F 107 myth, origins

(1) Long ago the moth was a young woman. One day she decided to find a husband. The moth had the custom of chewing corn to make chicha alcohol corn drink. In the days when the birds and crickets were people, there were many handsome men. Some men were on a journey, including the tanager bird, the swallow, the cricket, the humming bird, and the finch. Of them all, the tanager bird was the most handsome.

When Moth saw Tanager, she decided she wanted to marry him. Once the men got to her house, however, they quickly continued on their trip. When she saw that they were leaving, Moth went after Tanager to get him to stay and marry her, but she could not catch up to him because they were walking too fast for her. She continued walking until she arrived at the house of the woman beetle. The beetle said, "Where are you going?"

(2) "I am following Tanager so he will marry me."

She said, "You don’t need to go after him because you can marry my son."

Moth asked, "Where is your son?"

"He went to make his garden."

The beetle woman was deceiving Moth. Her son was closed in a clay pot, and he had eyes that were very big. His mother had given him the name Satotore. Later Beetle came out of her house and went to the garden to cut down some trees. Then Moth went up to the largest clay pot where Satotote was enclosed. She lifted the pot and saw Satotore looking at her with his big eyes. Moth was startled, which caused Satotore to turn into the satotore bird, and it flew away.

(3) A little later Beetle returned, but she could not find her son. She yelled at Moth, so she turned into an insect and began to dig in the ground.

Moth continued walking until she found the mother of the narantzi bird. The mother said, "You must live with us. You can marry my son."

Moth said, "Where is your son?"

"He went to the garden to cut down trees. He will return in the afternoon."

Narantzi returned home in the evening. When Moth saw him, she was pleased, so she married him. Later in the night she went to his house and they slept together. In the middle of the night her mother-in-law said, "Let my son go to his work. He is not used to staying in his house until the morning.

(4) Moth did not obey her mother-in-law. She did not let her husband leave the house because she wanted to get to know him better. When it started getting light, Narantzi hid his head inside his cushma because he was ashamed of his mouth. Then his wife began to tickle him until he stuck his head out. She saw that her husband had a really big mouth when he started to laugh, "Pitya pitya pitya." At that moment he turned into a narantzi bird and flew away. His mother cried, and she turned into a bird too.

Moth continued her journey until she came to Tayra’s mother. She greeted her, saying, "Hello, mother-in-law."

"Do you have a mother and father?"

(5) "Yes, they are in my village."

Then Tayra’s mother said, "I want you to marry my son."

Moth said, "I want to see him during the day to see if he is a handsome man. I have been fooled two times into marrying men who were ugly."

Moth was a very beautiful woman. When Tayra arrived home, his mother said to Moth, "My son has arrived. You can talk with him."

(6) Then Moth went to get to know the man. She saw that he was handsome, so she married him and stayed in his house. After many years, Moth’s father found out that Moth had a husband. He called his son-in-law to help him make a new garden. So Tayra decided to go and get to know his father-in-law. The next day he gathered some sugar cane, pinapples, and papayas. He put them in a basket to give to his father-in-law. He said to his wife, "If your sisters fall in love with me, I won’t return. I will just send back my mirror to you."

(7) Then Tayra went to his father-in-law’s house. He gave him the fruit that he brought. The next day he helped him with his work, and his sisters-in-law decided to marry him. Then Tayra said to his father-in-law, "Father-in-law, I don’t plan to return to my house because your daughters are in love with me, but I don’t want your other daughter to get angry. Now we must burn your garden to finish."

Tayra went to the garden to burn it. When he saw that the fire was getting hot, he climbed a tree in the middle of the garden. He took his mirror and threw it until it arrived at his wife. When she saw the mirror, she died. Tayra came down from the tree and he fell into the fire, burning himself until he died too. That is how the life of Tayra ended.

© Copyright by Ronald James Anderson 1998. All Rights Reserved.

randerson@tamiu.edu http://www.tamiu.edu/~randerson