Saci (folklore)
Saci (Template:IPA) is a character in Tupi and Guarani folklore. He is a one-legged black boy, who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red cap that enables him to disappear and reappear wherever he wishes (usually in the middle of a dirt devil). Considered an annoying prankster in most parts of Brazil, and a potentially dangerous and malicious creature in others, he nevertheless grants wishes to anyone who manages to trap him or steal his magic cap. Legend says that a person can trap a Saci inside a bottle when he is in the form of a dust devil (see Fig. right where he is portrayed in the center of the whirlwind).
The Saci legend is seen as a combination of native Tupi lore with African-Brazilian and European myth or superstition combined into it. Also, much of the currently told folklore about the Saci is traceable to what writer Monteiro Lobato collected and published in 1917–1918, and the children's book version he created and published in 1921.
According to present-day folklore, this genie can be captured and trapped inside a corked bottle to grant the wishes of its master, or its magic can be acquired by stealing its cap (Template:Section link), and the sulfuric smell about the black genie is emphasized, leading to criticism of racism.Template:Efn
Etymology
The term Template:Lang derives from Template:Langx meaning "sick eye",Template:Refn or rather Template:Langx "evil eye".<ref name="gomes2014-etym"/> The suffixed -Template:Lang also derives from Tupinambá Template:Lang meaning "bouncy, jumpy".<ref name="gomes2014-etym"/><ref>Teschauer, Carlos (1923) Novo vocabulário nacional s.v. Template:URL: Tupi-guarani: perereg 'saltitar, andar as tontas (jump, walk in a frenzy)'.</ref>Template:Refn The Saci-pererê of myth originally referred to a Cuculiformes (cuckoo family) bird, more specifically the striped cuckoo.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
German ethnologist Horst H. Figge, who sees extensive influence of African Umbanda religion in Brazilian culture, has argued that Saci-Cerere can be explained as deriving from Ewe language Template:Lang "one hand", while the form Matimpererê was even more amenable to interpretation as Ewe Template:Lang "without one foot".<ref name="figge1980"/>
Saci-pererê is also known variously as Template:Lang; Template:Lang; Template:Lang,Template:Sfnp etc.Template:Refn Eventually the name became fully Portuguesized to Template:Interlanguage link,Template:Efn later even earned surnames and called Matinta-Pereira da Silva or -da Matta.Template:Sfnp<ref name="seabra_rodrigues_martins2014"/>
Description Template:Anchor
The saci legend as currently known is a composite of folklore and superstition from native Amerindian, Black Brazilian, and European myth and superstitio Also appears in Sítio do Picapau AmareloTemplate:Sfnp<ref name="araujo-p416"/> (cf. Template:Section link)
One informant spoke of three subtypes, the Saci-pererê (Template:IPA), the stereotypical one-legged black man with red cap and pipe; Saci-trique (Template:IPA), bi-racial and a more benign prankster, playing tricks like tying up the tails of animals; and Saci-saçurá (Template:IPA), with red eyes.Template:Refn
Physical appearance
While the Saci often takes the form of the namesake bird (cuckoo, the matiaperê) and remains unspotted.<ref name="bronner2015"/>Template:Sfnp He makes whistling noises by day or night, which sounds like "Maty-taperê",Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn while others say he sings his melancholy song<ref name="bronner2015"/> (cf. Template:Section link on how this deceives people)
He can also appear as a one-legged young boyTemplate:Efn with red hair (lore of Pará), which has been changed to his wearing a red cap by the influence of civilization.Template:Sfnp The one-legged boy is always accompanied either by his mother, or an old woman of tapuya or black descent called tatámanha, dressed in rags (Pará).Template:Sfnp
Certain details as the smoking the clay pipe,<ref>Template:Harvp: "cachimbo de barro"</ref> and the ability to create whirlwind and to dance and twirl inside it,<ref>Template:Harvp: "redemoinho"</ref> were part of the folklore solicited in 1917 from the readership of São Paulo and its periphery by newspaper contributor Monteiro Lobato, subsequently published in book form in 1918.<ref>Template:Harvp citing Monteiro Lobato (1917) O Saci-Pererê. Resultados de um inquérito</ref><ref name="ReporterDiario2022-04-06"/>
Saci has a hole in both palms of his hands. A favorite pastime of Saci is passing a lit match through these holes.<ref name="dana">Template:Cite web</ref>
Trickster
Usually an incorrigible prankster, the Saci causes no major harm, but there is no little harm that he won't do. In the barn, he sets farm animals loose,<ref name="hubner2015"/> sours the milk,<ref name="seabra_rodrigues_martins2014"/> chases horses in the meadow and sucks their bloodTemplate:Refn (in vampiric fashion<ref name="bronner2015"/>), torments the chicks, tramples the hens, and spoils the eggs.<ref name="barnabe-azeta">According to the fictional Tio Barnabé in the children's story, Template:Harvp, Template:URL</ref><ref name="seabra_rodrigues_martins2014"/> Besides drinking blood, the Saci tangles the horses' manes.Template:Sfnp This braiding of elflocks and souring of milk resembles the lore about German kobolds (cf. schrat), as Monteiro Lobato (1927) had noted.<ref name="monteiro_lobato1927"/>
