I63. Milky Way - Tapir's Trail.

.58.59.61.64.66.-.68.71.73.

The Milky Way is the path of the tapir; the tapir is visible on the Milky Way.

Warrau, Lokono, Akawai (possibly), Karinya of Guiana, Oyampi, Siona and Secoya, Napo, Tupinambá, Kanamari, Chacobo, Bakairi, Kamayura, Cuicuro, Botocudo, various groups of Guarani.

Guiana. Warrau [Milky Way means "where the tapir splashes in the water"]: Armellado, Napolitano 1975: 43 in Roe 1982: 143; Lokono [the Milky Way is the path of the tapir; the tapir, the dog pursuing him, and the jaguar pursuing both are the three dark spots on the Milky Way]: Roth 1915, no. 205: 260; Akawai or Karinya of Guyana [ Wawaia ( wawa means sister or wife ) takes Tapir as a lover; he promises to take her to where heaven and earth meet; her husband Serikoai ( sirikio means star ) climbs a tree for fruit; when he begins to descend, she chops off his leg with an axe; his mother nurses him back to health; he walks on crutches to the east in the footsteps of the lovers; [kills Tapir with an arrow, cuts off his head; V. and the spirit of Tapir flee to heaven, S. after them; V. turns into the Pleiades, the head of Tapir into the Hyades (Aldebaran - the eye), S. into Orion]: Brett 1880: 191-200 (=Roth 1915, no. 211: 265-266); carinya [Milky Way - "tapir path"; along it a jaguar and a wild dog chase a tapir]: Magaña, Jara 1982: 117; oyampi [Milky Way - tapir road]: Grenand 1982, no. 17, 18: 148.

Western Amazonia. Siona , Secoya [ Bair creates the earth after the flood, helps people to get out from under the earth, kills his father-in-law, who turns into a Tapir; B. goes to the sky, tells his nephews to pursue the Tapir; they follow the trail of Tapir's excrement, it is ever fresher; Caiman carries them across the river, bites off the leg of his younger brother; they kill Caiman with an axe, get the leg; the brothers are the Pleiades, the axe is Orion's Belt, the Hyades is Caiman's jaw, the Milky Way is the tapir's trail]: Vickers 1989: 161-167; Siona [Ñañagüé Nyanyague (Month) became unpopular with his wife, because she had to look in his head; he climbed a huansoco tree, threw fruits to them, they became drunk from them and fell asleep; N. pulled piranha teeth out of his wife's and her sister's vaginas (further as in 134-136); on the way he took the birds that had fallen into the traps, put rotten leaves in them, sent his father-in-law to check the traps; the father-in-law returned, asked his daughters to take a thorn out of their leg; N. told him to lie down not in a hammock, but on a bark bed, to become a tapir; the tapir ran, leaving a trail - the Milky Way; N. told him to become Mother Earth; when he moves, there will be an earthquake; N. changed his appearance, came to his wife; she fell in love with him, smeared his face with soot at night; he washed it off; then genipoy, these spots are still visible; the Turtle hid all the water; N. cut down bamboo, the grove turned into a river, both women swam; N. did not let his wife go ashore, her sister came out; there was a palm tree in the water, the wife went to it; M., If you approach the shore, storms will begin ; He ordered the turtle to feed on rotten things; his wife's sister - to be the mother of the living, the patroness of the dead, sent her to the land of the dead]: Chaves 1958: 143-145; following : Mercier 1979 [a man pursued a Wagra ("tapir"), found its excrement, asked how long ago its owner passed; they successively answer: a year, half a year, a month ago, the day before yesterday, today; thus the man learned to count days and months; the man caught up with the tapir, cut it in half, the front part fell on land, became a tapir, the back - into the water, a manatee; manatee ("sea cow"); its path turned into the "road of the sea cow" in the sky, the Milky Way; in winter during the rainy season this road goes from west to east, and in the dry season - across the Napo River, from south to north]: 49-51; Wavrin 1979 [two brothers kill a monstrous Penis - lover of their mother; go in the direction of the Morning Star; Caiman carries them across the river, bites off the leg of the younger; they kill Caiman with an axe, take out the leg, attach it back; for several years they follow the trail of Tapir, find increasingly fresh droppings; the elder kills Tapir with a spear (the spear is now visible in the sky); the brothers chop up Tapir; the back part turns into a manatee, the front part into a tapir; later the brothers turn into a constellation (the Pleiades?)]: 65-66.

Eastern Amazonia. Tupinambá [both in Guarani and in Tupi the Milky Way is "tapir path" (Tapi'í Rapé, Mboreví Rapé); so in "Tesoro.." Montoya and in "Vocabulario na lingua brasilica"]: Cadogán 1968a: 80.

