It is the legend about the civilizing hero Sumé or Pai Zumé, names given to the character identified by the Jesuits in the sixteenth and seventeenth century as Saint Thomas. Sumé was seen by the indigenous populations as a guide who taught them the secrets of the manioc, while in other places he was associated with the cultivation of maize, or with the cultivation of the mate, a herb used to make a type of tea.
According to some sources, the Guaranis of Guairá in Paraguay had discovered the properties of the mate through their pagés, spiritual leaders among indigenous peoples who have knowledge about the medicinal and ritual use of plants. Apparently the pagés transmitted to the warriors the secret about the benefits of the plant to ensure victory, and eventually its use Good, to prove its power, transformed the sun into an enormous spider. In reply, evil created Pai Zumé, who disguised himself as a cacique, the leader of the tribe, and taught the Guarani the secrets of the mate extended to times of peace. The legend of Pai Zumé in that region indicates a distinct myth of origin for the plant: a challenge was established between good and evil, and good, to prove its power, transformed the sun into an enormous spider. In reply, evil created Pai Zumé, who disguised himself as a cacique, the leader of the tribe, and taught the Guarani the secrets of the plant and how to prepare it. The Jesuits expanded on the legend and syncretised the wise teacher with St. Thomas, who taught them to prepare the plant using a fire in order to purify it of its harmful properties.
Saint Thomas was one of Jesus’s apostles, popularly known as the doubting Thomas since he doubted the resurrection of Christ thus asking for physical proof of the crucifixion. The story goes that he was consequently assigned by Jesus the mission of preaching the Gospel in the most far distant places on earth. And despite the fact that in those days the world, as it was known, was comprised of Africa, Asia, the Far East and Europe, St. Thomas supposedly managed to get to the Americas. Or such is the story told by the Jesuits. Some maintain that it was in the interest of those with the mission of preaching the gospel to associate the civilizing hero Sumé with a Christian saint.
The anthropologist Alfred Métraux, a Swiss anthropologist who wrote a book on the Religion of the Tupinambás, a broader group constituted of a few sub-groups of indigenous peoples who inhabited the coast of Brazil, talks about how the role that the Tupinambás attributed to the civilising heroes The anthropologist Pierre Clastres has observed that often gods refer to the realm of culture rather than to that of nature, thus they may be identified as the mystic founders of civilization or inventors of agriculture corresponded to that attributed to gods by other societies. The anthropologist Pierre Clastres has observed that often gods refer to the realm of culture rather than to that of nature, thus they may be identified as the mystic founders of civilization or inventors of agriculture. This author also points to the religious disquiet among the Tupi-Guarani which suggests the presence of philosophers engaged with reflective thinking, rather than myth narrators. Their religious life was centered on shamanism, but early travelers did identify some enigmatic characters who differed from the shamans, the so-called karai. While shamans, sometimes referred to as pajés, were engaged with a therapeutic practice, the latter were more associated with the realm of discourse.
Another feature of the karai is that they moved a lot, from one community to another, being often described as nomadic prophets. The frier Simão de Vasconcelos supposedly saw the prophet’s footsteps in five different places in Brazil and reports the existence of a path in Bahia made of sand which was miraculously opened by the apostle. The French Franciscan priest André de Thevet also collected reports about Sommay or Sumé. According to those accounts, he was a pajé and caraíba who caused a great flood, and the father of the brothers Tamendore and Ariconte. There are many stories concerning a charismatic character under distinct names such as Pai Tume, Pai Sume, Karai Chume, Zume, Tume Arandu, Santo Tomás, San Bartolomé, all related to the teachings of the cultivation of some plants, or believed to be the saint of the agriculture. It is generally accepted that the Jesuits took advantage of the phonetic similarity between the names.
The reasonableness of the relationship between the Christian saint and the legendary prophet notwithstanding, it is generally accepted that the legend of Sumé contributed towards the establishment of the first Jesuit Reductions, name given to settlements of indigenous peoples in a number of locations in South America created in the seventeenth century prior to the expulsion of the Jesuit order from Brazil by the Marquis of Pombal. The relative economic autonomy of the Reductions is seen as one of the reasons for the Jesuits’ expulsion. Some authors have referred to those settlements as industrial, cultural and military theocratic-based states, while others see them as constituting the Guarani Republic. Clóvis Lugon, a humanist and vicar at the parish of the Cathedral of Sion and author of the 1949 The Christian Communist Republic of the Guarani, described those communities as ‘the most feverous of all Christian societies and the most original of the communist societies’, constituting an utopian administrative model of a classless society with collective ownership of land and property.
