Tamecan, the seven ascending children

Overview

Rodrigues’s Rio Branco account begins with a married couple and their seven children. The children repeatedly ask both parents for food. Their mother insists that she feeds them and rebukes their appetite; she finally throws them a tapir jaw taken from the cooking rack. The eldest divides the food among the younger children, who eat it, but says that it is still insufficient. The narrative gives the dispute in dialogue rather than independently measuring how much food was available.

The eldest proposes that they go to the sky and become stars. Taking younger siblings beneath his arms, he leads a song and dance through which they rise. Their mother comes outside, sees them departing and offers food, but they answer that it is too late: they are going to their uncle in the sky. They continue turning as they ascend, compared to a circling vulture, until they disappear into the heavens. The heading identifies them with the Pleiades; a note identifies the addressed uncle Ueré as another star without identifying which one. The circling comparison does not say that the children become vultures. This seven-child household remains separate from the seven boys and one sister of the Vila Bella Cyiuce story.

Origins & earliest records

João Barbosa Rodrigues, Poranduba amazonense (1890), third part, VI Tamecan,223–225. Original headings use Makuchys and Rio Branco; no personal teller name appears.

Records & interpretation

Complete interlinear Portuguese glosses, separate Portuguese rendering and notes inspected in original pages. Closing note230 describes an elderly Indigenous informant without Portuguese and locates these traditions among Makuchys of the Branco and Mahu, without naming him.

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

   VI Tamecan,223–225. Complete original-page reading and contextual closing note230; individual telling date unspecified.

Family, evolution & connections

Tamecan’s seven siblings — Rodrigues’s Rio Branco account

Complete interlinear glosses, Portuguese rendering and notes, VI pp. 223–225.

Explicit married parents and seven children, with one designated eldest brother. Both parents unnamed. Six younger children are retained collectively without invented names, sexes or order. Ueré’s uncle address supplies no maternal/paternal placement; the footnote identifies only another star. No link to the distinct Cyiuce household or vulture ancestry is inferred.

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

Image credits

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