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Warao Oral Literature INSTITUTO CARIBE DE ANTROPOLOGIA Y SOCIOLOGIA FUNDACION LA SALLE DE CIENCIAS NATURALES WARAO ORAL LITERATURE JOHANNES WILBERT MONOGRAPHY N° 9 Caracas 1964 – Venezuela Editorial Sucre WARAO ORAL LITERATURE Johannes Wilbert University of California, Los Angeles Instituto Caribe de Antropologia y Sociologia de la Fundacion La Salle de Ciencias Naturales EDITORIAL SUCRE Caracas 1964 TO FLOYD LOUNSBURY A GOOD SCIENTIST, A GOOD TEACHER AND A GOOD FRIEND The wisiratu of the Winikina – Warao. (Foto by the author) C O N T E N T S Pág. I. INTRODUCTION 1) Objectives and methods…….…………………………………..…….. 13 2) The ethnological setting ………………………………………...……. 15 II. TALES OF THE WINIKINA WARAO 1) Tales o f origin Kanobo dibunai (Our Forefather said)................................ 21 Warao hakitani (To be Warao)............................................ 23 Wauta (The Frog)................................................................. 28 Warao tida mana wahabutu (The roasted Indian and his two Wives)…………….........................................................…. 37 Hoa hakitani (To be a chant) ………………....………..………….. 45 Hekunu hakitani (To have fire) ………………………………...…. 49 2) The world around Hebu muida (Spiri, Big-Eye) …………………….………….………. 55 Neburatu kwamuhu, (The young man and theskull)….……. 59 Hokohi (The sun) ……………………………….…………………..….. 64 Hobahi eku (In the earth) ……………………………………….…. 68 Naba eku (In the river) …………………………….………………..… 70 Naba nonate (He will make the rivers) …………………….……. 72 Hobahi eku (On the land) ……………………………….………….. 74 Págs. Ohidu hakitani (To be Moriche palm) ……………………………. 76 Bisi hakitani (To be bisi wood) ………………………………………. 78 Nowararoko (Likes-to-tell-a-story) …………………………..………. 80 3) Tales o f men and women Tida kwabuai huba (The woman pregnant with a snake)…… 85 Tida simo (Honey woman) ……………………………………………. 90 Simo hakitani (To be honey) …………………………………………. 93 Arahe araka (The older brother and the younger brother)…. 94 Neburatu muana (No-eye) …………..………………………………… 98 Nake Warao (The Indian and the monkey woman) …………. 100 Idamotuma (The old ones)…………………………………………….. 112 Tihidamo (Old woman) ………………………………………………… 115 Tidaidamo anatoro sanuka ha (The old woman and her granddaughter) …………………………………………………………….. 117 Tidaidamo (The old woman) …………………………………………. 120 Yari anamonina (Changed into anger) ……………………………. 122 Iboma anohi taira (The young woman with the stiff thighs) 123 Warao tida manamo ha (The Indian who had two wives) …. 125 Mokototo aibutu (Mokototo's lover) ………………………………. 127 Mokototo hakitani (To be hollow)……………………................. 129 Anibaka (Young girl)…………………...………………………………… 130 Wata behoro (Dog's member)……………………………………..…. 132 4) Tales of enemies and war Musimotuma (The red-eyed ones; Carib Indians)…………..… 135 Págs. Neburatu (Young man; Arawak) ……………………..…………….. 140 Siawani (Siawani) …………………………………………………………. 141 5) Tales o f animals Wabu (Rat) ……………………………..………………………………….. 149 Muhu yawanane (Broken bones) ……………………………………. 150 Ekuya hese (Concerning it) …………………………………..………. 151 Hoetobu (Otter) …………………………………………………………… 153 Ibure anamonina (Changing into peccary)............................ 155 Honinaba (Manatee).............................................................. 156 Tidasebe (Many women)........................................................ 157 Domu tokoyo (Tokoyo bird).................................................. 161 Hue hakitani (To be stingaree)............................................... 163 Ahia ahobahi (The land upstream)....................................... 164 Ahia ahobahi (The land upstream)........................................ 166 Tatutuma (The women).......................................................... 168 6) Trickster stories Koneho robe niarabaka ai nisanai (Rabbit gets a Jaguar's paw and a crocodile's tooth)................................................... 175 Tobe (Jaguar)........................................................................... 181 Koneho (Rabbit)..................................................................... 183 Koneho Tobe (Rabbit and Jaguar)…………………..…...………… 186 Tobe Koneho (Jaguar and Rabbit)......................................... 190 Tobe aisia hese (Concerning Jaguar)...................................... 194 III. BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................... 