433 Chapter Seven Cosmos For the Matsigenka of Shimaa, kameti ...

have great powers. In our story, as soon as the brothers and sisters arrive in the land of the
unseen ones, the night passes quickly, cleared gardens dry in a day, maize and manioc grow
abundantly, and the hunters’ traps are filled with game birds. The sisters play delightedly with
their spirit lovers, their laughter pealing through the forest. The unseen ones live lives of
perfection (Baer 1984: 155; cf. Rosengren [1987b: 33]). This is heaven.
A key to understanding the unseen ones is their place in the scheme of good and evil.
They are clearly good, of course, but they are also judgemental and punitive:
When good Machiguengas die these immortals take charge of them, but when bad people die the
immortals do not take them (Ross 1947: 46).
In this respect the unseen ones are linked to other spirits, that may act either helpfully or
harmfully. For example, it is said that jaguars are the pet dogs of the unseen ones (Baer 1984:
156). In some tales, like Peccary (Chapter 5), the link between an animal spirit ruler and the
unseen ones is explicit (Baer [1984: 160] suggests all spirit rulers are unseen ones). In other
tales the link is implicit. For example, in the story Piitiro “Cricket” (Ross 1947: 37-8), a man
encounters Cricket (in human form), who promises to take him to Meshiarineku “the River of
Skin” (the Milky Way), where he can renew his skin and become immortal. He must agree
never to reveal this secret to any other human. But he thoughtlessly tells his neighbors, who,
desiring immortality for themselves, rush to find Cricket. The man dies, and his wife laments,
In vain he told you not to tell. Now, you see, you have lost your chance at immortality. You’ve
chosen to die!
What is crucial here is the man’s disobedience. As so often happens in Matsigenka
stories, failure to respect and comply with a powerful being results in bad consequences
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