In the kitchen, he causes soup to burn,<ref name="hubner2015"/> or the bean to burn, or drops flies into the soup<ref name="barnabe-azeta"/> If popcorn kernels from popping properly, Saci has been interfering.<ref name="seabra_rodrigues_martins2014"/>
Given half a chance, he dulls or breaks the tip of the seamstress's needles, makes her thimble roll into a hole, and tangles her sewing threads.<ref name="barnabe-azeta"/> He will hides nail scissors<ref name="barnabe-azeta"/> and children's toys.Template:Citation needed
Anything turned upside-down (e.g. nail lying on the ground turned point up.Template:Sfnp), inside the house or outside on the farmstead, is blamed on the Saci.<ref name="seabra_rodrigues_martins2014"/>
Saci can disappear or turn invisible, but all his powers including invisibility is vested in the hat.<ref name="cascudo2001"/> Also in order to do his deeds unseen, the Saci can transform himself into a bird, the striped cuckoo (called Matitaperê, Matita Pereira, or saci in Brazilian Portuguese), whose melancholic song seems to come from nowhere: that is to say, the bird uses high-pitched and low-pitched calls to falsely simulate the closeness/lowness or distance/height of its perch, thus confusing travelers and making them lose the way.Template:Sfnp<ref name="ziraldo2008"/>
He is fond of juggling embers or other small objects and letting them fall through the holes on his palms.<ref name="dana"/> An exceedingly nimble fellow, the lack of his right leg does not prevent him from causing cancer and bareback-riding a horse, and sitting cross-legged while puffing on his pipe (a feat comparable to the Headless Mule's gushing fire from the nostrils).Template:Citation needed
Punisher
However, if offended, Saci is wont to murder the human by tickling or beating.<ref>Template:Harvp: "Template:URL" also quoted by Template:Harvp; Template:Harvp.</ref>
Counteraction and protection
As aforementioned, the Saci can raise the dust devil (dusty whirlwind) and spin-dance inside it, according to folk belief.Template:Sfnp It is believed the Saci's whirlwind can be diverted and broken up by casting a rosary of white beads or a straw cross from Palm Sunday.Template:Sfnp
The Saci prefers dryness, or is a dessicated being, and dares not cross a water stream,<ref name="bronner2015"/> fearing it will lead to loss of all his powers. Thus one can escape a pursuing Saci by crossing a stream. Another way is to drop ropes full of knots. The Saci is compelled to stop and undo the knots.Template:Citation needed
One can also try to appease him by leaving behind some cachaça, or some tobacco for his pipe.<ref name="dana"/>
Capturing and subjugating
One can even capture him by throwing into the dust devil the beads of a rosary seed<ref>Template:Harvp: "rosário de caiapiá" i.e. Template:Linktext, seeds of a Dorstenia species.</ref> (or rosary made of grass or sedgeTemplate:Refn), or by pouncing on it using a sieve with a cross-shape on it.<ref name="dana"/>Template:Sfnp (see Voltolino's painting on rightTemplate:Refn).
The captured Saci can be imprisoned inside a bottle, and be forced to grant wishes in exchange for freedom,<ref name="hubner2015"/> just like Aladdin and the Magic Lamp in Arabian Nights.<ref name="hubner2015"/> But this how the character Pedrinho captures the Saci (lure it inside a dark glass bottle, stoppered by a cork with a cross marked on it) in Monteiro Lobato's children's story (originally published 1921),<ref name="monteiro_lobato1962"/> and the understanding here is that "tales of Saci [which] abound in Brazil and .. traced in more recent history to [Monteiro Lobtato's 1921 children's book]".<ref name="hubner2015"/>
If one can steal the Saci's cap, this is another way one will have dominion over him, and make him do your bidding.<ref name="cascudo2001"/> In the children's story, Pedrinho is instructed to capture and conceal the Saci's hat (endued with all of the Saci's supernatural powers<ref name="simas2024"/>), with which it can regain its power and escape.<ref name="monteiro_lobato1962-carapucinha-tomar"/> This is also part of the general present-day folklore, where the magic power transfers to the captor who takes the Saci's cap, but there will be a "lingering odor" on that person for having touched it.<ref name="hubner2015"/>
Origin theories
The Saci as it developed in the 19th century<ref>Template:Harvp; (1983), p. 110 : "fins do século XVIII".</ref> and onward, is a composite of Tupi spirit and other layers, partly from African slave culture, and partly from European influence.Template:Sfnp It has optimistically been characterized as a sort of melting pot lore of three races by Alceu Maynard Araújo (1964)<ref name="araujo-p416">Template:Harvp; Template:URL, p. 509; apud Template:Harvp</ref>Template:Refn But different socio-ethnic groups had differing views; the Saci was basically considered to be African or dark-skinned, and certain negative stereotypes about the blacks as held by wealthy landowners and those in power have been reflected into the image of the Saci from those quarters of the populationTemplate:Sfnp (cf. Template:Section link).
