Mru-kra-o, the Giant Snake

Kayapó · numen · Kayapó traditional religion; continuing · numen

The Giant Snake is the great serpent of the rivers and pools in Kayapó myth, a monstrous anaconda-like being that seizes and swallows those who come carelessly to the water. It belongs to the wider Amazonian imagination of the water-serpent as owner and danger of the aquatic world, and in Kayapó telling it figures among the perils the ancestors and heroes must overcome or avoid. Recorded as mru-kra-o and among the giant serpents of Gê narrative, it embodies the menace of the waters as the jaguar embodies that of the forest.

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