Daje ixe yu, the mother of the peccaries, is the tutelary spirit-owner of the white-lipped peccary herds and the most prominent of the Munduruku 'mothers of game.' In the hunting cosmology every game species has such a mother who guards her children and, when she wills, releases them to hunters; when the Munduruku come upon a herd it is because she has permitted the encounter. Her favour is essential to abundance, and disrespect or waste causes her to withhold the animals. In the classical head-hunting complex the taking of an enemy's head was believed to please the mother of the peccaries, sustaining their fertility and making them yield readily to the hunt.