come and eat. While grandmother was cooking the children
played, and among them decided to go to heaven. In the _aldeia_ there
lived an old woman and a red macaw. Both could speak. The boys, having
eaten the _polenta_, cut off the woman's arms, cut out her tongue and
eyes, and tore out the tongue of the speaking bird. Having done this,
they went into the forest, where they found a liana twisted into
innumerable steps (in the Bororo language, _ippare_, young; _kugure_,
multitude; _groiya_, step). They could not speak for fear of drawing
attention, nor ask any one for help. They had taken the precaution of
setting free all the captive birds in the _aldeia_, and they had flown
away, except the _pio duddu_ (the _colibri_), which they took with them
into the forest. The boys gave a long liana, like a rope, to the
_colibri_, requesting him to fasten it to the top of the highest tree,
and another long liana which he must tie to the sky where they all wished
to ascend. The _colibri_ tied the vegetable ropes as requested, and all
the boys climbed up.

"The mothers, missing their children, went to the old woman and the
speaking macaw.

"'Where are our children?' said they in a chorus.

"No answer. They were horrified when they perceived the mutilated woman
and bird. They rushed out of the hut and saw the children--up--up--high,
like tiny spots, climbing up the liana to heaven. The women went to the
forest, to the spot where the boys had proceeded on their aerial trip,
and showing the breasts that had milked them, entreated them to come down
again. The appeal was in vain. The mothers, in despair, then proceeded
to follow their children skyward up the liana.

"The youthful chieftain of the plot had gone up last. When he perceived
the mothers gaining on them, he cut the liana. With a sonorous bump, the
mothers dropped in a heap to the ground. That was why the Bororo women
were resigned to see their sons in heaven, forming the stars, while
they--the women themselves--remained the transmigrated souls of their
mothers upon earth."

The Bororos also said that the stars were the houses of deceased
children.

The Bororos believed that the sky vault, or heaven, formed part of the
earth, and was inhabited. They proved this by saying that the vulture
could be seen flying higher and higher until it disappeared. It went to
perch and rest upon trees in heaven. The Milky Way in the sky--the
_kuyedje e 'redduddo_ (literally translated "st