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The Three Marias Legend
By this name the whole country knows the lasso with three branches of balls,
one of them finishes in the "manijera" (handler), i.e. the ball held by one’s
hand while the other two are twirled to be thrown especially at the legs of
horses.
A legend of the Querandies Indians says that Gualichu, the evil spirit, the
Devil, pleased himself by causing diseases in the tribes that were decimated
by terrible epidemics.
They could not do anything to conjure so much harm, until after not a few negatives,
and seeing such a lot of men suffer, the good spirit decided to intercede for
them. He began to follow Gualichu along the whole heaven, without being able
to reach him. Meanwhile Gualichu scoffed at them by sending new diseases to
the poor Indians, who helplessly watched the persecution of the "evil". When
they thought it impossible to reach the evil genius, the Good Spirit took three
stars, the Three Marias, tied each one to a long hair of his beard and threw
them from the distance at the legs of the evil, making him fall in the middle
of a terrible lightning and deafening noises that made the earth tremble.
The Indians say that until the white men’s (conquerors) arrival, men and
women died because of old age or in wars with against other tribes.
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