BY TRADITION
Brazilian folklore
4 records of Brazilian folklore — the beings, warnings and stories the tradition keeps, with sources.
BoitatáA Brazilian fire-omen: Boitatá, from Tupi mbaê-tata, fiery thing, later heard as mbói-tatá, fire snake. Guardian of fields against arson, recorded by José de Anchieta in 1560 as baetatá. Regional forms include bull and will-o’-the-wisp.CurupiraA forest guardian of Brazilian folklore, often recognized by backward-facing feet that confuse hunters and protect the forest.IaraBrazil’s river lady: Iara or Uiara, from nheengatu y + iara, mistress of the waters. A nineteenth-century Amazonian synthesis of Indigenous water-owner, European mermaid, and later Iemanjá talk — not a colonial-era mermaid already sitting in every Tupi village.Saci-pererêBrazil’s one-legged trickster: a Black boy in a red cap, pipe in mouth, riding dust-devils, switching salt and sugar, freeing livestock. A syncretic Tupi, African, and Portuguese figure, not a single Indigenous demon and not a cute mascot only.
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