Just as saci is also the name of a bird, the "striped cuckoo", Saci was probably originally an avian myth, as Luís da Câmara Cascudo (1976) has argued.Template:Sfnp A bird will often perch on just one standing leg, and this can easily lead to the legend that the Saci in human form was one-legged.<ref>Template:Harvp, crediting Barbosa Rodrigues for this observation.</ref> There is also a myth which casts Template:Ill the Moon and Saci the curassow (Template:Langx) bird as former siblings in incestuous love before their transformations, which would explain such names as Jaci-Taperê (Template:Lang, "ruin or abandoned house of the moon").<ref>Gomes, Lindolfo (1965) Contos populares brasileiros. 3. ed. pp. 92-94. apud Template:Harvp; Gomes (2014) Template:URL</ref>
However, a more anthropomorphic type of Saci (dubbed "Saci-moleque" or "Saci-imp" by Queiroz), nocturnal and shy, was introduced to Southern Brazil in the late 18th century, from further down south from the Tupi-Gurani population in Paraguay, and the Saci underwent further modification in the 19th century. The original Paraguayan Yací-Yateré has been described by Cascudo as a red duende about the size of a 7 year-old child, who stole camp fire, having no knowledge how to strike fire.<ref>Template:Harvp; Template:Harvp citing Cascudo (1947) Geografia p. 58, repr. Template:Harvp, (1983), pp. 110–112.</ref> In the name Yací-Yateré, yací (Template:IPA) indeed means "Moon" in Old Tupi.
Couto de Magalhães (1876) also held the view that although he knew Saci Cerêrê to be a red capped, small-sized tapuio like figure, lame in one foot bearing wound marks on each knee, he thought the lore was too contaminated with Christian superstition to know the genuine indigenous lore at the heart of it. Thus the exact role of the Saci Cerêrê in the stewardship of plants was unclear to him, though it must have been assigned one, being a subservient spirit to Template:Ill who was the supreme mother of all vegetation as well as being a lunar goddess.<ref name="smith1879"/><ref name="couto_de_magalhães1876"/>
There have been various origin theories emphasizing the influenced of various ethnic groups, as collated in the studies by Renato da Silva Queiroz (1995a, 1995b). A different picture from Cascudo's on the origins of Saci contended that it was based on the Brazilian-African (Bantu) myth of Template:Lang, a one-legged, one-eyed black boy or man, proposed by Antônio Joaquim de Souza Carneiro (1937).<ref>Souza Carneiro, Antônio Joaquim de (1937) Template:URL, São Paulo: Companhia Editora Naciona, р. 253. apud Template:Harvp</ref> But Europe also spoke of the race of the one-legged Sciapod or Monopod goes which might have been a source, since this legend goes back to Classical times, later to be prominently illustrated in printed books.<ref>Barroso, Gustavo (1923). Template:URL. Rio de Janeiro: Leite Ribeiro, pp. 262–263. apud Template:Harvp</ref>
His red cap is a trait shared by the trasgo or "goblin", and (while the red cap is common in household spirits all over Europe), the trasgo in Portuguese lore has all its supernatural powers concentrated in the cap.<ref name="monteiro_lobato1962-carapucinha-tomar">Template:Harvp (children's story): "Template:Lang"</ref><ref name="simas2024"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Saci-Pererê concept shows some syncretism with Christian elements: he bolts away when faced with crosses, leaving behind a sulphurous smell – classical attributes of the devil in Christian folklore. It has been argued by Queiroz that Saci's sulfur smell, devilishness, thievery, sorcery, etc., are things that the "rural dominant class" among the Paulistas had ascribed black laboring population, while the common rural folk were free of such bigotry.Template:Sfnp Monteiro Lobato was not the inventor of the sulfur legend, having only collected it from readers.<ref>Template:Harvp Template:URL</ref> But Monteiro Lobato's children's book (1921) made Saci familiar to the urban populace, as a heroic figure black color, nevertheless retained the negative stigma of the sulfuric smell and capturability, resulting the modern media subsequently censuring and downplaying those aspects (thus "taming" the Saci from the wild) .Template:Sfnp
Parallel
A similar creature of lore is Romãozinho, a mythic black boy who hit his mother and was condemned to roam the fields and forests.<ref name="seabra_rodrigues_martins2014"/>
Saci day
Template:Main State of São Paulo in 2004 designated that October 31 be celebrated not as Halloween (aka "Dia das Bruxas") but as Saci Day. The nation of Brazil followed suit and made this official in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In popular culture
- The character remains quite popular in present-day Brazilian urban culture, mainly due to the immensely popular children's book O Saci by Monteiro Lobato (1921).<ref name="ReporterDiario2022-04-06"/> Saci also has appearances in other films and TV series adaptations of Sítio do Picapau Amarelo.
