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Overview

Brett’s Acawoi narrator describes an original community whose animals share speech and live under the first man, called Makonaima’s son. A tree provides every kind of fruit. The agouti discovers it and the man fells it, revealing water and fish inside the stump. He wishes to distribute the fish among rivers, but learns that the water threatens a flood. An inverted basket restrains it until the mischievous brown monkey lifts the covering.

The man leads the animals to a high hill, assigning tree dwellers to palms and others to a cave. He gauges the falling water by dropping palm seeds. The retreat has lasting consequences within the story: a howler’s fearful cries enlarge its throat, ants strip the impatient trumpeter’s legs, and a bird that mistakes a coal for an insect gains a red throat. Falsely told that the alligator took the fire, the tired guardian injures its tongue while searching its mouth. The wronged animal becomes hostile, and the community disperses, losing its common speech.

The closing verses compress further human hostility. Despite feeding enemies, the man remains persecuted and withdraws with a faithful few onto an inaccessible cliff. Its name is not preserved; Brett compares it with Roraima but does not establish that identification. This particular son-and-guardian narrative is not silently equated with every figure named Makonaima elsewhere.

Guardian of a speaking-animal communityContains then survives primordial waterAnimal changes follow the floodWithdraws onto an inaccessible cliff
01

Origins & earliest records

Brett’s Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana (catalogued 1880) presents collected material through English verse and missionary commentary. Publication and narrator framing do not establish a date of origin for the oral tradition.

02

Records & interpretation

The First Man and Animals, pp.126–134, all four sections; preceding Acawoi narrator frame read. Further adventures explicitly abbreviated by Brett.

In the literature

“Just, as well as kind, was he:”
Unnamed Acawoi narrator descended from former chiefs; William Henry Brett, collector and English verse adapter · Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana
The First Man and Animals, printed p.126 · William Henry Brett (English literary adaptation; source-language transcript not retained here)

An unnamed Acawoi narrator in Brett’s frame tells of a first man called Makonaima’s son, who governs animals sharing one language. An agouti finds a fruit-bearing tree; the man alone fells it and animals help plant. Water and fish rise within its stump. He restrains the threatened flood beneath an inverted basket, but Iwarreka lifts it while seeking hidden fruit. The man leads animals to a hill, trees and cave, measuring the falling flood by dropping palm seeds. Mishaps explain the howler’s enlarged throat, a trumpeter’s thin legs and a bush fowl’s red throat. Falsely accusing an alligator of taking fire, he tears out its tongue. Animals desert him and later regret it. Evil men repeatedly try to kill him even after he feeds them, so he retreats with a faithful few to a sheer, untraceable cliff.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana

    William Henry Brett, collector and literary adapter · 1880

    The First Man and Animals, pp.126–134, all four sections; preceding Acawoi narrator frame read. Further adventures explicitly abbreviated by Brett.

  2. 02

    Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana — The First Man and Animals

    Unnamed Acawoi narrator descended from former chiefs; William Henry Brett, collector and English verse adapter · 1880

    London: William Wells Gardner, catalogue1880. Actual original title image read: year is a bracketed handwritten1880, not a printed imprint date. Preface explicitly describes Brett’s metrical adaptation. Cornell scan text with selected complete episode and notes read; no whole-book claim. Printed excerpt folio visually checked. Selected complete printed The First Man and Animals, pp.126–134.

Family, evolution & connections

Makonaima and the first man — Brett’s Acawoi rendering

One explicitly named father–son relation on p. 126.

The verse directly designates the first man as Makonaima’s son. The unnamed Acawoi narrator’s account is mediated by Brett’s English verse and missionary framing. No mother or biological mechanism is supplied, and creator status does not make all created animals his children. Other Makonaima narratives are not merged.

Brett (1880), Acawoi First Man and Animals, p. 126
Documented · canonical kinship

Makonaima in Brett’s Acawoi First Man account

Brett’s verse rendering names the first man as Makonaima’s son. This relationship belongs to that attributed Acawoi account; the son receives no separate personal name here.

Brett (1880), Acawoi First Man and Animals, p. 126

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal Indians of British Guiana

London: William Wells Gardner, catalogue1880. Actual original title image read: year is a bracketed handwritten1880, not a printed imprint date. Preface explicitly describes Brett’s metrical adaptation. Cornell scan text with selected complete episode and notes read; no whole-book claim. Printed excerpt folio visually checked. Selected complete printed The First Man and Animals, pp.126–134.

  1. An unnamed Acawoi narrator in Brett’s frame tells of a first man called Makonaima’s son, who governs animals sharing one language. An agouti finds a fruit-bearing tree; the man alone fells it and animals help plant. Water and fish rise within its stump. He restrains the threatened flood beneath an inverted basket, but Iwarreka lifts it while seeking hidden fruit. The man leads animals to a hill, trees and cave, measuring the falling flood by dropping palm seeds. Mishaps explain the howler’s enlarged throat, a trumpeter’s thin legs and a bush fowl’s red throat. Falsely accusing an alligator of taking fire, he tears out its tongue. Animals desert him and later regret it. Evil men repeatedly try to kill him even after he feeds them, so he retreats with a faithful few to a sheer, untraceable cliff.

    The First Man and Animals, complete printed pp.126–134; prefacev–vi

The frame125–126 describes an unnamed descendant of old chiefs, not a recoverable personal name. Makonaima’s son is not conflated with his father. Brett explicitly abbreviates further adventures134. The alligator explanation is a narrated etiological belief, not modern anatomical science. Proposed identification of final cliff with Roraima is conjectural in the text.

References

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

  1. Primary textBrett1880: The First Man and Animals, pp.126–134, all four sections; preceding Acawoi narrator frame read. Further adventures explicitly abbreviated by Brett.Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

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