The Mother of Water is
the siren of the fresh waters in the Amazon. She is very
beautiful and with her heavenly chant she charms and
bewitches the fishermen that spend a long time alone
navigating on the rivers. Many do not resist to that
singing and her rare beauty. They are taken to live in
the depths from where they never return anymore.
Besides the rives, the igarapés (Tupi word
meaning narrow riverbanks) also belong to her domains.
The one who goes out to fish during the dark hours, may
wake up the Mother of Water who gets nervous easily and
punishes the invaders with a high fever that no doctor
will cure.
The Indians have some versions for the legend. One of
them is about the history of an Indian woman named
Dinahí from the Manau tribe who impressed everybody for
her courageousness. The woman was more brave than many
men of the tribe. Some warriors began to be angry,
envious of her, so they started to persecute her in many
ways. In a certain night, two of the Dinahí brothers
wanted to kill her but they didn't succeeded since her
audition was much better and developed than the one of a
wild cat. Dinahí woke up and defending herself, killed
her two brothers. Fearing the fury of her father, the
old Kaúna, she fled. Kaúna went out that night to seek
Dinahí that during many moons escaped her father's fury.
But once lonely and surrounded by some many of his
father's warriors, she was finally captured. The
merciless Kaúna ordered that his daughter should
be thrown in the waters, exactly where the waters of the
Black River meet the Solimões'. Then, at that moment,
thousands of fish came to rescue her, sustaining her
body, bringing her to the surface. The moon beams
touching Dinahí's face, turned her into a very beautiful
princess, with a fish tail and very dark hair as the
waters of the Black River. So this way the Indian
warrior became the Mother of the Water, protectress of
the fish and all beings that live in the rivers.
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