ALLIGATOR SPIRIT

(from F&F#56 Feb. 2006)

The alligator spirit story from Waura storytellers. A beauty and the beast tale.

My son, you ask me to tell you a story. Alas, my mother tried to teach me but I have forgotten her words. But there is one story I know slightly, the story of the Alligator Spirit.

Long ago in a village of our ancestors there lived a chief called Blue Cotinga Bird. Blue Cotinga Bird had two wives who were sisters—both Blue Cotingas like himself, but then he took two more wives, one from the Dusky Parrot tribe and the other a Green Parakeet. So he had four wives.

Every morning Blue Cotinga would rub himself all over with charcoal to make himself look handsome and then he would take his new wives to his garden in the forest leaving the other two behind. Not surprisingly they grew jealous. They would linger in the garden all morning and then he’d return home to his hammock. Green Parakeet Woman would climb in eagerly beside him. They rolled in the hammock, they tickled and teased and fondled each other. When they had finished Dusky Parrot Woman would take her turn with him. They lay together until she was covered all over with charcoal, her skin a beautiful dusky colour, and ever since then that parrot has been a dusky charcoal colour.

Are you listening children? You don’t hear these stories very often these days…

Meanwhile his Blue Cotinga wives were left alone. Their husband was ignoring them. Because of this the Blue Cotinga Women created jealousy for the first time, the jealousy we all feel.

One day the elder one said “It’s time we found ourselves a lover.” So one morning they went down to the river. As they walked they made whistling calls as only men do. Something strange had come over them and soon they would have sex with a spirit!

“Alligator spirit, come to us!” they called. “Come and make turi-turi with us.”

Something stirred under the surface of the water. The water churned and boiled; the earth began to rumble; the very air trembled. The women watched Yakakuma, the Alligator Spirit, rise up from the water. He was enormous, a huge beast, a gigantic alligator. He stood there perfectly still, just like any alligator today. He was lying in wait for them. The women weren’t afraid. They were the very incarnation of jealousy and, because of what happened then, we have inherited their jealousy. They offered him the most delicious food—rich pepper sauce, smooth and hot; manioc bread dusted with the finest flour...

“Satisfy your hunger” they said. Now, dwelling within that skin was a handsome young man and he shed his spirit skin and stepped out.

Blue Cotinga Woman wore a palm fibre belt fastened between her legs. She slipped it off, slowly, drawing it against the flesh of her vulva, and rested it on the head of her pet owl. (That’s why the horned owl has two tufts shaped like her belt clasp of long ago.) Yakakuma’s erection swung from side to side. He knelt on the ground inviting her to straddle him. In a moment she was right there, sitting on his thighs…

[Lots of action and sound effects at this point. Comments and laughs from the audience. “Be careful you don’t all get erections as you hear this” from the storyteller. It seems a very adult subject to us but the whole tribe is gathered round and, as always, the younger children are crowded around the front. Far from being embarrassed or bewildered they laugh and join in, obviously understanding the humour.]

At last he felt his sap spurting. Then he passed right out. He had fainted from the wonder of her vulva. He lay there as if dead. (Asides: “It’s a good job we don’t all pass out every time.” “No, but we inherited the panting!”)

The sun was just beginning to rise in the eastern sky. There was no-one at the river yet so the women said “We must go now.”
Yakakuma climbed back into his skin. Once more he was a monster. The water boiled and he sank into the depths. The women hurried back home, arriving just before their husband got back from the fields.

The lovers met again and again.

Then one day Blue Cotinga’s new wives complained to their husband that a paca was eating their gourd plants. “Will you do something?” they asked. Next day he took his bow and arrows and went to his garden to catch the paca. He crouched, as still as a stone, with his arrow in his bow, waiting for the paca to appear. Soon he heard it, such a chewing and a chomping. He followed the sound and there was the paca. He drew back his bow string.

“Don’t kill me, grandchild, and I’ll tell you something. There’s something you should know” said the paca huddling on the ground. “Have you any idea what those Blue Cotinga Women wives of yours are up to? Soon they’ll go down to the river to rut with a monster! They’re making a cuckold of you.”

“Show me” said Blue Cotinga.

The paca led Blue Cotinga to the river bank to see for himself. (Pacas have been that way ever since, always wallowing in the river’s shallows.) “Hide in the bush” she said “and you’ll soon see.”

Meanwhile his wives were taking food to their lover. Their bodies freshly painted they walked along the path whistling. On the river bank they called out “Alligator Spirit, let’s have sex! Let’s make turi-turi!”

Yakakuma appeared and climbed out of his skin and stood, looking at the women, a young man in his prime wearing feather armbands, cotton leg bindings, feather earrings, a shell collar and a toucan feather headdress. As he walked towards them his penis swept through the air whoosh! whoosh! His lover slowly, slowly pulled the slender thread from between her legs and rested it on the head of the horned owl. They made love. Suddenly he stopped moving and fainted right away. His sap had come. His lover held him protectively. After a while he began to revive.

“Look, I told you” said the paca “your wives are rutting with a monster!”

Then the woman turned to her sister “Your turn now” she said.

“I’ll kill him!” fumed Blue Cotinga.

“Shhh. Not like that” said the paca. “You must return with all your men, that’s how you will get him.”

Now the Alligator Spirit was making love to the younger sister and again he passed out. At last the women washed away his juices and returned home. They went to their husband’s hammock offered to climb in beside him but he wasn’t in the mood. He was miserable. He kicked them away. They offered him food but he wouldn’t eat it. Without a word he stalked out of the house.

He called his followers and gathered his men to kill the monster. They told their wives that tomorrow they were all going on a communal fishing trip. In the morning they all gathered at the river, took their canoes and paddled away so that it looked as if they really had gone fishing. They hid around the bend and waited for the monster to arrive.

At length Yakakuma rose from the depths and all the men sprang from ambush. Whoops and screams filled the air. Arrows flew. The Alligator Spirit fell to the ground. The two women fled in terror. Blue Cotinga chased after his wives and beat them, then he beat the corpse of Yakakuma as it lay on the ground. He flayed its skin and dragged it away. Then he chased after the women’s pet owl and beat it and killed it as well.

Later, unable to forget their sadness the women returned to the spot where the body of their dead lover lay. There they found growing a giant piqui tree. Later, in the fruiting season, they found a strange fruit beneath the piqui tree. One of the sisters sliced it open and inside she found that part of her lover she had held within her. His penis had become the fruit of the piqui tree. They tasted it and found it delicious. They didn’t tell anyone but were worried that their secret would be discovered so they created the first bull roarers to frighten away the men. But the men were already planning and attacked the women and took the bull roarers away. The women fled in terror and that is why, to this day, women do not swing bull roarers.

“If we lost these stories we’d lose our way of life. They are not trivial, every one is precious.”

NOTE:
The Blue Cotinga is a bird of the passerine family—like finches and starlings. It is also called the chatterer.
The paca is a large burrowing rodent.

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