Yacorenie Oidi Ayoré
The Ayoré that was taken away by the wild pigs:
The Ayoré that the wild pigs took away was an orphan. It’s said that when he was still very small he took the scraper that his grandmother used for scraping *dajudíe leaves and used it for hunting. It’s said, he became a wild pig hunter, and the wild pigs would one day take him away with them.
The little one said: “Grandmother, I want to go with the hunters to hunt pigs, and we’ll eat the little baby pig that I kill.” And the ones they killed that day were all little pigs. And he brought home some baby pigs that he had killed, and he and his grandmother ate his little victims. When he was bigger, he killed pigs that were bigger.
It’s said that their countrymen would give squash to the grandmother and say to her: “Boil these for your grandson. He can eat them when he gets back from a hunt.” They did this because they wanted to eat some of the game the little boy brought back. They would eat some of the young pigs he would kill, but even though the pigs were bigger now, they showed kindness to the boy.
Later on he killed ‘big-bellied pigs.’ And when he was a young man he would kill whole troops of wild pigs. And that’s when he became known as the great hunter of wild pigs. And it’s also when the wild pigs got fed up with him because of how many pigs he was killing.
So the wild pigs that he had killed would rise again from the dead, and that’s when one of them grabbed the young man and took him away.
They claim that the wild pigs learned all about us Ayoreos, because the one they took off long ago told them about us. He said to them: “Leave us Ayoreos alone, for Ayoreos are all warlike. Leave and stay away from them.”
And that’s when the wild pigs started running away from the Ayoreos. They still run from us, because they know what we’re like. And that’s because of what the Ayoré that they took away so long ago told them. Wild pigs know our ways, and that is why, knowing all about us today, they still run away from us.
Oidábiadé – Campo Loro, Paraguay – 1988.
Transcribed and translated to English by: Maxine Morarie.
