Yãkoana — The First Shaman

Later Omama’s son became a young man and his father wanted him to know how to call the xapiri to heal his people. He found a yãkoana hi tree in the forest and told his son:

“With this tree, you will prepare the yãkoana powder! You will mix it with the odorous maxara hana leaves and the bark of the ama hi and amatha hi trees and drink it! The yãkoana’s power reveals the xapiri’s voice. By drinking it, you will hear their clamor and you too will become a spirit!”

He blew the yãkoana into his son’s nostrils with a tube made from a horoma palm. Then Omama called the xapiri for the first time and added to his son:

“Now it is up to you to make them come down. If you behave well and the spirits really want you, they will come to you to do their presentation dance and remain by your side. You will be their father. When your children are sick, you will follow the path of the evil beings and fight them to bring back their image! You will also bring down the ayokora cacique bird spirit to help you to regurgitate their dangerous objects, which you will tear out from inside the sick people. This way you will truly be able to cure human beings!”

This was how Omama revealed the use of the yãkoana to his son — the first shaman — and taught him how to see the spirits he had just created. Our elders have continued to follow the trail of his words to this day. This is why we continue to drink the yãkoana to make the xapiri dance. We do not do that without reason. We do it because we are inhabitants of the forest, sons and sons-in-law of Omama.

Omama’s son listened to his father’s words carefully and set his mind on the xapiri. He entered a ghost state and became other. He began to see the beauty of their presentation dance. He quickly became a shaman, for he was able to be friendly with all the spirits. The xapiri had kept their eyes set on him since he was a little child and his father had often spoken to him about them. Now he was grown up and they had finally come to him in great numbers. He could see them come down, dazzling with light, and hear their melodious songs. He exclaimed:

“Father! Now I know the spirits and they have come to stand by my side. From now on, human beings will be able to multiply and fight off disease.”

Omama was the only one to know the xapiri. He gave them to his son, for if he had died without teaching their words, there would never have been any shamans in the forest. He did not want human beings to be left helpless and pitiful. This is why he made his son into the first shaman. He left him the xapiri’s path before he fled far away. This is what he wanted. He told him:

“With these spirits, you will protect human beings and their children, no matter how many there are. Don’t let the evil beings and jaguars come devour them. Prevent the snakes from biting them and the scorpions from stinging them. Divert the xawara epidemic smoke from them. Also protect the forest. Prevent the river waters from flooding it and the rains from mercilessly drenching it. Repel the cloudy weather and darkness. Hold up the sky so it does not fall apart. Don’t let the lightning strike the earth and soothe the thunder’s vociferation. Prevent the giant Wakari armadillo spirit from cutting up the roots of the trees and the Yariporari storm wind from arrowing them and making them fall!”

These were Omama’s words to his son. This is why the shamans continue to defend the Yanomami and the forest today. They also protect the white people, even if they are a different people, as well as all lands, however vast and distant.

Omama’s son first took the yãkoana with his father. Then he continued to drink it alone, again and again, to call the spirits in increasing numbers so he could know their songs. He was magnificent to see when he made their images dance. He was a very beautiful young man. His skin was coated with vermilion annatto and covered in shiny black drawings. His curassow crest armbands held a profusion of scarlet macaw tails, toucan tail pendants, and bunches of paixi feathers. His eyes were dark and his hair covered in dazzling white hõromae down feathers. A thick black saki tail was wrapped around his forehead. He danced slowly with his back arched, filled with joy by contemplating the beauty of the xapiri. He called them and brought them down endlessly because he truly carried them in his thought. This was because he came from the sperm of Omama, who is their creator.