Montaña – Jurua. Canamari : Carvalho 2002 [same as in Reesink]: 285-286; Reesink 1989 [Milky Way – tapir trail; there are also various constellations with animal names (deer, jaguar, armadillo, paca, turtle) near it or nearby, i.e. the Milky Way is also a trail in general]: 123, 127.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Chacobo [(apart from the sun and moon), the Chacobo do not know celestial objects other than the Pleiades and the Milky Way - "tapir paths"]: Kelm 1972: 206 (note 146).

Southern Amazonia. Bakairi [Ewaki, the aunt of Keri and Kame, told them to get the sun, which was owned by the red urubu, urubu-rei; at the zenith of the sky there was a red hole; during the night a tapir fell into it, it is visible on the Milky Way; Keri saw the tapir, climbed into its paw; (var. in Oberg: Keri made a tapir from a soft, manioc-like tree, áka, then created stinking flies to attract vultures); Kame became a yellow bird, sat nearby on a tree to tell his brother what was happening; Red Urubu opened the sun, it became light, the urubu saw the tapir; they pulled it out of the hole with ropes; Kame warned Keri , he puffed himself up, the urubu were unable to tear the tapir with their beaks; they called urubu-rei for help; he opened the tapir, Keri grabbed it; for freedom he promised the sun; sent his brother the white urubu, who brought the red dawn; then the moon; finally the real sun; the moon was made of japú feathers, the sun of toucan and scarlet macaw feathers, the dawn of toucan feathers; at first there was constant day; Keri covered the sun with a vessel, it became dark; he took it off – day again]: Oberg 1953: 78-79 and Steinen 1897: 324; Kamayura : Münzel 1973 [the Turtle boys throw Tapir not genipa fruits from the tree, but the peel; he shakes them off the tree, tramples them, leaves; some survive, follow Tapir's trail for a year, find ever fresher excrement; end up in the sky; they kill Tapir, cut him into pieces; decide to stay in the sky; these are the Pleiades, they rise after the constellation, which is Tapir's roast meat]: 187-190; Villas Boas, Villas Boas 1973 [as in Münzel; some of the boys turn into turtles after falling from a tree; do not end up in the sky, but rise there after killing the Tapir]: 171-173; kuikuro[Kuantïnï decided to visit the sky, where all the animals are; in the forest he was surrounded by jaguars; their leader, the black jaguar Nitsuengï, agreed not to kill him when K. promised him his two daughters; N. put K. on his bow, spun him around, threw him from the sky to the ground; K.'s daughters refused to go to the jaguar and K. carved girls out of wood; out of the 8 left in hammocks, 6 came to life; he made hair first from buriti fibers, then from pineapple fibers - they got very wet; then from seaweed; he made teeth from wood chips (black), piranha teeth (they ate too quickly), seeds; he tried different fibers for a triangle for the pubis; he carved vaginas himself; he ordered the tifigu trees (at that time - people) to copulate; the penises were scratched; then he lined the vaginas with cotton - good; An owl told the eldest of the girls, Itsanitsegu, that their father was going to send them to a jaguar; the armadillo told the girls about the difficulties of the journey, in exchange for asking permission to mate with one of them; forgot his penis in the village and while he was running after it, the girls left; he blew, spreading witchcraft so that they would die on the way; then an encounter with a kingfisher, he gave fish, copulated with one of the girls, she inserted a tampon so as not to get pregnant; the same with a howler monkey, gave fried fish; a seagull offered fried oysters, the girls refused, so the seagull could not mate with them; another kind of kingfisher; the girl who stayed with him asked him to throw the necklace on his back so as not to interfere during copulation; she poured sperm on him, removing her tampon; since then this kingfisher has white spots and traces of the necklace on his back; the girls sent the most beautiful one to a tree to drop buriti leaves; I. turned the stubs of their nails into biting flies; from their bites, the one who climbed a tree fell, the leaves pierced her, others buried her; a deer refused to copulate, although I. wanted it; she gave him salt and since then deer quickly die from a wound; on a slippery path, one slipped, fell and died; K. warned the girls not to drink from a poisonous river; one drank, died, she was buried; a tapir chopped down trees, warned about a fork - if you go the wrong way, you will end up in the village of a wolf; I. told one girl to get together with him, his thick penis split her; I. ​​hit him in anger, since then tapirs have a narrow bottom; seeing that the split one was made of wood, the remaining two girls were upset - then they were too, that's why they were sent to the jaguar; tayra (Tayra barbara) gave honey, but it was strong, the girls began to cough; he came together with them, the cough stopped; at the fork Itsanitsegu went left to the wolf's village, and Anafukuagu went right, to