Language Contact and Documentation: Contacto Linguistico y Documentacion

Tetsualü: The pluralism of languages and people in the Upper Xingu 139
ing them. Tapir, for example, wanted to try the fruit, but Tãugi told Agouti to
lie down on the middle of the path, pretending to have been poisoned by the
pequi fruit. Bat wanted to eat it too, but he was forced to eat just the husk and,
of course, he found it bitter. And so it continued. Only Parrot, Tãugi’s daughter
(pet), managed to be the inventor or creator of the ritual songs. At the beginning
of the story, Tãugi had no idea that the pequi existed. Afterwards he paid
attention to what his daughter Parrot was saying and saw her strange excrement.
To discover what it was, he asked his wife to spin a small cord from
burity palm fibre. Then Tãugi tied his daughter’s foot to discover why she was
so happy. And that is how the Hugagü ritual began.
The presence of the Arawak language in the Hugagü songs is explained by
the fact that Parrot sings everything in the language of ilainhango, ‘the other
people from that side.’ This is the transcription of one of the songs:
Ijepene tüka ahahu
Ninhunitsa aaaa ahahu haja ahu
Ihijepene, ihijepene
Ihijepene a há ahu
Igi hualakumagi nutuagitenu
Kujakujakugimagi nutuagitenu
3.10 Hüge Oto, master of the arrow
The songs of Hüge Oto are divided into various suites. As we saw in Table 2,
shown above, this is an interethnic festival. The idea of performing this ritual
came from the fight between Kangatahugu (Lesser Anteater) and Ekege (Spotted
Jaguar).
Below is an example:
Ejuku ejukutani
Janumaka enügepügü
Kalaminha
Ejukutani
Once again the words are in Arawak but with a hint of Carib. Janumaka is
‘jaguar’ in Arawak: enügepügü seems to be a distorted Carib word (ingu-kipügü,
eye-remove-PERF).
3.11 Kehege, chants
Kehege in Carib, kewere in Kamayura, exekeki in Arawak, the ‘chant’ itself is
fundamental to our therapeutic cures. Tãugi, along with his grandparents Kuamutsini
and Kaginditsugu, were the creators of the chants.