Reading the transcriptions of Amazonian oral tales as compiled by the Villas Boas brothers is not something that comes naturally. In fact to the urbanite, trained in schools and used to story-telling conventions and expectations based on reading rather than hearing, these stories with their crude plots appear to ramble onwards with inexplicable twists at every corner. Nowhere is there a clear boundary between fantasy and reality, between human and animal, and between the magical and the ordinary, they seem to float in thin air, rich in presumed symbolic images but without psychology or colour. Emotions are mentioned as being present but never evoked, everything is action but what motivates behaviour is kept under the surface. To us these tales are not peopled with persons but with cardboard images ruthlessly chasing their destiny. There is no denying the beautifully strange imagery, but this is a surreal pleasure never felt by the Indians themselves for whom these are conventional images.

To get a better feel for the twists and turns, for the story-telling devices I have made synopses of two tales. One has to admire the economy of the original storytelling because these are barely shorter than the original prose.

Kuát and Iaê, The Conquest of Day

In the beginning it was always night.

People lived around the termite hills, without fire or clearings, they were starving in the dark.

There were only fireflies around the termite hills.

The son and the moon, who are brothers, were thinking about how to make light.

They made an effigy Tapir filled with manioc.

After a few days it began to rot and became infested with maggots.

The sun gave the maggots to the flies and said to bring it to the village of the birds.

The vulture chief of the birds didn't trust the gift, he suspected that it was to trick to steal the light of day.

The vulture tried to interrogate the flies, but he did not speak the language.

Many other bird species tried to understand the flies but non succeeded.

Finally a Congo Kingbird understood the flies.

The birds devoured the maggots and asked for the directions to the tapir for more.

Before they went the birds shaved of all their hair because it would not be safe to go there otherwise.

When they saw the tapir all birds started to eat insects from it.

The hawk however was more careful and saw that the sun and the moon were hidden inside the tapir.

The hawk told the other birds that it was a trick but they paid little attention.

When the vulture landed on the tapir the sun took him by the feet and wanted to have the light of day from him.

All birds fled back to their village, only a jacubin and a gaun bird stayed with their chief..

The vulture chief instructed the jacubin to go back and get the day.

The jacubin came back, carrying a blue macaw feather came and the sky brightened.

The sun thought is was the day but the moon told him that it was not the real day.

And indeed it wasn't because when the jacubin flew away it was all dark again.

The jacubin came back, carrying a yellow macaw crest and the sky brightened.

The sun thought is was the day but the moon told him that it was not the real day.

And indeed it wasn't because when the jacubin flew away it was all dark again.

The jacubin came back, covered in parrot feathers and the sky brightened.

The sun thought is was the day but the moon told him that it was not the real day.

And indeed it wasn't because when the jacubin flew away it was all dark again.

The sun got angry with the chief vulture.

The jacubin came back, carrying a red macaw feather came and the sky brightened.

The sun thought is was the day but the moon told him that it was not the real day.

And indeed it wasn't because when the jacubin flew away it was all dark again.

Now the vulture chief instructed the guan to get the real day because he was getting tired of it.

When the guan came back he was dressed in a complete red macaw outfit and everything became bright.

The vulture chief explained that the day is born in the morning and dies in the evening.

The night is for sleeping, the day is for work.

The sun adorned the vulture chief, shaving the top of his head, painting it with urucu and binding a piece of white cotton around it.

Before the vulture chief left he said to leave big killed animals where he could see them.

Then he flew away.

The Sleep-Inducing Tree

Uaica went out to hunt.

Under a large tree he saw a great number of dead animals.

He walked round the tree, got dizzy, fell down and feel asleep.

He dreamed of many things, of people who sing, tapirs, other animals, Sinaa, a mythological woman spoke to him.

When he woke it was already dark.

The next several days he went back to this tree.

He stopped eating and his last visit was when Sinaa ordered him to stay away.

Uaica woke up and made tea from the bark of this tree.

He got drunk from it and jumped into the lake where he caught fish with his bare hands.

Back at the village Uaica told only his grand-father about the tree.

The old man went to the tree the next day but had no dreams.

Uaica stopped going to this tree but continued to drink tea from bark, which gave him many powers.

Using these powers Uaica had better healing powers than the shaman and people got curious about the source of them.

Uaica became a great shaman and he started to tell people about the tree that induced dreams.

In his dreams Uaica still talked to Sinaa who told him to continue to heal.

His people persuaded Uaica to marry, he didn't want to but eventually gave in.

Uaice was now very popular, but then something bad happened.

Uaica came back from fishing when he discovered a man sleeping with his wife.

Uaica said nothing, ate his food and then asked his wife to get him some water from the river.

His wife went and her lover followed here.

Uaica went to see his wife and saw her sitting on top of this man, but he said nothing and just watched with the eyes on his back.

When Uaica's wife wanted to get of her lover she couldn't, she dragged herself away and together they fell into the water.

At that moment Auica blew on them and they turned into Botos [dolphins] and vanished.

Uaica's father-in-law and his son want to retaliate by killing Uaica.

Uaica's brother-in-law prepared a lot of food and invited everybody, including Uaica, to come and eat.

While Uaica was eating his brother-in-law tried to club him from behind.

Uaica, with the eyes on his back, was not surprised and he disappeared into the ground taking all his belongings with him.

He came out of the earth again far away and his house and garden had moved with him.

Time passed and the villagers went to look for him.

When they found him his brother-in-law said to Uaica that he no longer wanted to kill him and asked to come along.

Uaica brother-in-law was lying but Uaica believed him.

Uaica's brother-in-law went out fishing again and when he came back he invited everybody, including Uaica, to come and eat.

While Uaica was eating his brother-in-law again tried to club him from behind.

Uaica, with the eyes on his back, was not surprised and he disappeared into the ground taking all his belongings with him.

Before he vanished he said that he would never come back.

Uaica still lives at the Pedra Seca, the rocky island in the middle of the river.

His belongings are still there but they have turned into stone.

If anyone touches them he will fall ill and die.

A long time ago the villagers saw Uaica's hand, bidding them to come into his house, but they couldn't find the door and they were frightened.