[Note: The most ancient beings of the world are the demons, naa. This was also the most insulting name used among the Tukuna. Some demons were described as belonging to one of numerous clans, others were merely isolated individuals. They were not immortal, though many were said to have powers making them superior, or at least dangerous, to men. Their appearance, as represented in certain masks, was almost always strange and terrible. Sometimes they were represented in human form; their nature, however, revealed involuntarily, was completely different from that of human beings. Some of these demons were said to dwell right here on earth; others, like the dyureu, in heaven. But the great majority lived in subterranean lands (napi), to which they had access by caverns. The subaquatic regions were regarded as part of this underworld, which were thought to comprise various lands with different conditions and separate entrances. In addition, there was the underworld from which Ariana brought maize, called nechaku, “without flower,” where the following adventure occurred.]
Chae was hunting in the jungle, in order to accumulate the necessary game for a feast he was going to celebrate. He made a little hut, with a platform on which he deposited the smoked game, covering it with leaves, then he again went into the jungle.
Meanwhile, in spite of his efforts, the pile of smoked meat never grew larger, and it even diminished. He lay in wait, and at midnight he saw the foreleg of a jaguar that was stealing the meat. Chae told his companions what he had seen, and added: “Tomorrow I’m going to cut off that jaguar’s foreleg!” He again lay in wait, and when the foreleg appeared he cut it off. He carried the trophy, together with the meat, to the house, where he showed it to the assembled people, who passed it from hand to hand. Among those present was a king vulture, who himself, in the guise of a jaguar, had stolen the meat. When Chae passed the severed foreleg to him also, he cried: “This arm is mine!” and immediately replaced the severed member in its proper position. Then he rapidly tore out Chae’s eyes, flying with them to his dwelling in heaven, where he wrapped them in a leaf and with a length of liana suspended them from the ridgepole of the house.
A little grasshopper came to blind Chae to ask for smoked meat. Chae promised to give him what he wished if the grasshopper would throw down his eyes, which were in heaven. The grasshopper flew to heaven. He gnawed until his jaws bled, but he could not sever the liana with which the package of leaves was tied, and so he received no smoked meat.
Then, a termite, of the species which constructs its covered galleries on wooden surfaces, came with the same request, which Chae promised to grant if the termite could bring back his eyes. Termite called his companions; they had built their gallery quite close to the package before the king vulture discovered and destroyed their work. The last arrival was the termite that cuts his galleries inside wood; he asked for meat and was promised it in exchange for Chae’s eyes. With his companions he opened a path inside the post and framework of the house, reached the package, and cut the liana. Allowing it to fall, he shouted: “There go your eyes!” The king vulture, who was burning his clearing, heard the shout and immediately ran over, but Chae had already caught the package and, taking out his eyes, popped them back into place.
Chae fled, pursued by the king vulture, and came to where there was an old woman who was a buzzard. “Take my old canoe and flee before King Vulture comes!” she counseled him. Chae seated himself in the canoe and pushed off with such force that he broke through the earth and came to stop in the underworld nechaku.
The first people he met there were the Blind Ones. Their eyes were permanently closed, but they had a great quantity of provisions, of which Chae appropriated a little to eat. Right away, however, the Blind Ones discovered the theft. “This is Chae who is robbing us!” they cried. With arms linked, they formed a line and advanced against him, beating at random with cudgels. But he evaded them and escaped.
Then Chae came upon the pygmy people, whose adults are only of the height of our six-year-old children; this is why Chae thought that he was dealing with young folk. Going up to the first couple he saw, he asked: “Boy, where is your father?” Then turning to the woman, he said: “Where is your mother, girl?” The dwarf sprang up and called his comrades: “Look! Chae treats us like children because we are small and he is big!” They all gathered around, shouting: “Let us play a little with him, and we shall see if he is a real man!” In spite of their small stature these pygmies had prodigious strength. They suspended Chae by the tips of two of his fingers, and thus passed him from hand to hand. Then they threw him up into the air, stopping his fall with the palm of a hand. Finally they sent him away.
Farther on, Chae encountered a people who lacked an anus. They had lots of provisions but could not eat them, limiting themselves to inhaling the odors that drifted up from the cooking. He married a woman of this people. When she observed how her husband ate, she wanted at all cost to imitate him. In spite of Chae’s advising her not to, she began to eat and found it good. Shortly afterward, however, she began to feel violent pains. Chae counseled her to try to vomit, but she did not succeed. Finally, no longer able to bear the agony, she asked her husband to rip up her anus with a knife. Chae carried out the operation, and she defecated, but she died shortly after. Then Chae returned to the earth’s surface.