Kogi

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Duginávi lived up in Heaven. From the King of the Vultures, he borrowed clothes so that he could go down to earth. Each day he went down, he ate dead animals, so now he was a vulture.

One day Nyíueldue, a great Mama, caught Diginavi in a trap. He took the bird home for its beautiful white feathers, and he fed it so that the feathers would grow. His daughter cared for it. Nyíueldue once saw his daughter leaving the house with a man, and he deduced that the man was the bird. He made a separate house for them and burnt it with the two of them inside. But Duginávi shielded them from the heat with his wings (which is why vulture wings are black now). They left, hidden by smoke.

Some time later, Nyíueldue suffered famine and, searching elsewhere for food, came to Duginávi's field. Nyíueldue did not recognize Duginávi, having seen him well only as a bird, but Duginávi recognized Nyíueldue and burned him one day by setting fire to the field he was in. The king of the vulture rescued him, but Nyíueldue was later killed by his son because he replanted at night the forest that the son had cleared the previous day.

Duginávi became old and started making masks instead of working in the field. His wife became angry at him, killed their daughter, cooked her in a great pot, and left. When Duginávi discovered this, he put on the mask of Rain, called a heavy shower, and threw himself into the swollen river, hoping to die. But the river did not want to kill him; she carried him to the sea, where he was swallowed by a great animal. Inside were other things which had been swallowed -- firewood, food, and other people. Duginávi made fire for cooking, which caused the animal (Mevankukue) pain. In time, the animal grew weak and vomited Duginávi onto the shore.

Duginávi next encountered some bad cannibal women, whom he ran from, eventually coming to the Thunder People, whom he lived and worked with.

The Thunder People could fell a whole mountainside in one day, while Duginávi felled only a few trees. He went to the Mother, who told him the secret (measure the forest, stick the knife and axe in a tree, and sleep), and he cleared even more forest than the Thunder People. The Mother also told him how to plant, and he grew rich fields.

Then Duginávi noticed that the Thunder People were stealing from him. He stole their drums in retribution, but the found out and forced him to give them back. In revenge, Duginávi swallowed a rock crystal and put on the mask of Downpour, and the rain flooded the Thunder People's fields. He went and started devouring the Thunder People men, but they caught him and threw him in a big hole, which filled with water and is still a lake today.

Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, Los Kogi, 2nd ed. (Bogota: Procultura, 1985), 2: 38-43.