Fable of the Pemón culture that gives us a lesson in life and
it is passed down from generation to generation.
The Mythology of the Pemón ethnic group is a fantastic anthology of fabulous beings that, although they occur in the Pemón imaginary, always come to light in the form of stories that carry with them a message that serves as an example of life. In the Pemón language, these stories are called "Panton" and the old wise man/woman who has lived and knows life is called "Panton Esak", who is the narrator of these fables.
We are going to have, in a future publication, a special on Pemón Mythology to delve a little into its cosmogony and the main mythological beings that exert an impressive power in their lives.
This fable that I present to you, is a part of extracts from a publication, part noveled that tells the story of a woman and her baby in a conuco (indian plantation) and begins like this:
Among the Pemón there was a woman who raised her son alone. The child's father had abandoned her for some unknown reason and that made her very sad and bitter. Every morning she went out, together with her little son, to work in the conuco, since it was an activity that the Pemón community does daily; everyone goes to the plantation to sow or harvest. She always took the child to work and, because she was very busy and sad because of her abandoned condition, she treated him very carelessly, absorbed in her thoughts. Since she was unhappy, she paid little attention to him.
One day, in the conuco, the woman heard her son crying. She continued working, ignoring him. The boy cried more and more. Without looking at him, she scolded him, while she continued to cut the cassava. The baby was still crying, but she didn't come closer, nor did she try to calm him down. She listened to him cry and cry.
Since the boy would not shut up, the woman carelessly handed him some yucca branches, to see if that would distract him. The boy began to wave the branches. Flapping, flapping, desperately, his arms became wings.
The woman was surprised to hear a bird singing, instead of her son crying. She looked at him, and he was perched on the edge of the guayare (indian bag), turned into a Kuikuituriau; that is to say, in a hawk.
Distraught, she wanted to catch him: “Oh, my son! Oh, my son! ”, She wailed herself. But he flew away. The woman stood there, weeping for her child. That hawk had gone to the top of a tree. She could no longer reach him.
For this reason, the Pemón grandmothers say that we must always pay attention to the crying of children, so that sadness does not come later.
This story tells us, in a wise way, that children must be taken care of above all things, that they are angels that express themselves with their tears and when they see that their parents do not take care of them, then they have wings again.
KUIKUITURIAU: Also Kui- kui- tiriyau, it is the Pemón name of a type of hawk that is frequently observed in the treetops that surround the conucos.
SOURCES:
This myth was originally edited in the Pemón language as part of the project Production and Promotion of Reading Materials in Indigenous Languages carried out jointly by UNUMA Civil Society to Support the Indigenous and the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivar State. The compiler is Casilda Berti, a Pemón teacher, who heard it from Marcela Ruiz, both residents of Canaima, Edo. Bolivar. Polar Foundation. First edition in Spanish. 1996 Unuma Civil Society for the Support of the Indigenous.
Pemón Dictionary. Fray Cesáreo de Armellada (Capuchin Missionary) and Mariano Gutiérrez Salazar (Apostolic Vicar of Caroní). Editors: Andrés Bello Catholic University / Capuchin Brothers. p. 108. Caracas-Venezuela, 2007.
Alexander Cordero Blanco.
CEO- Fundador del Trekking Tours Group
(Junio de 2023)
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