Tsunki is the primordial water-being of the Shuar and Achuar and 'the first shaman', the origin of all shamanic power. It is imagined dwelling beneath the rivers in a house built of living anacondas, seated upon a turtle, and it is from Tsunki that the aspiring uwishin (shaman) ultimately obtains the invisible tsentsak, the spirit-darts that are the very substance of curing and bewitching power. Tsunki is strikingly gender-shifting and protean, appearing as a beautiful woman or man, or as an anaconda or other water animal, and figures centrally in shamanic and erotic magical songs. As lord of the aquatic world Tsunki also governs fishing, the water animals, and health.