Ulé (Rodrigues’s Yurukaré account)

Overview

After the earth-burning episode, a survivor has a wife and children, including a daughter who wanders in loneliness. She loves a beautiful tree called Ulé, and it becomes a man who spends the nights with her and disappears by day. On her mother’s advice she ties him so that he cannot leave. He promises marriage and is released; the narrative then presents the pair living happily together.

Ulé fails to return from hunting because a jaguar has killed him. The woman’s brothers tell her what happened, and she finds his scattered, bloodied remains and joins them together. While she contemplates them, she blows into his nostril; he returns to life as if waking from a long sleep. On their journey back, however, he sees his reflection in a stream and realizes that a piece of his face is missing.

Unwilling to show her his disfigured appearance, Ulé leaves her and tells her to return alone without looking back, whatever she hears. She ignores several noises but eventually turns at the sound of a falling leaf and loses her way. The following episode brings her to the jaguar household and Tiri’s birth. No later reunion with Ulé is narrated. Rodrigues identifies the tree botanically in a footnote, but that gloss does not establish a real tree’s ability to become human.

D’Orbigny’s 1844 telling adds the purple-red flowers that attract the woman and her painting of the tree with rocou. On her mother’s advice she keeps Ulé bound for four days before he agrees to stay and marry. His reassembled body revives while she contemplates it; this version does not describe her blowing into his nostril, as Rodrigues does. The missing part is specifically a piece of cheek. Before she leaves alone, Ulé tells her to understand falling things behind her as her husband’s game; a falling leaf nevertheless frightens her into looking. These differences preserve the earlier French narrative’s particular sequence without turning an omitted action into a contradiction about what could happen in every telling.

Origins & earliest records

Rodrigues1890, Tiri e Karu,252–255, labelled Yurukaré/Rio Mamoré, expressly cites d’Orbigny. The earlier French witness is Voyage dans l’Amérique méridionale, tomeIII, part1 (1844),209–215, in the narrative of1832 travels. On199 d’Orbigny credits Father Lacueva, an eighteen-year resident among Yurakaré people, for much of his regional description; he does not assign this whole myth to a named individual teller. Publication dates are not interview dates.

Records & interpretation

Complete Portuguese252–255 narrative and its footnotes visually read, through Tiri’s western departure;256blank. The preceding Munduruku Cáru/Rairu account is a distinct source and cast. Comparison with d’Orbigny’s complete209–215 myth sequence and contextual199 note; original title and213–215 scans confirm1844, maní and the immortal companions. The two authors’ wording and colonial generalizations are distinguished.

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

   Complete Tiri e Karu,252–255, labelled Yurukaré/Rio Mamoré; explicitly cites d’Orbigny, whose earlier French version is separately compared.

2. 02

   Voyage dans l’Amérique méridionale, tomeIII, première partie: Partie historique

   Alcide d’Orbigny · 1844

   Complete myth sequence209–215, with regional provenance note199. Travels framed as1832; title1844 verified in original image. Lacueva credit concerns much of the regional description, not an individually attributed performance of each episode.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

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
2. Primary textInternet Archive / Smithsonian Libraries: d’Orbigny1844 tomeIII part1 originalResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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