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Overview
Roth glosses Tobe-horoanna as Tiger-black-skin and describes a being who travels through the forest as a great feline but lives at home in human form. In one account, a fisherman hears its earthbound, thunderlike voice and escapes by repeatedly diving beneath a creek bank. His family flees by canoe; neighbours dismiss the warning and disappear, leaving blood and scattered ornaments. A retaliating party finds ordinary arrows and lances useless. They leap from a tree onto the monster, enter a cavity in its back and kill it with axes from within. Its rocky dwelling contains human heads and an enormous, baby that cannot yet walk, described as tapir-sized.
A separate story reverses the direction of the family tragedy. Black Tiger imprisons a young man in a cooking pot, but his sister protects the captive and marries him after he proves an able hunter. Their twin sons make the same thunderous sounds as the Tiger people. When the man takes his family to visit his mother, she and his sister kill both him and his wife; the children escape. Their uncle then assumes feline form and kills the perpetrators and their guests. Another episode lets an unsuccessful hunter defeat Black Tiger by cutting its heels and attacking its neck, before seeking hunting assistance from Wau-uta. These are distinct tellings, with different vulnerabilities and motives.
Origins & earliest records
The securely located witness here is Roth's 1915 An inquiry into the animism and folk-lore of the Guiana Indians, sections 144, 146 and 148, printed pp. 213–218. Roth labels these accounts Warrau, his historical spelling for Warao. Publication dates the documented collection, not the beginning of the narratives.
Records & interpretation
The full episodes and the explanatory footnote on p. 213 were inspected in the public-domain text. The footnote distinguishes forest feline form from domestic human appearance; sections 146 and 148 give contrasting massacre and marriage narratives. Individual narrators are not named in these passages, and no contemporary Warao corroboration is claimed.
In the literature
“This contained a large cavity”
Section146, printed p.216
The cavity is in Black Tiger’s back; attackers work their axes from inside it.
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
Complete Black Tiger accounts, sections 144, 146 and 148, printed pp. 213–218; the intervening unnamed giant-tiger episode is not silently equated with this being.
- 02
An Inquiry into the Animism and Folk-lore of the Guiana Indians — Warrau-labelled sections144,146,148
Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office,1915; selected Cornell scan. Preface dated Pomeroon,June1913 explains A=Arawak, C=Carib, W=Warrau source labels. Named episodes read in full; individual contributors not named in these headings.
Family, evolution & connections
Tobe-horoanna’s sibling household — Roth §148
The named Black Tiger household in Why Black Tiger Killed the Indians, pp. 217–218.
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- Three expressly stated siblings (parents not identified)
- Unnamed brother
- Unnamed sister, wife of the human captive
- Two unnamed twin sons (human father)
Sibling grouping and maternal descent expressly stated in this narrative. The group node represents a stated sibling relationship, not an identified parent. Relatives remain unnamed. The twin sons are distinct from the killed baby of §146; this witness is not a universal Black Tiger genealogy.
Tobe-horoanna’s unnamed brother in §148
The brother helps Tobe-horoanna hold the captured man. Roth’s §148 expressly identifies him as a brother but supplies no personal name or shared parents.
Tobe-horoanna’s unnamed sister in §148
The sister asks that the captive be released, subsequently lives with him as his wife, and bears twin sons. This family belongs to Roth’s §148 narrative, not every account of the Black Tiger.
The twin nephews in Roth §148
After their parents are killed, the two boys return to Tobe-horoanna, whom the story expressly calls their uncle. Their mother is his sister. They are not the baby killed in the distinct §146 episode.
The human husband of his sister in Roth §148
Tobe-horoanna accepts the human hunter as his sister’s husband after he returns with game. The kinship is through marriage; the narrative does not name the husband or describe him as a biological Black Tiger relative.
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: U.S. Government Printing Office,1915; selected Cornell scan. Preface dated Pomeroon,June1913 explains A=Arawak, C=Carib, W=Warrau source labels. Named episodes read in full; individual contributors not named in these headings.
- Two brothers-in-law send a poor hunter to Tobe-horoanna’s lair. Circling a tree, he cuts both heels, then kills the immobilised creature with arrow and knife. Showing its carcass changes his family’s estimation of him; his father-in-law gives him another daughter and makes him settlement chief. The footnote separately reports a huge forest beast, tiger-shaped when abroad but humanlike at home.
- A fisher escapes the creature’s earthbound thunderous approach and warns his settlement; his family flees while others dismiss him. Returning to blood and abandoned ornaments, he recruits survivors. Their weapons initially fail, but they leap onto the beast’s back and use axes from a cavity inside it. They kill it, then kill its still-unwalking baby, described as tapir-sized.
- Black Tiger captures a human but says he will keep him alive. His brother and sister participate in an impossible feeding demand; the sister intervenes and chooses the man as husband after a successful hunt. Their twin sons make thunderlike cries. On a family visit the human mother and sister kill both parents; the boys escape to their maternal uncle Tobe-horoanna, who changes into Black Tiger form and kills the feast’s participants.
The footnote is Roth’s collected information, not a named individual’s zoological observation. Later generic Tigers in the hunting-helper sequence do not revive this dead Black Tiger. This account includes destruction of the young, not just defensive killing of the adult. No empirical animal identification or general invulnerability rule inferred. Three selected episodes remain separate variants. The surviving twins here are not silently equated with the baby killed in§146; Tobe-horoanna is their maternal uncle, not their father.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- ResearchRoth 1915: Black Tiger accounts and explanatory name footnoteResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.