The legend of the Muiraquitã begins at the mouth of the Amazon River, where there once lived an Indigenous people along its banks who worshiped the Sun God. They had priests who were responsible for being in contact with and honoring the Sun God in order to bring good news to the village. In this village, the men were in charge of hunting and war, while the women took care of the community, the children, the elders, and the crops.
Thus, in this village, worship of the Sun God could only be carried out by men. Only men were allowed access to the sacred place dedicated to the Sun God, known as the warrior’s place.
One day, a group of women from this village attempted to sneak into that sacred place, but a priest saw them and called upon the Sun God, who then turned one of the women, who had hidden there, into stone.
The others, upon witnessing the scene, returned to the village enraged by what had happened. Disagreeing with both the event and the fact that they were forbidden from worshiping the Sun God, they decided to leave the village and abandon their husbands and sons, taking with them all the girls and women, including the elders, in order to form a village of their own.
They walked for days along the banks of the Amazon River, looking for a place where they could live, build their own community, and worship their own gods. They eventually arrived at a place with a beautiful lake, along the banks of the Nhamundá River, on the border between the states of Pará and Amazonas. There, they settled near a lake that would come to be known as the Mirror of the Moon (Espelho da Lua), and which still exists today. There they built their village, their ocas (traditional houses), and their gardens. But since it was a village made up only of women, they realized that they needed to ensure the continuation of their people, that is, they needed to have more children.