Katxekwyj
Canela · numen · Canela traditional religion; continuing · numen
The Star-Woman is the culture-heroine of Canela horticulture. In the myth a young man gazes at a bright star and wishes it were his wife; the star takes pity, descends, and comes to him in the form of a woman, at first hidden as a small object before revealing her human shape. As his wife she leads the people to maize and to the yam, sweet potato, peanut, and gourd growing wild in the forest, and teaches them to clear gardens and plant, an art unknown in the age when the Canela ate only game and the pith of rotten wood. Sources agree in making her the source of cultivated food and, through it, of settled village life, though tellings differ on her final fate and on how much of the agricultural calendar descends from her instruction.
Domains
- agriculture
- stars
Powers
- descends from the sky as a woman
- reveals maize and the cultivated plants
- shifts between star and woman
Epithets
- Katxekwyj
Relations
- spouse: Star-Woman's Husband