Muiraquitã

A Muiraquitã (from Tupi Muyra mbyra " tree ", " branch ", " wood " and quit " nodes") is a legendary, magical powerful amulet that green stone ( jade or nephrite ) is made. Mostly it is an aquatic animal, such as a frog, a fish or a turtle, rarely simple cylindrical shapes. They were considered precious and were among the tribes of the Amazon, the Orinoco, and used to the Caribbean as a medium of exchange.

Legend

According to the legend of the Muiraquitãs Icamiabas, a legendary tribe amazon -like warrior women who in the Amazon region of Brazil should have their kingdom somewhere and already appeared in the reports of the first explorers come. The Icamiaba formed the Muiraquitãs of stone, which they take on moonlit nights by reason of a special lake and are still quite soft when they come out of the water. The amulets created so they give their companions, with whom they connect once a year to produce offspring.

In the novel Macunaíma Ci, the leader of the Icamiabas give the title character a Muiraquitã in the form of a caiman. Macunaíma loses the amulet. His attempts to bring the Muiraquitã his possession, are the common thread for the plot of this picaresque novel.

Green stones

Reports of strong magic, especially healing diseases, green stones are numerous and extend over a long period. Already Walter Raleigh reported:

"These Amazones Likewise have great store of prosthesis plates of golde, Which They recover by exchange chiefly for a kinde of greene stones, Which the Spaniards call Piedras Hijadas, and we use for spleene stones, and for the disease of the stone we therefore esteeme them: of synthesis I saw divers in Guiana, and Commonly every king or casique hath one, Which Their wives for the most part weare, and They esteeme them as great jewels. "

"These Amazons have numerous gold vessels, they receive mainly in exchange for a kind of green stones, which the Spaniards call Piedras Hijadas, apply to us as Jade and also we appreciate for their healing power. Of these I saw in Guyana many, and in general every king or cacique has such a stone, usually carry him their wives, and they apply to them as very precious stones. "

The French naturalist Charles Marie de La Condamine 1745 reported that a tribe called Tupinambás at the mouth of the Rio Tapajós green stones, received the Cougnantainsccouima of the "Women without Men". Similar evidence is available from the Amicouan on Oyapock in Guyana, in which there were many of these green stones.

Swell

• Alexander von Humboldt, Aimé Bonpland: Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of the New continent falling on the years 1799-1804. Volume 5, Part 1, London 1821, pp. 388-394 Digitalisat
• Walter Raleigh: The Discoverie of the Large and Beautiful Empyre of Guiana. 1596th edition: Transcribed, annotated, and Introduced by Neil L. Whitehead. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1997
• Charles Marie de La Condamine. Relation d'un voyage fait abrégée dans l' intérieur de l' Amérique méridionale, depuis la côte de la mer du Sud, jusqu'aux Côtes du Brésil et de la Guiane, ... Paris 1745 Spanish edition, translated by Federico Ruiz Morcuende: Relación abreviada de un viaje por el hecho de la América Meridional interior. Calpe, Madrid 1921