many fruit trees grew and all sorts of game was found that could be eaten. Then, out of nowhere, a woman appeared next to the man, and he took her as his wife, and they had many sons and one daughter.
When the time had come for the girl to love, then one day, wandering, as usual, through the forest and mourning her loneliness, she came across a beautiful ule tree and burned with passion for it. And then the tree turned into a man with whom she began to spend her nights. At the first rays of the sun it disappeared, turning back into an ule tree.
She told her mother about everything, and she advised her to tie the young man up at night. The daughter followed her mother's advice. Seeing that he was tied up, Ole promised to marry and was released.
They began to live together and enjoyed the most complete happiness, when suddenly one day the husband went hunting and did not return: he was torn to pieces by a jaguar. The wife learned about this from the brothers and went with them to look for her husband's body, but found only bloody pieces scattered on the ground. Then she put the pieces together to look at her husband again. She stood over him sadly and looked into his face, when suddenly he resurrected and said:
- It seems like I slept for a long time!
And they went home in great joy. But on the way, Ole became thirsty. He approached the stream, bent down and saw his reflection in the water: one cheek was missing. Then he said goodbye to his wife, saying that he was ashamed to show himself to her in such an ugly form. He told her to go home alone and under no circumstances turn around along the way, no matter what noise she heard behind her.
The wife went alone and several times heard rustling and rustling behind her, and still did not turn around. But then she heard as if a leaf had fallen from a tree very close by; She couldn't stand it and turned around. Not good: she lost her way and got lost in a dense forest. She wandered back and forth for a long time, looking for a way, and so she wandered into the dwelling of the Mother of Jaguars. She received her kindly, but told her to hide so that when her sons returned, they would not find her and eat her.
When the sons returned and sniffed the air, they immediately realized that someone else was hiding in the house. They began to search and eventually pulled the woman out of her hiding place. They were just about to eat her, but the old jaguar got in the way.
Then the jaguars forced the woman to look for ants in their fur. And they ordered her to catch all the ants and eat them. Although the woman was very afraid of jaguars, she still could not eat the ants. Then the old jaguar gave her a pinch of pumpkin seeds and advised her to chew it in order to deceive the jaguars.
The woman did just that: she caught an ant, threw it aside, and put a seed in her mouth and gnawed it - the jaguars thought that she was eating the ants. Three jaguars were deceived, but the fourth noticed the woman’s trick, became enraged, rushed at her and bit her to death. Then he tore open her stomach and took out the child who was about to be born.
The Jaguars' mother took pity on the child, as before the woman: she put him in a pot, telling her sons that she would cook it now, and she slowly took it out, putting a piece of meat in its place, and hid it.
So, in strict secrecy, under the care of the old jaguar, the boy grew up and became big and strong. They gave him the name Tiri.
One day, the Mother of Jaguars told Tiri that the forest pig, Paka, ate all her pumpkins. Tiri went to the pumpkin field and, when the pack approached, he shot an arrow at it, but it was so unsuccessful that the arrow flew past and only tore off the tail of the pack. Since then, all these rodents will be born without a tail.
The wounded pack turned around and said to Tiri:
– You live in friendship with those who killed your mother; why do you want to kill me? After all, I didn’t do anything bad to you.
Tiri asked Paku to explain her words and tell him the whole truth.
Then the pack took him to her hole and there she told him how the jaguars killed his father and mother. And they apparently left him alive so that he could serve them as a slave, the paka said.
Hearing these words, Tiri decided to kill the jaguars. He waylaid them when they were returning from hunting and he managed to kill three. However, the fourth, who had two pairs of eyes, saw the dead brothers before Tiri could shoot his arrow, and climbed up the tree, exclaiming:
- Palm trees, vines, cover me!.. Sun, moon, stars, save me!
The moon, hearing this plea, hid, and since then jaguars go hunting only at night and their shadow is reflected on the moon.
Tiri had supernatural strength and power.
Seeing that the Mother of Jaguars was left alone and that there was now no one to work for her, he instantly cleared a large plot of land from the forest and planted useful plants there.
Now Tiri felt like the master of nature, but soon he became bored with his lonely life. One day he accidentally hit his foot on a tree, so hard that he tore off his big toe nail. He picked up his nail, put it in the hollow of the tree he hit, and walked on, but suddenly he heard a human voice behind him. He turned around and saw that his nail had turned into a person. Thiri named him Karoo.
And they began to live together, in great friendship. It happened that one day they went to visit a bird, and the hostess brought them a cup of intoxicating drink. The cup was eternal - no matter how much you drank, it was always filled to the brim. Tiri took the cup, but somehow awkwardly, and dropped it on the ground. And so much spilled from the cup that everything around was flooded and Karu drowned.
When the ground dried out, Tiri took the bones of Karoo and revived his friend. And again they began to live alone, but soon they became bored, not seeing other people around them. Then they found friends among animals and began to live with them. And each one had a son and a daughter. The daughters, however, were born with eyes under their breasts, but Tiri immediately moved them to his face, to the place where people still have eyes.
Karoo's son died and his father buried him nearby.
After some time, Tiri told Kar to dig his son out of the grave, but under no circumstances should he eat it. Karu obeyed and, tearing open his son's grave, saw only the cassava root. The tubers were large and good, and Karu ate them. Immediately he heard thunder, and Tiri's voice said:
“Karu, you disobeyed me and ate your son.” As a punishment for this, you will now die and all other people will be mortal and condemned to hard work and suffering.
Some more time passed. One day, while Tiri was shaking a tree, a wild duck chick fell at his feet, and he ordered Kar to roast it and eat it.
Karu obeyed, and Tiri said to him:
“This chick was your son, and you ate him.”
Karu started vomiting from disappointment. And then parrots, toucans and other birds flew out of his mouth.
One day, Tiri and Karoo went to visit the Mother of Jaguars, but when they saw that her mouth was bleeding, Tiri thought that she must have attacked people and eaten someone.
He began to threaten her and said that he would kill her if she did not reveal the truth. He cut off the hair on her head and was just about to kill her, but the jaguarist began to beg for mercy and promised to tell everything.
“I really ate a man,” she confessed, “but he was dead, he was bitten by the snake that lives in that hole over there.”
And she showed the snake's hole. This snake bit everyone who dared to appear in those places.
Tiri said to the Mother of Jaguars:
“From this day forward, you will only eat those whom others have killed; and so it will be with all who belong to your kind.
And he turned her into a black vulture - uruba.
That is why all Urubu have bald heads.
Then he ordered the Akauan bird from the falcon family to kill and eat the snake.
And then the Inca tribe, the Shirian tribe and other Indian tribes emerged from the pit where the snake lived. So many people came out that Tiri got scared and filled up the hole.
The pit from which the tribes who settled the earth came is located near a high rock named Mamore, which no one can approach, because the entrance to the pit is guarded by a huge snake. This rock is located near the confluence of the Sakta and Sore rivers, in the upper reaches of the Mamore River.
Tiri said to all these nations:
“We need you to split up and occupy the whole earth.” To do this, I will sow discord among you.
And immediately a rain of arrows rained down on the ground, and everyone took up arms.
The tribes fought among themselves for a long time until Tiri calmed them down, but since then they remained divided, alienating each other and hating each other.
Now there was nothing more to do here, and Tiri decided to go elsewhere. He did not know where to go, so he sent the bird east, but the bird soon returned, having lost some of its feathers. Tiri decided that in the east the land was quickly ending, and sent the bird north. The same thing happened again as before.
Then he sent the bird to the west, and after a while the bird returned from there with shining new feathers. Thiri went there, never to return.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru