Saci (Brazilian folklore)
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The Saci is undoubtedly the most popular and bizarre character of Brazilian folklore. He is a one-legged dwarf, with holes through the palms of his hands, who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red cap which enables him to disappear and reappear wherever he wishes. Considered an irritating prankster in some parts of the country, and a dangerous and malicious creature in others, he will nevertheless grant wishes to anyone who manages to steal his magic cap.
There are actually three types of Saci: the best-known Saci Pererê is black as coal, the Saci Trique is mulatto and more benign, and the Saci Saçurá has red eyes.
Saci Pererê is also the name of a Brazilian cocktail consisting of 1/4 cup of cachaça and 3 tbsp of honey. It is said to be good for the common cold.
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Powers, weaknesses, and habits
An incorrigible prankster, the Saci will not cause major harm, but there is no little harm that he won't do. He will hide children's toys, set farm animals loose, torment dogs, and prevent chicken eggs from hatching. He may suck the blood of horses — like a vampire bat — and tie knots in their manes. In the kitchen, the Saci may spill the salt, sour the milk, burn the bean stew, or drop flies into the soup. If a popcorn kernel fails to pop, it is because the Saci put a spell on it. Given half a chance, he will dull the semastress's needles, hide her thimbles, and tangle her sewing threads. If he sees a nail lying on the ground, he will turn it with the point up. In short, anything that goes wrong — in the house, or outside it — may be confidently blamed on the Saci.
Besides disappearing or becoming invisible (often with only his red cap and the red glow of his pipe still showing), the Saci can transform itself into a Matiaperê, an elusive bird whose melancholic song seems to come from nowhere. A Saci will not cross water streams, lest it will lose all his powers — a fact that will be undoubtedly useful to people who find themselves being pursued by one. If that happens, the victim should drop ropes full of knots; the Saci will then be compelled to stop and undo the knots, thus allowing his victim to escape. One can also try to appease him by leaving behind some cachaça, or some tobacco for his pipe.
He is fond of juggling live coals or other small objects and letting them fall through the holes on his palms. An exceedingly nible fellow, the lack of his right leg does not prevent him from bareback-riding a horse, and sitting cross-legged while he puffs on his pipe.
Every dust devil, says the legend, is caused by the spin-dance of an invisible Saci. One can capture him by throwing into the dust devil a rosary made of rosary bead plant seeds, or by pouncing on it with a sieve, reinforced by two crossed bamboo strips. With proper care, the captured Saci can be coached to enter a dark glass bottle, where he can be imprisoned by a stopperwith a cross marked on it.
Origins of the legend
The Saci legend derives from the Yaci-Yaterê of Tupi-Guarani mythology, a magic one-legged child with fire-red hair who would spell-bind people and break the forest's silence with loud shouts and whistles.
This indian character was appropriated and transformed in the 18th century by the African slaves who had been brought in large numbers to Brazil. Farm slaves would tell Saci stories to amuse and frighten the children, black and white. In this process the creature became black, his red hair metamorphosed into a red cap, and — like the African elders who told the tales — would be always smoking his clay-and-reed pipe. His name mutated into variosu forms, such as Saci Taperê and Sá Pereira (a common Portuguese name), and eventually Saci Pererê.
His red cap may have been inspired on the Phrygian cap which was at one time worn by Portuguese peasants. The Saci-Pererê concept shows some syncretism with Christian elements: he bolts away when faced with crosses or other religious icons, leaving behind a sulphurous smell — classical attributes of the Devil.
The concept of imprisoning a supernatural being in a bottle by a magically marked stopper, and of forcing him to grant wishes in return of his liberty, have obvious parallels in the story of Aladdin from the Arabian Nights. An original connection between the two legends is not to be dismissed lightly, since many of the slaves were Muslims and thus presumably familiar with the Arabian tales.
The Saci in art and entertainment
The character remains quite popular even in present-day urban culture, thanks mainly to the immensely popular children's book O Saci by Monteiro Lobato (1932).
In the 1960s, the one-legged gnome — by now "domesticated" into a prankish but inoffensive and lovable creature — was chosen by premier Brazilian cartoonist Ziraldo as the leading character of his comics magazine, O Saci Pererê. This original publication, the first of its genre to feature entirely "national" characters, was unfortunately short-lived, but paved the way for other more successful Brazilian cartoonists like Angeli, Laerte, and Maurício de Souza.
See also
External links
- How Pedrinho captured the Saci (http://jangadabrasil.com.br/setembro/im10900c.htm), from Monteiro Lobato's O Saci (in Portuguese)
- The ANCSaci - National Saci Breeders' Association site (http://www.ancsaci.com.br/) (A spoof site, in Portuguese)pt:Saci