Six more legends from the great Guaraní country of the Iberá lakes and the Alto Paraná — lands that today span Paraguay and the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Misiones. The first comes from Filiberto de Oliveira Cézar's "Leyendas de los indios guaraníes" (Buenos Aires: Jacobo Peuser, 1892); the five that follow were collected in the Misiones country by Juan Bautista Ambrosetti for his "Supersticiones y leyendas" (Buenos Aires: La Cultura Argentina, 1917). All are heard here in a fresh English translation made for this programme.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Beside a camp fire in the Iberá, old Vizcacha explains the blue cold: it is the breath of Aiñac-Cabayú, the devil's white horse, whose neigh draws every wild herd in the country after it. Then, up the Alto Paraná, the stones themselves carry the stories — the great lizard that left its cave at Teyú-Cuaré, the cattle a saint led away at Suindá-Cuá, the footprints of Saint Thomas at Santo Pi-pó, and the girl turned to stone at Ita-Guaimí, before whom travellers still lower their voices. Last, the Pueblo Emboré: the Jesuits' hidden treasure town, whose houses have no doors, and which no expedition has ever found again.
Filiberto de Oliveira Cézar (1856–1910), "Leyendas de los indios guaraníes" (1892), and Juan B. Ambrosetti (1865–1917), "Supersticiones y leyendas" (1917) — both public domain. These are Guaraní and Misiones legends from those two books, billed by their people and their collectors — not a survey of the whole of Paraguay. Of the Oliveira Cézar book's thirteen legends, two were built in Part 1 and one here; nine were set aside under the shelf's content register and one remains held for a ruling. Eleven further items from Ambrosetti's Misiones chapters were set aside under the same register, and two stand benched for Part 3; the full register is kept with the shelf's canon.
Narrated by Benedetto. Music: opening and closing theme, "The River's Dying Vision".
Chapters:
01:46 Roe-Choveg — The Blue Cold
08:48 The Wall of Teyú-Cuaré — The Lizard's Cave
12:56 The Wall of Suindá-Cuá — The Owl's Cave
14:51 The Stones of Santo Pi-pó — The Saint's Hands and Feet
15:40 The Stone Ita-Guaimí — The Old Stone
17:43 The Pueblo Emboré — The Hidden Town
Guaraní folk tales · Paraguay folk tales · Guaraní legends · South American folk tales · Filiberto de Oliveira Cézar · Juan Bautista Ambrosetti · world folk tales · free audiobook
