Warao

The Warao, the ‘boat people’ of the Orinoco Delta in northeastern Venezuela, tell of their descent: a sky hunter shot a bird that fell through the floor of heaven, and he followed it down to the earth on a rope of heavenly cotton.

The world, Hobahi, is a circle ringed by water and filled with spirits, the hebu, who may be helpful, harmful or neutral toward people. The chief of them is Kanobo, ‘our grandfather’, who lives in the sacred stone guarded by the greatest shamans, the wisiratu.

The hebu were kept content with smoke from ritual tobacco and with shaman-led rituals. Without the hebu and the harmful magic of the hoa and the bahana, the Warao held, a person would be immortal.