When the world was young, there was no night, and the Maue Indians never slept.
Wanyam heard that at night the poisonous snake Surukuku and all its relatives - the jararaka snake, the spider, the scorpion, the centipede - had taken possession - and he said to the people of his tribe:
“I’ll go get you the night.” He took his bow and arrows with him and set off.
He came to the hut of the surukuk and said to her:
“Would you trade the night for my bow and arrows?”
“Well, what do I need, son, your bow and arrows,” surukuku answers him, “if I don’t even have hands?”
There was nothing to do, Wanyam went to look for something else for the surukuku. He brings a rattle and offers it to her:
- Here, would you like some? I’ll give you a rattle, and you make sure that people have a good night.
“Son,” says surukuku, “I don’t have legs.” Perhaps you should put this rattle on my tail, but so that I can lift it if necessary.
Since then, when a snake is angry, it rustles its tail, like this: shu-shu-shu
- She warns the passerby.
And yet surukuku did not give up the night to Wanyama.
Then he decided to get some poison: maybe the surukuk would be flattered by him.
And it’s true - when Surukuka heard about the poison, she immediately spoke differently:
“So be it, I’ll give you the night, I really need the poison.”
She put the night in a basket and gave it to Wanyama.
The people of his tribe saw him coming out with a surukuku basket, they immediately ran towards him and began to ask:
“Are you really bringing us the night, Wanyam?”
“I’m carrying it, I’m bringing it,” Wanyam answered them, “but surukuku didn’t tell me to open the basket before I got home.”
But Wanyama’s comrades began to beg him so much that in the end he gave in to their persuasion and opened the basket.
Night flew out of there, the first night on earth, and pitch darkness fell.
The people of the Maue tribe were frightened by the darkness, screamed and rushed to run blindly in all directions.
And Wanyam was left alone in the midst of complete darkness and also shouted:
- Where is the moon, who swallowed it? Then all the relatives of the surukuku - the jararaka snake, the scorpion and the centipede, who shared the poison among themselves - surrounded Uanyama, and the surukuku's sister, the jararaka, stung him painfully in the leg.
Wanyam guessed that it was the jararaka that had stung him, and shouted:
- I recognized you, jararaka! Wait, my comrades will avenge you for me!
Then the whole snake family attacked Wanyama, only Kutimboya, whom the snakes deprived of poison for her bad disposition, could not bite; Even now she does not touch the people of the Maue tribe.
Wanyam died from a jararaka bite, but his friend rubbed the dead body with an infusion of medicinal leaves and revived Wanyam.
And he again went to the surukuku hut.
Now he wanted a long night from her because the first one was too short.
And in payment he gave the surukuk a lot, a lot of snake venom.
And surukuku collected all the dirt on the ground and mixed it with the juice of zhenipapa to make the night blacker.
Thus began a long night.
And that is why so often at night we are tormented by aching bones and bitterness in the mouth.
Here's the story of how Wanyam got the night for the Maue people.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru