Achinguirai Inóningáyatódie Cucha
Antidotes for Rattlesnake Bites:
The antidote for rattlesnake venom is the fox. Another antidote for rattlesnake bite is the tall, white, stork-like bird called gaco. Another is water.
If the snake throws its venom at a person and the medicine man uses the stork-like bird’s breath it won’t kill a person. Or if they use the breath of the fox, it won’t kill them. That’s because it is the antidote for snake venom.
Ayoré persons who understand witchcraft know what the antidotes are and they can heal people who have been bitten by snakes. Breath, that is their word for blowing, and medicine comes out of them when they blow.
The medicine men bite to pull venom out of the one who has been bitten by a rattlesnake. The medicine men are powerful. To heal people who have been bitten they pull the venom out of them. According to the medicine men who lived long ago, power comes to the medicine men from the twisted wild pineapple plant’s fibers. They open themselves up and power presents itself to them from the twisted wild pineapple plant. By using the twisted wild pineapple plant, those who are already medicine men are able to bestow power to heal on other men.
We are told the medicine men use the twisted wild pineapple fibers like a whip, and when they hit a person with the fibers power comes out of them and enters the person they whip. In this way the person that was whipped becomes a medicine man, also.
Tobacco is able to bring power to people, also, so that they can become medicine men. The tobacco is steeped in water, and when the tobacco brew is drunk it overcomes the person who has drunk it, and they go into a trance. After that they become medicine men.
The medicine man has the power to curse as well as heal. When a medicine man mistreats or curses people and causes them to die, however, the people kill him for he has become a danger to his people.
Cajoidé – Campo Loro, Paraguay – 1988
Transcribed and translated to English by: Maxine Morarie
