Tales of the Spirits

The Massacuraman

The Massacuraman, as the Amerindians describe him, is a large hairy man-like creature which roams along the riverbanks at nights and lives in caves beneath the river during the day. Their main source of nourishment is human flesh.

As this particular story unfolds, there were two Amerindians, who were paddling along the banks of the Upper Demerara River, late one night. They were hunting for wildmeat animals such as deer, labba, capybara and accuri (agouti) and spear-fishing for arapaima, lukanami and himara.

Suddenly, one beckoned to the other to turn their canoe to the right as be believed he saw an arapaima (the largest-fresh water fish in the world, but a relative of the dreaded piranha). He took up the spear and threw it at the object in the water. There was a terrible explosive turbulence and suddenly a huge hairy man-like creature appeared from the tea-coloured water. Using its gigantic long hands, it tore the twelve foot canoe in half. Trying desperately to survive, the two Amerindians plunged into the water and started for the shore. For a moment, they both thought they would escape the wrath of the creature. How wrong they were! The creature grabbed one by his head and the other by his foot and headed for the river bank.

There, the two Amerindians lay unconscious. The creature retreated briefly to the bank of the river where it held its arms up in the air and uttered a deafening sound. Simultaneously, one of the two Amerindians who had regained some consciousness scrambled to hide in the dense undergrowth. Returning from the riverbank, the creature picked up the remaining dead Amerindian by his neck and ripped off his head. With the use of its hands and long claws, the creature tore apart the headless body of the Amerindian, exposing the heart, the lungs and liver. It was supper time! Witnessing what was happening to his friend, the other Amerindian remained hidden in the bush and uttered not a sound, though he was trembling like a leaf on a tree during a windy day. The creature ripped out the heart of the dismembered body and tore it into large junk-like pieces. Opening its mouth and exposing long carnivorous teeth, the creature began chewing and swallowing the heart of its prey, one piece at a time. Turning its attention to the liver, the creature simply plucked it out and gulped down the whole thing. It was as if it was swallowing a whole bowl of cherry-flavoured jello. Using the back of both hands, the creature wiped the blood of its prey from its mouth. He had already relished his main meal.

Now, it was time for dessert! The creature removed the corpse’s head from the ground and placed it in the palm of its left hand. With a crushing blow from the right hand, the head split into two halves. Its action was similar to a coconut vendor chopping the coconut in half. The eyes of the dead Amerindian remained opened, one on either half of the split head. After sucking out the brains from both halves, the creature, using one claw like a toothpick, plucked out each eye and swallowed them.

The creature turned to look for the second Amerindian but he was not there. It looked frantically everywhere, even tugging and pulling at the undergrowth. At one point, the creature stood directly in front of the Amerindian. Turning, it even stood on the left foot of the poor Amerindian who dared not scream, although the pain was excruciating. He remained, motionless and speechless. Hearing the sounds of birds whistling, parrots and macaws shrieking and grey daylight replacing the darkness of the night, the creature, sensing that light was near, waded back into the dark water and disappeared beneath the surface.

Dumbfounded by the event he had witnessed, the surviving Amerindian limped into the jungle and headed for his benab.

A benab is an Amerindian hut, built of troolie leaves with either long wood or bamboo for uprights and the rafters of the roof. The leaves are placed on the roof and sides similar to the laying of shingles. Amerindians usually put snakes in the roof to eat rats, bats, sometimes vampires. In the middle of the hut, a fire is lit to keep out insects such as mosquitoes and to scare wild animals like ocelots and jaguars. Amerindians do not sleep on the ground, but in hammocks, stretched from one post to another. They do not use man made ropes, but instead weave the fibres from a plant to make the rope and plait the same to fabricate the hammock. They call this fibre “tibisiri.”

Upon reaching his benab, the weary and still shocked injured Amerindian related to his family what had occurred to his friend and him. Still limping, he approached the Captain of the village who believed his story. To confirm the truth, the Captain requested that the injured Amerindian take him and a search party to the place where the incident occurred. Reluctantly, the scared Amerindian agreed.

It was about midnight when the twenty-member party assembled for the journey. All had spears and arrows and bows; some even took along poisonous darts. Their faces were painted in black, white and red. These pigments usually were made from barks of trees or roots of some type of tropical plant. All wore around their necks, charms of caiman teeth. A caiman is a species of alligator which can grow up to about twenty-feet in length. The tooth of the caiman is said to give protection and strength to everyone who wears them. The more teeth you wear the stronger and more protected you would be, it is believed. The Captain led the way one by one and they all disappeared into the jungle’s dense bowels.

But being blessed with a full moon, the night was bright for the sky was littered with literally millions of stars too. This made the journey quite easy as they all could see where they were going. After walking for about two and half hours, they emerged onto the riverbank where the incident had occurred and, sure enough, they saw the remains and the partial skeleton of the Amerindian. Wild animals had eaten the remainder of the body. The stench was unbearable and the sight even more terrifying. Unfortunately, what they all had not seen, were the many red eyes glaring from the bushes of the forest. In fact, the search party was surrounded.

Abruptly, the entire forest became alive. Branches were breaking and leaves were crackling under many heavy feet. One by one each creature - the dreaded Massacuraman - took its prey and proceeded to devour them in the identical manner in which the first Amerindian had met his hideous death. As the story goes, once again a lone Amerindian managed to escape and return to his village to relate the violent and deadly mass attack meted out on the search party. Dismayed the villagers refused to return to seek the truth. Up to this day, that tribe still tells of the tragic incidents. Even now, gold miners and pork-knockers, when mining for gold and diamonds do not remain on the ground at night but position their hammocks high into the trees. They also keep a fire burning all night to keep these creatures at bay. At least one pork-knocker reported seeing a man-like creature on the riverbank early one morning. Perhaps many more have seen this creature but are afraid to talk or describe it, for fear that they may be diagnosed as either being mad from a bout of jungle fever (malaria) or drunk from alcohol or drugs.

CAREFUL!

You may wish to take a journey into the jungle with a pork-knocker sometime. You may be “fortunate” to see for yourself one of these creatures. Or you may be unfortunate. Remember, curiosity killed the cat but it may be that a massacuraman may kill you. One thing is certain, you will not be able to confirm its existence. You will be either dead or deemed crazy. Either way, you lose!