Jaguar household (Rodrigues’s Yurukaré account)

Overview

When Ulé’s partner loses her way, the mother of the jaguars receives her kindly and conceals her from returning sons. They detect the stranger and intend to eat her, but their mother intervenes. The woman is made to remove and eat ants from the jaguars’ bodies. Unable to eat them, she uses seeds supplied by the mother as a substitute. Three sons are deceived, while the fourth, who has four eyes, sees the substitution and kills her.

The four-eyed son removes the unborn child and leaves him to be cooked. His mother takes the child from the pot and substitutes something else, saving and secretly rearing the boy as Tiri. After a paca tells Tiri about his parents’ killers, he shoots three of the brothers. The four-eyed brother sees the arrows, escapes wounded into a tree and calls upon the sky and trees for help. The moon hides him; the telling connects his presence there with the jaguars’ nocturnal life.

Tiri gives the mother a cultivated field after her sons are lost. Later, he and Karu find her mouth bloodied. She says she ate a person already killed by a serpent, rather than confessing to killing that person herself. Tiri has cut the hair from her head and then makes her a vulture that must eat what others kill. The story explains the vulture’s bald head through this punishment. Her sheltering of the woman, secret care of Tiri and later scavenging transformation remain distinct actions, rather than reducing the whole household to one hostile creature.

D’Orbigny’s earlier account specifies poisonous ants in the brothers’ hair and calabash seeds secretly supplied as substitutes. The fourth brother’s rear-facing eyes expose the trick. It also gives the paca’s revelation an additional consequence: Tiri’s missed arrow cuts off the animal’s tail, explaining its short-tailed form. The paca says the jaguars intend to enslave Tiri, and attributes both parents’ deaths to them; that is the paca’s report within the story, whose earlier Ulé episode has already included a revival. The mother’s eventual scavenging confession and transformation into an urubu remain explicit, while the fourth brother is sheltered by the moon rather than declared dead.

Origins & earliest records

Rodrigues1890, Tiri e Karu,252–255, labelled Yurukaré/Rio Mamoré, expressly cites d’Orbigny. The earlier French witness is Voyage dans l’Amérique méridionale, tomeIII, part1 (1844),209–215, in the narrative of1832 travels. On199 d’Orbigny credits Father Lacueva, an eighteen-year resident among Yurakaré people, for much of his regional description; he does not assign this whole myth to a named individual teller. Publication dates are not interview dates.

Records & interpretation

Complete Portuguese252–255 narrative and its footnotes visually read, through Tiri’s western departure;256blank. The preceding Munduruku Cáru/Rairu account is a distinct source and cast. Comparison with d’Orbigny’s complete209–215 myth sequence and contextual199 note; original title and213–215 scans confirm1844, maní and the immortal companions. The two authors’ wording and colonial generalizations are distinguished.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Poranduba amazonense, ou Kochiyma-uara porandub

   João Barbosa Rodrigues · 1890

   Complete Tiri e Karu,252–255, labelled Yurukaré/Rio Mamoré; explicitly cites d’Orbigny, whose earlier French version is separately compared.

2. 02

   Voyage dans l’Amérique méridionale, tomeIII, première partie: Partie historique

   Alcide d’Orbigny · 1844

   Complete myth sequence209–215, with regional provenance note199. Travels framed as1832; title1844 verified in original image. Lacueva credit concerns much of the regional description, not an individually attributed performance of each episode.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textUFPE: Barbosa Rodrigues1890 original scanResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Primary textInternet Archive / Smithsonian Libraries: d’Orbigny1844 tomeIII part1 originalResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.