Kuwai, called Yuruparí in the língua geral, is the child of the creator Nhiãperikuli and the primal woman Amaru, thought into being as the creator's own heart-soul. His body is riddled with holes and made of every element of the cosmos, so that his humming and singing bring forth all the animal species and cause the miniature primordial world to open out to its present immensity. After Kuwai teaches the first initiation and is thrust into a great fire, an enormous paxiúba palm rises from his ashes; from it Nhiãperikuli fashions the first flutes and trumpets, which are Kuwai's transfigured body and are sounded at the initiation rites (Kwaipan) whose taboos his songs enforce. He is at once the source of ritual music, the pattern of male initiation, and the origin of the sicknesses that follow the transgression of sacred prohibitions.