Kuwaikaniri is the younger brother of the creator Nhiãperikuli, whom many narrators identify with Mawerikuli and, in some traditions, with Eeri. He is the tricked and unfortunate one who, acting on impulse, brings about his own death; because Nhiãperikuli is unable to resurrect him, mortality enters the world for all time, 'until another end of the world', as the Baniwa say. Yet among the Hohodene and the Wakuénai of the upper Guainía he is also the archetype of reversible death: in curing chants he is restored from deadly sickness by the tribe of shamanic bee-spirits, the Kuwai-inyai, and his recovery becomes the model for shamanic healing. Sources differ on how sharply to distinguish him from the Sun, Heeri, with whom the name Eeri is sometimes shared.