Yicagóji de nanique iji Tobité yúode:
Arriving in Tobité:
I’ll tell about arriving in Tobité long ago. I’ll try to remember about Yójidé trying to take my children from me. We were on our way to Tobité. It was when we first were going to Tobité in the beginning. And we ran into some people on the way.
Chané tells the new arrivals that his grandmother will take their children:
But an Ayoré was going somewhere and he relayed some news to us. He said: “My grandmother wants to take your children, all of the orphans among you,” said the man named Chané. “Grandma will take your children, the orphan children,” he said.
And we were scared to meet them, really scared of them because they were saying they were going to take the children, the orphans.
Chané ran after us with a gun:
They hid Daquerai under a blanket, but just hid him. We left when the sun was ‘there’. The sun was far down when we left. But Chané ran after them, carrying his gun.
His grandma said: “Eat something before running off.”
I yelled. I said: “He’s over there! He’s going to shoot you, Dequerainaté!” I said.
We took off. We went over ‘there’. And then, we went another direction toward the camp nearby.
“¡Chané is coming back again,” they said. “Let’s go!”
The non-Ayoré person said: Run!
We grabbed our things. We went toward the plains and saw that the sun was going down. By the time we caught sight of our camp it was night. We were hungry. Even though the men had been scouting for food we hadn’t eaten anything. We crossed the plains, and they told us: “Burai and them are hiding.”
My ankles were swollen. But I had to keep going because I knew that they were hiding, but following us.
“Tell me what to do and I’ll go with them,” I said. And they entered the jungle. But the non-Ayoré person said: “Run!”
“They are going to shoot Ijmai and us. They’re going to shoot their guns at Querúidé,” they said.
And we went way off ‘there’. I was afraid of the non-Ayoreos. But one of them came to us farther away by the river. He was following the river ahead of us.
He said: “Give your countrymen some salt,” he said to the chief, to Jnaniné. “But give them some knives, too, when you give your countrymen salt.”
That’s all.
Enuedaté – Tobité, Bolivia – 1960
Transcribed and translated to English by: Maxine Morarie.