199 INTRODUCTION OBJETIVES AND METHODS In 1954 I received a grant-in-aid from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research to conduct an ethnological field study of the Warao Indians of the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela. I spent a total o f seven months on this expedition and five months among the WINIKINA-WARAO. The WINIKINA, together with the MARIUSA and ARAWABISI, inhabit the central part of the Delta region. They are known as HOANARAO, "Black-Water People", because they frequent the banks of the mosquito-free black-water rivers. From the very first day of my field work, I concentrated heavily on learning how to speak the Warao language until, towards the end of the period, I was fairly fluent therein. My main informant was the WISIRATU-priest o f the WINIKINA, a senior member of the group who became fascinated with the idea of preserving the DE-HOBO, the old stories, by "speaking on paper". For five weeks he sat patiently in my house and dictated all of the following texts. He needed no other incentive for this rather tedious task than the pleasure of having each story read back to him. He would interrupt for corrections and explanations and laugh each time the recapitulation ended. Quite frequently the sessions of recording lasted for more than six hours a day. Upon leaving in the afternoon the priest would promise to think of new tales and come back the next morning. Very often the informant stayed in my village after sunset. Then the people would crowd into my humble stilt dwelling and listen to their DE-HOBO, their "old stories". I could not record at this speed and tried to understand as much as possible - ducking with the listeners when the moon fell into the river right in front of the village, looking up with them to the stars where the Other Warao live, taking cover when the Red-Eyed attacked, and relaxing when the final KOKOTUKA DIANA concluded another story. From these experiences I learned that the maa texts I was transcribing in my note book were but bloodless images of what they are in life. But I continued recording them with two main objectives in mind: to collect the ethnological content and to record ex- tensive context material of the language. The present publication is meant to serve the second purpose exclusively. The ethnological and f olkloristic evaluation of the tales will be published later. The present transcription is phonemic. After its completion it was sent to Henry Osborn, a connoisseur of the Warao language and author of a "Warao phonology and morphology". Doctor Osborn agreed to translate the texts, saving the author an immense amount of time and guaranteeing at the same time as faithful a translation as possible under present circumstances. I take this opportunity to thank Dr. Osborn, once again, for this kindness and generosity. Barral's dictionary, Osborn's phonology and morphology, together with the present context material, make Waraoan rank quite prominently on the list of the "preserved" languages of South American Indians. I am very greatful to the members of the Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Salle for having helped me cluring all stages of my expedition. Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. George Peter Murdock, to the late Dr. Paul Fejos, and the Wenner- Gren Foundation who made the field work possible. The La Salle Foundation in Caracas and the University of California at Los Angeles have facilitated the research work and assisted in preparing the manuscript for the publisher. Marie Louise Beckh and Marge P. Larsen typed the manuscript. To all, many thanks. JOHANNES WILBERT. THE ETHNOLOGICAL SETTING The Warao occupy the Orinoco Delta of Venezuela and the adjacent swampy regions of British Guiana (59 ° - 62° long. W., 8° - 10° lat. N.), They have lived in this area since prehistoric times, and due to its inac cessibility neither other Indians nor Afro- Europeans have ever succeeded in conquering its islands nor in communicating with its inhabitants. The present habitat of the Venezuelan Warao represents a ter- minal station of a precolombian eastward migration. In its labyrinthian swamps they found effective protection from expanding Arawaks and Caribs who intruded into these northern territories of South America several centuries before the arrival of the white man. The Warao of British Guiana are known as "Spanish Warao". In the 18th century they were forced to evacuate their Delta homes in order to escape the "entradas" of certain colonial officers who had decided to expatriate and settle them in more accessible regions west of the Delta. The Spanish Warao fled into the coastal hinterland of the Barima. They have lived there ever since in friendly symbiosis with Neo-Indian tribes of Arawakan and Cariban affiliation, adopting many traits of their culturally more advanced enemies of the past. The tribal designation is autochtonous and means "Boat People". Certainly, no other name could apply more appropriately to these aquatic Indians. They comprise somewhere between 9 - 10,000 souls and due to modem. Mission influence their number appears to in- crease rather than to decline. Until very recently the Warao language was classified as a distinct linguistic stock. But lately
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