Antumiá, the devouring water-being
Antumiá, also called Antomía and known as the mother of water, is the most dreaded of the named jai, the malevolent spirit-beings of Emberá cosmology. It dwells beneath the rivers and rises from the water to seize people and drag them down to drown and eat them; the Emberá of the Antioqueño mountains frighten children by imitating its cry, 'antomía-paimá', glossed as black devil. It may show itself as a great snake, as a mountain peccary, or as a black, hairy, dull-faced man, and ordinarily only the jaibaná can see it, though at night its call is heard, likened to a duck's. The jaibaná, who masters the jai, is not eaten by Antumiá, and those under his protection are spared, the being taking at most the fingertips, nose, earlobes and lips; under a jaibaná's command it may also be set to guard a stretch of river or, conversely, to harm an enemy. As a jai its place in the wider cosmos is bound to the underworld of Tutruicá, the source of the spirits.
Domains
- water and drowning
- river and forest menace
Powers
- to drag people beneath the water to drown and eat them
- to appear as a great snake, a mountain peccary, or a dark hairy man
Epithets
- Madre del aguaPardo Rojas, Mauricio. 1986. La escalera de cristal: términos y conceptos cosmológicos de los indígenas emberá. Maguaré 4: 21-46. (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: Tutruicá, lord of the underworld and rival creatorAs one of the jai, the water-being Antumiá belongs to the order of spirits whose origin and mastery the Emberá trace to Tutruicá and his underworld, and which the jaibaná in turn commands.Vasco Uribe, Luis Guillermo. 1985. Jaibanás: los verdaderos hombres. Bogotá: Fondo de Promoción de la Cultura del Banco Popular. (secondary)
Sources
- Antumiá (Antomía), the 'mother of water', is a named malevolent water and forest jai of Emberá belief that drowns and devours people, shifts shape, and serves as guardian-familiar of the jaibaná.: Vasco Uribe, Luis Guillermo. 1985. Jaibanás: los verdaderos hombres. Bogotá: Fondo de Promoción de la Cultura del Banco Popular. (secondary); Pardo Rojas, Mauricio. 1986. La escalera de cristal: términos y conceptos cosmológicos de los indígenas emberá. Maguaré 4: 21-46. (secondary)