Lawo', the Rainbow Water-Serpent
Wichí · deity · Wichí traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Lawo' (lewó) is the rainbow understood by the Wichí as a vast serpent of the waters, a being that controls rain, storm and flood and lurks in deep river pools and in the mythic palo borracho that once contained the sea. Benevolent water can turn destructive at its will: tradition recalls a community drowned by the torrential rains it sent. As the rainbow it arches visibly over the land, the manifest body of an otherwise hidden master of the waters, and it stands in tension with the trickster Tokwaj, who in the flood myth releases the very waters the serpent guards.
Domains
- rainbow
- storms and floods
- mastery of water
Powers
- to send rain, storm and devastating flood
- to arch over the world as the rainbow
Relations
- enemy: TokwajThe waters Lawo' guards are loosed and carried off by the trickster Tokwaj, opposing the serpent-master of flood to the culture-hero.Alfred Métraux, Ethnography of the Chaco, in Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 1, ed. Julian H. Steward, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143, Washington, 1946. (secondary)
Sources
- Lawo' is the Wichí rainbow conceived as a giant water-serpent who masters rain, storm and flood and inhabits the deep waters.: Alfred Métraux, Ethnography of the Chaco, in Handbook of South American Indians, vol. 1, ed. Julian H. Steward, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143, Washington, 1946. (secondary); Rafael Karsten, The Civilization of the South American Indians, with Special Reference to Magic and Religion, Kegan Paul, London, 1926. (secondary); Johannes Wilbert & Karin Simoneau (eds.), Folk Literature of the Mataco Indians, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, Los Angeles, 1982. (secondary)