Colombia and Brazil

Two Legends.

By Móni Mª. Jaramillo P.

In both countries it´s possible to find many types of native stories, myths and legends. Between the most popular legends we find “El hombre caiman” of Colombia and “Tamba-Taya” of Brazil.

“EL Hombre Caiman” (The alligator man) is a legend from the north coast of Colombia. The legend tells the story of an alligator man, who was a storekeeper. He fell in love with a young woman called Roque Lina, the daughter of a rice seller. The father of the young woman didn’t agree with their love, and he prohibited the storekeeper to approach his daughter.
But opposite to a river, where Roque Lina had the habit of bathing nude, there was a restaurant, where the storekeeper was sitting down eating rice with coconut and rum. One day, with desire of kissing her, and after eating his rice, the man went in the river to search her and turned into an alligator.
For days he repeated the same routine to turn into a alligator, and to be with his love one. His brother was suspecting that they were meeting and he was in search for the alligator. “El hombre caiman”, frightened of losing Roque Lina, and not see him again, for the impediment of her father and brother, was in search of Roque Lina and fled with her to the deep of the river.
Since then, no one came back to see “El hombre caiman” and Roque Lina. However, men in the region eat the whole rice of the pots, so that “El Hombre caiman” doesn’t return and take their wives, with him.

“Tamba-Taya” is a legend of the north of Brazil, in the Amazonian jungle.
Legend tells that “Tamba-Taya” is a tree that grows in the Amazon. The tree sprouts two leaves, one big and one small; they represent the eternal love of a couple.
This tree grew because an Indian Tupi’s wife died. He took her body and went into the jungle, before he was buried alive, with her body. From this tragedy went grew the legend of “Tamba-Taya”, a story that represents the unfortunate love of the Indian Tupi.