Cuna (Kuna)

(map)

Pab Tummat, alone in darkness, moved about and found nothing. He started talking, and his breath became wind which blew the darness away. Then he created the sun, moon, and stars, the earth and all on it. The first name was named Olobilipiler (Piler for short), and his wife was Pursop. They had five children, who multiplied and filled the earth.

People began to behave immorally, and God sent men to guide and reform them. But the people ignored their counsel. Pab Tummat decided to start over. He sent strong winds and earthquakes and overturned the surface of the earth. Everything -- rivers, mountains, trees, animals, and people -- went to the fourth level. But even there they continued to behave sinfully, and Piler and his children had the power to rise to the surface and do as they pleased.

God sent more heroes to earth, who taught medicines and ceremonies to the humans and ended the reign of evil. Later Pab Tummat took them to the heavens to become masters of the sun and stars. When the people multiplied and became corrupt again, God sent Olotubyaliler, but after a hundred years, the discord was so great that Pab Tummat send winds that took the people to the sky, where they were turned into winds.

When next the people became immoral, after a hundred years God sent fire, reducing everything to ashes. Another age of corruption eventually followed, and God sent darkness and loosed in the world all kinds of monstrous beasts. Again all the people died.

Next God sent Tad Aiban to govern the people, with Wikkwaba, Sawika, and Yalika to help him. But the world again fell into disorder, and after a hundred years God sent a deluge which covered the earth, leaving it without vegetation, animals, or people. The spirits of the dead were taken to Osiskun Tiwar, the River of Salt, where they lived on the islands. Tad Aiban and some of his followers survived on Takarkun Yala (Tingwa Yala), the only place untouched by the flood. They went back down to the land after four days when the waters receded.

God sent many races to the earth then. They knew how to cook, build and to other things, but not very well, so Pab Tummat sent Ibeorgun, who taught them, including telling them their history. He died after forty years, and other came after him to teach more.

Javier Montoya Sánchez, Antología de creencias, mitos, teogonías, cosmogonías, leyendas y tradiciones de algunos grupos aborígenes colombianos (Medellín, 1979), 2: 46-49.