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Overview
In Roth's Warao tale of the wrong rattle, Siwara first imitates an oto bird's cry near two girls fetching water. They challenge the caller to appear or bring them game. He answers as a young man, greets them as cousins and presents a hunted powis bird. They offer cassava and drink, and he sleeps in their house without troubling them. Siwara asks them to conceal the visit, but an arrow fragment in the cooked bird exposes their claim that a hawk had caught it. Their father has the girls call the visitor back. Siwara returns and, with the parents' agreement, marries the older daughter. The story therefore establishes him as a welcomed provider and husband before introducing the danger of his property.
Siwara repeatedly returns from the forest with game and teaches his wife's brothers what bush-hogs are. By shaking a maraka rattle he calls the animals into range; the inexperienced brothers initially flee up a tree, leaving him to make the kill. After a baby is born, he brings his possessions into the household, including four rattles. Two belong to a timid kind of bush-hog and two to a savage kind: one summons each kind, and its partner drives it away. He warns the family to leave them untouched. While he is clearing a field, a brother-in-law examines and shakes the rattle that calls the savage animals. A herd rushes into the house. The family escapes into trees, but the baby is left behind and killed. Siwara returns and uses the proper rattle to dismiss the herd. Discovering the child's death, he blames their disobedience and leaves, after which food becomes difficult to obtain.
Origins & earliest records
The complete tale is section 116 of Roth's 1915 inquiry, pages 185–187, titled The Wrong Rattle, the Bush-hog, and the Baby and marked Warao through the historical label Warrau. It establishes Siwara as an individual Hebu within that narrative. No separate ancient biography or dated beginning for the character is supplied.
Records & interpretation
The directly read episode includes the first bird call, household welcome, marriage, four distinct rattles and final departure. Siwara is not merely a new synonym for all Hebus: his name belongs to this specific story and set of actions. Roth's surrounding generalized claims about marriage are not adopted as universal Warao social rules.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
An inquiry into the animism and folk-lore of the Guiana Indians
Chapter VIII, section 116, pp. 185–187; complete Siwara narrative through the child's death and spirit's departure.
Family, evolution & connections
Siwara and his child in Roth §116
The Siwara narrative, §116 pp186–187; this is not generic Hebu parentage.
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- Joint parents: Siwara and his unnamed wife
- Unnamed baby
Explicit husband, wife and baby statements; social greetings excluded. Parents are grouped jointly, not as a new organism. Baby’s name and sex are unstated. Wife’s brothers and parents are not inserted as ancestors of Siwara. Roth’s historical mediation remains explicit.
Unnamed elder daughter and wife (Roth §116)
Siwara obtains the household’s elder daughter as his wife and lives with her parents. Earlier age-based “cousin” and “uncle” greetings are explicitly explained as nonliteral in Roth’s footnotes and are not evidence of shared ancestry.
Unnamed baby of Siwara and his wife (Roth §116)
Roth states that Siwara’s wife presents him with a baby. The baby is later killed during the bush-hog episode. No name or sex is supplied, and this account is not a genealogy for all Hebu spirits.
Two unnamed brothers of Siwara’s wife (Roth §116)
The narrative explicitly calls the two men his wife’s brothers and later brothers-in-law. It does not name their parents separately or turn Siwara’s earlier “uncle” address into biological kinship.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
An inquiry into the animism and folk-lore of the Guiana Indians
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,1915; selected Cornell scan. Catalogue year independently checked; field preface dated Pomeroon,June1913.
- Siwara imitates a bird, appears after two girls challenge the sound and gives them game. When their father discovers the arrow fragment, he invites the visitor back and offers his elder daughter in marriage. Siwara proves a capable provider and teaches the wife’s two brothers about bush-hogs.
- After his wife bears a baby, Siwara moves his possessions into the family home. His four rattles summon or repel two sorts of bush-hog. A brother-in-law shakes the dangerous one; adults escape into trees but the forgotten infant is killed. Siwara drives the animals away with the appropriate rattle, condemns the disobedience and leaves, making future food acquisition harder.
Section116, printed p.187; complete baby, four-rattle and departure ending
Greeting as cousins and designation as uncle are explicitly broad social/age terms in the footnotes, not proof of biological cousin or uncle marriage. Child is not revived. No rattle formula or ritual direction copied; historical narrator’s family arrangement is not contemporary universal custom.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- ResearchRoth 1915: Siwara and the four bush-hog rattles, section 116Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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