Shuar mythology
	Traditions of Shuar names
	Nunkui legend

Nunkui legend
The Shuar ancestors lived in a world without cultivated plants. There weren't any seeds or tools for farming and they ate only wild plants, which were disappearing.

When the men went out to work or hunt, the women followed the currents of the rivers in boats to collect wild leaves.

One day the women decided to explore an unknown river and they saw peanut, yuca and banana peels floating in the water. They continued upstream and found some unfamiliar women who were in a hurry. They asked them for some of their fragrant fruits but the strangers did not give them any. Although they told them to take the little girl, Nunkui, who was lying down on the ground and made the following recommendations to them; when you get home beg Nunkui for all kinds of useful things and edible plants such as clay pots, domestic animals, and chicha to drink.

All of the things that exist today at that time were unknown to the Shuar.

The Shuar women took the child and returned home. They did everything that had been explained to them and that is why Nunkui made all the things appear that were promised by the strangers.

The happy women accepted the abundance and served their husbands the chicha that appeared in the pots. Their husbands asked where such a tasty thing came from. But the women told them to take it and not to ask questions.

With the power of the girl, the Shuar lived very happily.

One day when the children were alone with Nunkui they started to ask her to name all types of snakes, jungle beasts, and other dangerous and problematic aspects of the jungle. After Nunkui spoke the names, the dangerous animals and an odor of decomposing animals immediately came into being.

Later the children asked Nunkui for the head of the chú monkey so that they could eat its brain. A well roasted and ready to eat monkey appeared but it was missing the head. The children got angry and one of the youngest threw ashes into Nunkui´s eyes. Nunkui got angry and went away. She went up the light-vent of a house and from there called the guadúas (similar to bamboo sticks) to take her.

Soon after a very strong wind came and brought the guaduas close to the house.

Nunkui grabbed one of these plants and entered its hollow cavity. Then all kinds of food disappeared , including the new orchards. Since everything was disappearing the Shuar hurried to pick up hijuelos of banana for seeds as well as camote and yuca seeds. Nunkui was inside the plant was descending towards the ground.
In order to release the girl from the plant, they made a hole in the guadua. While they were trying to retrieve the girl, the guadua was wrapping around them and they heard a curse; now it will be hard work to acquire daily food.

With the curse, work became harder because the plants grew slower and took a long time to give fruit.

INTERPRETATION
A simple interpretation of the Nunkui curse is that it represents the agricultural experience. The ground is not always in top condition for crops. Sometimes beautiful fruits grow and other times the plants are unproductive. For this reason the Shuar understand that it is not only the ground which gives the sustenance. It is that strange force or a mysterious being that lives within it.

In this myth it is explained why the Shuar were not farmers. They worked in the house and the women went around the jungle gathering tubercles. As the tubercles were becoming scarce and, life became more uncertain and had many limitations.

The myth says that, "some women who possessed all kinds of food gave the child Nunkui." That is, human beings realized that a plant can be transported; that a seed can be taken anywhere to be planted. The girl is the seed itself; to give fruits.

According to this story, women discovered agriculture and instead of foraging for food, they grew the plants as crops around their homes.