St. Thomas has also A mythical pathway, also known as Peabiru, which is supposed to connect parts of South America given its name to a mythical pathway, also known as Peabiru, which is supposed to connect parts of South America. In 1552, the adventurer Ulrich Schmidt, walked along this path from Asunción in Paraguay to São Vicente on the coast of the state of São Paulo, returning to Europe from there. This same path was closed by Tomé de Souza, one of the governors of Brazil in 1653 to protect the colony from invasion by the Spanish, but, in 1693, with the gold rush and intensification of the commerce between the coast and the interior, it started to be used again. It is said that the indigenous people had planted a fine type of grass, to prevent weeds from covering this path which supposedly extended for 3 thousand kilometers.
Luiz Galdino, who wrote a book on the Incas in Brazil, mentions the hypothesis that this network of paths may have been used by the Incas as an attempt to reach the Atlantic. The Peabiru described by this author follows many rivers: the Goiobang, the Piqueri, the Cajará, the Tibagi, and the Ivaí. He bases his research on archeological findings and on the accounts of early travelers like Álvar Nuñes Cabeza de Vaca who allegedly walked from Florianópolis to Asuncion, in Paraguay, using this pathway. In 1612, Ruy Díaz de Guzmán mentioned in his writings the Peabeyú, a well defined pathway, and the Jesuit priest Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, who founded the Reductions, also wrote about ‘a pathway which is only 8 palms wide’, in 1639. Apparently the Peabiru went all the way to the river Paraguay, finishing where the town of Asunción, capital of Paraguay, would later be founded, although there are stories which maintain that it went all the way to Peru. The archeologist Igor Chmyz believes that the Peabiru interweaved with some of the roads constructed by the Incas. There are also accounts concerning a mythical character in Peru with similar characteristics to Sumé, where he appears under the name Pay Tumé.
The writer Eduardo Bueno, in his Náufragos, traficantes e degredados from1998, talks about another historical character who used the Peabiru: the explorer Aleixo Garcia who took part in the Spanish expedition to North America and the Pacific in 1515. The expedition failed to reach its destiny and the crew ended up in Santa Catarina, on the southern coast of Brazil. From there, Aleixo Garcia organized another expedition, in search of the riches of the Inca Empire, with an army of natives. He soon reached a track referred to by the Tupi-guarani as Peabiru. Aleixo Garcia was eventually killed before he reached Peru but very close to where there was a great mountain of silver in what is now Bolivia.
Sumé is also referred to as the one who prohibited polygamy and anthropophagy. One of the stories told narrates how some natives, angered by the restrictions, set fire to Sumé’s house. In another account he was tied up to a rock and thrown in the river, and yet in another, he set off walking over the ocean. Quite a number of authors associate the prophet with the place of Cabo Frio, on the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, such as Métraux, the writer Luís Galdino and the sixteenth century sailor Anthony Knivet. The priest Manuel da Nóbrega, author of some writings from 1549, mentions how Zomé, while running away from the arrows of his angry pursuers, left some footsteps on the river bank side, at which moment the waters of the river opened and he, without getting wet, reached the other side, and went to India. In some other accounts, the arrows turned back towards those shooting them, and the forest opened itself so that the prophet was able to escape.
But for those of us whose suspension of disbelief cannot be held for too long, the path of benign skepticism may be attempted. The sociologist Sérgio Buarque de Holanda wrote about those collective representations which linked the American continent to the biblical Garden of Eden in his 1959 book Visão do Paraíso. He refers to the legend of Sumé as a Luso-Brazilian myth with roots in a legend that connects the Christians in India to Saint Thomas. The remains of the deceased saint were supposedly sent to Goa. We are left wandering where the roots for the legend lie, but, in the end, we can only speculate and ponder whether the nomad-like nature of some natives found in a character who wandered through their lands inspiration to weave a story as curious as this.
