Description
Suawaka & Bobok
Oil on canvas/masonite panel
Framed, 24" long x 18" wide
SL22.3
$2250.00
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Suawaka, written by Mariano Tapia
In earlier times, there were seprents with seven heads ... they lived northeast of Guaymas near a hill with two little points called Takalaim. Serpents with seven heads also lived in another hill called So'ori that was further downriver, near the seashore.
The people of the old days say that if a Yaqui should marry a relative, he would become a serpent. At first, the man would go as a little worn into a hill, and in a year's time he would grow one head ... by two years, he would have grown two heads, and at three, he would have three, and so on. Each year, a serpent would grow a new head until he had seven and then he would be ready to emerge from the hill.
When these serpents came out of a hill, they made great floods and a terrific wind.
Suawaka is up above watching the serpents, because he knows they come out every seven years after their middle head finally appears ... when Suawaka hunts, he throws a harpoon of fire which is the shooting star we see at night.
Suawaka grasps the serpent he has killed and carries it up above to his mother-in-law and father-in-law and wife. The father-in-law is Yuku, god of thunder and lightning ... Yuku's wife is the rain (they all eat this kind of serpent). Every seven years, Suawaka goes down to Takalaim, and during the next seven years he goes back to So'ori so that Yuku and his family always have plenty of meat. If Suawaka doesn't come down when a serpents starts out of a hill, there is much wind and rain here on earth.
Once a man fishing in a canoe saw Suawaka descend from on high and kill a seven-headed serpent:
"What are you doing?" asked the fisherman.
"Killing serpents," said Suawaka.
"Where do you live?" the man asked.
"Up there." Suawaka pointed.
"Take me to your house," said the fisherman.
"Very well," said Suawaka, and he put the serpent meat on his shoulders then put the fisherman on top if it.
"Close your eyes," said Suawaka ... the man did, and they flew up to the other world.
The fisherman opened his eyes and saw serpent meat all around but the meat did not please him ... there were scales all over it, and each scale was as big as a tub.
The wife of Suawaka said, "Try it, the meat is delicious," but the man could not, and there was nothing else for him to eat up there. At last the wife said to Suawaka, "I think this man is going to die because he can't eat ... I don't know why you brought him up here ... it would be much better to carry him back down there again, Miguel." (His name is Suawaka but he is sometimes called San MIguel).
"Yes, carry me back down to earth again." said the man.
"Very well," said Suawaka, "... take this serpent's scale with you so that the people can see it and others will not want to come up here," he added, "... close your eyes."
Suawaka and the fisherman went back down, arriving quickly ... when the man showed the people the sepent scale all of them were frightened.
It is said that Yuku, the father-in-law of Suawaka is always very wrathful with him ... when Suawaka goes down toward earth, the one-eyed Yulu throws bolts of lightning at him.
This is the story ... it is finished here.
