Evening star., 1939-08-17
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

Kuma, creator of life and ruler of
heaven, held by dying tribe of ex-
tremely primitive Indians on the desc
late, wind-swept Venezuelan llanos, along
rivers which flow into the Orinoco, has
just been reported by DR.. Vincenzo
Petrullo, former University of Pennsyl-
vania ethnologist, in a bulletin just is
sued by the Bureau of American Ethnol-
ogy of the Smithsonian Institution.
These people who have so philosophic-
ally resigned themselves to early extinc-
ton are river nomads, having no fixed
habitations, no agriculture, and no do
mestic animals, except the dog. Their
possessions are limited to what they can
carry in their canoes from one camp to
another.
All nature is rationalized, DR.. Petrullo
found, into the cult of the great mother
in heaven. The falling stars are mes
Sengers from Kuma to encourage her
people. On moonless nights the notion
less stars represent the hosts of their
ancestors who live with Kuma. The
winds, blowing necessarily across the
in the ether world-distant relatives who
once were human beings but were
changed into monkeys by life in the trees
at the time of the great flood.
For every species of plant and animal
life a gigantic counterpart exists in
Kuma's land. Originally, the people be-
lieve, all the domesticated plants and
animals of the white men were given by
Kuma to the Yaruros but the size of the
horses and cattle frightened them so that
they refused to mount the one or tame
the other. The white men seized the op-
portunity, which has made them master
of the land. Many of the animal species,
natural formations and consultations to
the Yaruros are metamorphosed races of
men.
They, according to their conception of
mankind, were Kumas chosen people.
They were created first of all the Indian
tribes and that is why they were given
sky overhead so that they might be in
close touch with Kuma day and night
The forest Indians, they believe, were
created last and occupy an inferior
position
They have no explanation for the su-
perior economic position of the white
man except his sheer wickedness. His
appearance is legendary event. He
first came to the plains. they say on a
huge horse, covered with foul sores, and
destroyed everything in his path.
This nature religion of the Yaruros
embodleS a strange trinity-Puana the
Snake who created the material world
and everything in it except the water,
Itciai the Jaguar who created the water,
and Kuma who created man. She first
placed men in great hole in the ground
from which he was rescued by her grand
son HatchWa.
This Hatchwa is sort of Prometheus
figure in Yaruro mythology The outer
world into which he brought mankind
was dark and cold. Hatchwa took a live
fish and threw it into fire which was
kept burning in the center of Kuma-
land, high, circular pasture. The little
fish struggled and knocked coal all about
Thus fire was distributed to all peoples
in the world.
Kuma lives in the west, beyond the
horizon. In March and early April, says
DR.. Petrullo, about o'clock in the eve
ming there is a strange glow in the
western sky, beautiful phenomenon
which the Yaruros explain as a reflection
from Kuma's land. The land is described
CT c1o
treeleSs and full of game, and at other
times as a savanna with a huge town in
the center where Kuma and her people
live. This latter conception, says DR..
Petrullo, springs from the association
the modern Yaruros have between
wealth, comfort and power and those
material things which the civilized
peoples have. Towns are among the
evidences of civilization In the same
way Kuma and her people have an
abundance of horses, although the
Yaruros are horseless people. About
everything that is denied them in this
world is to be found in the next
There is also in the Yaruro mythology
land of cold and darkness inhabited by
those unfortunate races whom Hatchwa
failed to rescue from the great hole.
Says DR. Petrullo: The tenor of the
Yaruro culture is typically conservative
Their reaction to any European idea is
one of suspicion and fear. They will
not raise domestic animals or learn to
cultivate gardens. The Yaruros had their
chance. they say, when the world was
created and refused to take it. Now
there is only one thing left to them
to live as their ancestors have done
and to die.
This patient acceptance of their lot
is the most characteristic attitude of the
Yaruros. They have abandoned all hope
of maintaining themselves against the
destructive forces of the world around
them, and even of dying out peacefully
Their only consolation lies in the firm
belief that Kuma is waiting for them in
the other world. They have built for
themselves an indestructible heaven, and
one from which foreign peoples will be
excluded.
There they will recapture their
ancient mode of life. They will have
plenty of food clothing, horses, and the
companionship of their relatives. Kuma' S
land is world of bliss, an expression
of the living Yaruro's yearning to be
allowed to hunt, fish, and live peacefully
Ci,onn nt