A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Korobona’s first child is a girl whom her brothers initially threaten but spare. Brett says that the girl then drops out of the account and infers that she died. After another encounter with the lake spirit, Korobona bears a boy who partly resembles his supernatural father. Fearing her brothers, she hides him in the forest with help from her sister.
The brothers find the child and shoot him, but Korobona’s care restores him. He grows unusually quickly in size and understanding, concealing himself in a tree until his mother comes with food. When her tracks expose him, the brothers attack again despite her attempts to shield him, then cut his body apart. She remains beside the remains, aided by her sister, covering them with leaves and flowers and preventing animals from approaching.
The covered body begins to move, and a complete armed warrior rises from it. His attackers cannot withstand him, and their arrows turn away. Brett’s narrator presents him as the first Carib and explains subsequent hostility through his descendants. This is a particular Warao account of enemies and supernatural ancestry, not an ethnographic claim that living Carib people are monstrous or inherently violent. Im Thurn retells the recovery more briefly as emergence from a grave; Brett explicitly says that the flower-covered remains have no other tomb. His Biblical comparison with a mourning mother is editorial.
Origins & earliest records
Brett’s Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana (1880 catalogue date), with the surrounding Warau narrative frame naming McLeod. English verse and missionary commentary mediate the account; no exact interview date is supplied here.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected Brett narrative and its McLeod frame53–55 read, alongside the complete im Thurn1883 folk-lore chapter371–388. Im Thurn acknowledges extensive dependence on Brett; differences between the two presentations do not establish independent oral performances.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana
Complete Legend of Korobona64–74; McLeod narrator frame53–55. Closing narrator frame86 also read: six-day journey and return near Barima.
- 02
Among the Indians of Guiana
Folk-lore chapter371–388; comparison passages377–379.
Family, evolution & connections
Korobona and her two children — Brett’s account
Korobona, pp. 64–74, in Brett’s English verse presentation; surrounding frame names McLeod.
Scroll sideways to see all branches. With a keyboard, focus the tree and use the arrow keys.
- Korobona (mother)
- Earlier unnamed daughter (later fate unstated)
Explicit maternal relationships; Wahma’s fatherhood retained only for the boy. The first girl’s death is an editorial guess. Her father is not assigned. No marriage is inferred from captivity, and the narrative’s origin claim is not verified ancestry of modern communities. Unnamed maternal aunt and four uncles are described separately, without invented parent generations.
Korobona (Brett’s account)
Korobona gives birth to the boy, hides him, and cares for him after both attacks. Brett’s supernatural origin narrative is not evidence about the biological ancestry of living peoples.
Wahma of Korobona’s lake
The boy partly shares his father’s form on p. 69 and is explicitly described as sprung from Wahma on p. 74. The lake spirit’s captivity of Korobona is not reframed as consensual marriage.
Korobona’s unnamed younger sister
Korobona is the elder of the two sisters. The younger sister keeps the boy’s existence secret and later brings food to his grieving mother; she is his aunt, not another mother.
Korobona’s four unnamed brothers
The four attackers are explicitly Korobona’s brothers. They are therefore the boy’s maternal uncles, not paternal relatives; no names or shared parents of the sibling group are supplied.
Korobona’s earlier unnamed daughter
Korobona’s first child is a girl whom the brothers spare. Her later death is Brett’s inference from her disappearance from the account, not a narrated event. Her father is not independently specified here.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textBrett: Warao narrative in English verseResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Primary textIm Thurn1883: attributed comparative presentationResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.