the jaguar's village; I. climbed a tree above the river; the wolf's wife seriema saw a reflection, decided that it was herself, began to boast of her beauty; then she understood; she threw a stub of a nail, it became a fly, she bit seriema, she dropped a calabash with water, it broke; the same again; then she called her husband; I. followed the wolf, thinking it was a jaguar; a fish fell out of his rear end, he said that the fish was in the shell of a necklace; the wolf's mother greeted I., but she realized that she was mistaken: she was treated to fruits,that is, the food of wolves; from her sister the jaguar N. learned that I. was in the wolf's village; took her; gave her a potion to drink, she burped up fish, got rid of the pregnancy from the wolf; when I. was in the 8th month, N. hid her under the roof, told her not to spit if his mother Kafisatïgo came and let out the winds; I. spat out cotton seeds, Kafisatïgo decided that out of disgust, threw her claw at her, it cut off her head; I.'s sister raised the alarm; N. said that this was his third wife, killed by his mother; agouti told the girls' father, he sent an ant into I.'s vagina, the ant said that there were two boys in the womb; Quantini put them in a basket; they quickly grew up; the wild dog gave them names: Taoguiñï and Aulukumá; the grasshopper gives them the names Sun (Giti) and Moon (Nune); A. asked the Sun to dig up peanuts in the partridge's garden; in revenge, the partridge said that A. was the Sun's aunt, and that his mother had killed her mother-in-law; the brothers took their mother's body from the roof of the house where they had laid it to dry; the Sun sent a fly into her nose, she came back to life, he spoke to her, but she began to cry and died again; the digging animals dug a grave, I. buried her; the Sun ordered the bird to eat wasps, the hawk - snakes, the anteater - poisonous ants, the tapir - to trample the thorns; the road to N.'s mother opened; the brothers came to her in the guise of little children; she began to tell how she killed I.; the Sun killed her; evil butterfly spirits flew out of the body; the Moon looked out from behind a tree, his nose was torn off; The sun attached it, but now that the moon is in profile, it is clear that the nose is missing; Quantini gave A. bamboo ashes to eat, she gave birth to a jurun, a suya and other wild Indians; she took the opossum's child, told N. that it was hers, he was happy; but the opossum took it; the wild Indians killed all the jaguars; the Sun saved his father and aunt, placing them in the sky, and so that they would have something to eat, he also placed a tapir and a deer there (now constellations in the Milky Way); having arranged the life of the wild Indians, the Sun rose to the sky]: Carneiro 1989: 4-14.the hawk - snakes, the anteater - poisonous ants, the tapir - to trample the thorns; the road to N.'s mother opened up; the brothers came to her disguised as little children; she began to tell how she killed I.; the Sun killed her; evil butterfly spirits flew out of her body; the Moon looked out from behind a tree, its nose was torn off; the Sun attached it, but now, when the moon is in profile, it is visible that there is no nose; Quantini gave A. bamboo ashes to eat, she gave birth to a zhurun, suya and other wild Indians; she took the opossum's child, told N. that it was hers, he was happy; but the opossum took it; the wild Indians killed all the jaguars; the Sun saved his father and aunt, placing them in the sky, and so that they had something to eat, he placed a tapir and a deer there too (now constellations in the Milky Way); having arranged the life of the wild Indians, the Sun rose into the sky]: Carneiro 1989: 4-14.the hawk - snakes, the anteater - poisonous ants, the tapir - to trample the thorns; the road to N.'s mother opened up; the brothers came to her disguised as little children; she began to tell how she killed I.; the Sun killed her; evil butterfly spirits flew out of her body; the Moon looked out from behind a tree, its nose was torn off; the Sun attached it, but now, when the moon is in profile, it is visible that there is no nose; Quantini gave A. bamboo ashes to eat, she gave birth to a zhurun, suya and other wild Indians; she took the opossum's child, told N. that it was hers, he was happy; but the opossum took it; the wild Indians killed all the jaguars; the Sun saved his father and aunt, placing them in the sky, and so that they had something to eat, he placed a tapir and a deer there too (now constellations in the Milky Way); having arranged the life of the wild Indians, the Sun rose into the sky]: Carneiro 1989: 4-14.

SE Brazil. Botocudo [The Milky Way is called the tapir trail; (it seems to be being chased by something - a hunter or another animal)]: Krenak 2003.

Southern Brazil. Various Guarani groups [no details; Milky Way is Mborevi rapé, tapir trail]: Strelnikov 1930: 301; Cadogán 1968a [both in Guarani and Tupi the Milky Way is "tapir trail" (Tapi'í Rapé, Mboreví Rapé); so in "Tesoro.." Montoya and in "Vocabulario na lingua brasilica"]: 80.