The Old Man’s Waterfall

By Odeen Ishmael

Once upon a time, there was a little village on the Potaro River, just above the huge waterfall now known as Kaieteur. In that same region was a large stretch of grassland where several animals like deer and anteaters lived. Near the village too, the people cultivated farms of cassava, sweet potatoes, corn and green vegetables.

During that period, an old man named Kaie lived in the village. As a young man, Kaie was a hard worker, a clever hunter, and a skilled fisherman. Even though farming was not his favourite, yet he produced good crops of cassava and corn.
Meanwhile, as Kaie grew considerably old, and, like so many old men who worked hard in their youth, he became senile and talked to himself as he walked idly around the village.
No one was eager to chat with him any longer, because, by that time, they failed to understand the words he uttered. In addition, he had some huge, unpleasant sores on his feet that seemed to be there forever. To make matters even worse, Kaie became a nuisance. Any time of the day or night, he would enter the home of a villager without invitation and would not leave unless he was asked. Because of this, people constantly complained to each other about his unbearable behaviour.
“Old Kaie’s disgusting,” one man said. “Yesterday, some people from another village came to visit my family. Of all days, Old Kaie chose that day to walk into my home! He sat on the floor, muttering to himself, and, with those sores on his feet, you can understand how embarrassed I felt.”
“I know how you feel,” another man replied. “All of us are suffering from the man’s disgusting behaviour.”
As time passed, old Kaie became a worse nuisance than before. “Why do we have to work to provide food for him?” a young man asked. “Have you ever seen him when he eats with us? He devours more than three of us!”
After they could stand his behaviour no longer, the villagers summoned an urgent meeting to discuss Kaie’s attitude. At the meeting, everyone concluded the old man was the worst problem the village ever experienced.
“How can we stop him from being such a nuisance?” a young man asked.
A general discussion ensued over the methods to be used. Some villagers suggested that they should send Kaie away by force, but others strongly disagreed.
“If we do that,” they said, “he’ll go to another village and pester the people there.”
After several other discussions, they finally decided to set Kaie adrift in a canoe on the Potaro River.
“He’ll go over the waterfall,” they reasoned. “That will be the end of the problem.”
Early the next morning when all plans were in place, the villagers placed Kaie in a canoe with his pegall, a type of basket, containing everything he owned.
Two young men then pushed the little canoe alongside the speeding current of the river as the other villagers stood by the river-bank and watched. The canoe quickly picked up speed and the raging current pulled it toward the waterfall.
By this time, Kaie realised his fate. “Save me! Save me!” he screamed frightfully. “I promise to be good!”
By then it was too late. The canoe sped along the river, and the villagers stood and watched in silence from the bank. Nearer and nearer the canoe drifted toward the waterfall. Old Kaie’s screams filled the air, but they were soon drowned out by the roaring water. Then, gracefully, the canoe tumbled over the mighty waterfall and disappeared.
Undoubtedly, Kaie must have died, but surprisingly his body was never found even though the men searched thoroughly by the foot of the waterfall to be certain that he died. But a short distance downstream, they discovered a narrow, rocky island shaped like an upturned canoe. And curiously, on the river bank, at the foot of the waterfall, was a rock shaped like Kaie’s pegall.
“Maybe we did something wrong,” one of the searchers said. “His canoe and pegall turned into rocks to remind us every day of the wrong we committed.”
Ever since, in repentance, the people of the village named the waterfall Kaieteur, the waterfall of Kaie, to honour the old man.
Even today, the rock formations of an upturned canoe and a pegall can still be seen near the foot of the Kaieteur Falls. (From: “Guyana Legends – Folktales of the Indigenous Amerindians” by Odeen Ishmael (Published 2012). With permission)