- 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 Turma do Pererê.<ref name="hubner2015"/> This original publication, the first of its genre to feature entirely "national" characters, was short-lived, but paved the way for other Brazilian cartoonists like Angeli, Laerte, and Mauricio de Sousa.
- The Saci-Perrere appears as Akuman-kun's 11th disciple in Shigeru Mizuki's manga Akuma-kun ("devil boy", aka "Shingo Umoregi" version, serialized 1988- and printed in 3 volume set, 1995)Template:Refn<ref name="Pen_henshubu2019"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Tom Jobim's song "Águas de Março" mentions the Matinta Pereira, and Nei Lopes's samba song entitled "Fumo de Rolo" tells a tale of a fisherman being accosted by the saci while collecting reeds in the forest. The Saci demands some tobacco for his pipe, but the poor fellow has lost his.
- In the 2012 video game Max Payne 3, set mainly in São Paulo, Brazil, a trickster Saci makes a cameo as a villain in the in-game cartoon show The Adventures of Captain Baseball Bat Boy. In it Saci has his trademark pipe, red cap and shorts, and is missing his right leg. However, his skin is green.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- The Saci appears in AdventureQuest Worlds. This version has a human-like appearance, wields a spoon, and has a tornado where his legs should be while also performing wind attacks.
- The Saci appears in Invisible City (2021), played by Wesley Guimarães.
- In 2024, the indie horror game "Saci: The Cursed Hunt" by Marcos Silva reimagines Saci as a terrifying figure rooted in Brazilian folklore. Set in the Amazon rainforest, the game challenges players to survive his relentless pursuit.
In science
A novel species of dinosauromorph, discovered in 2001 at Agudo (southern Brazil), was named Sacisaurus because the fossil skeleton was missing one leg.<ref>Ferigolo, J. and Langer, M.C. (2006), A Late Triassic dinosauriform from south Brazil and the origin of the ornithischian predentary bone, Historical Biology: A Journal of Paleobiology, p. 1-11. Template:In lang</ref>
The names of the Brazilian satellites SACI-1 and SACI-2 were backronyms on the character's name, as well as four retrotransposons in the DNA of the fluke Schistosoma mansoni were named Saci-1, Saci-2, Saci-3, and Perere, for their ability to jump around in the parasite's genome.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Since the Saci's one-legged physique reminds us of people with a physical disability, a social network named SACI (an acronym of Solidariedade, Apoio, Comunicação e Informação, meaning "Solidarity, Support, Communication, and Information") was created at the University of São Paulo with the purpose of stimulating these four efforts towards the social and medical rehabilitation of physically disabled people.<ref>Rede SACI: Solidariedade, Apoio, Comunicação e Informação - Índice » A SACI Template:Webarchive</ref>
As a mascot
Sport Club Internacional (and Social Futebol Clube) has the figure of Saci as its mascot, owing to the club's popular roots, the red color of his clothing and the fans' hope that the team could pull tricks on their opponents. When Wason Rentería played for the club, in the 2005 and 2006 seasons, he would often celebrate his goals by doing an impersonation of Saci.
See also
- Template:Annotated link
- Template:Annotated link
- Template:Annotated link
- Template:Annotated link
- Template:Annotated link
- Romãozinho - myth of a black boy who hit his mother and was condemned to roam the wilderness
Explanatory notes
References
Bibliography
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book Template:URL; Template:URL
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite journal (repository)
External links
- Retornar para Imaginário Template:In lang, chapter re capture of Saci, excerpted from Monteiro Lobato's O Saci (in Portuguese)
- The Ziraldo's version of Saci
- Template:Usurped
- The legend of Saci
- See the doc. Saci Documentary made in 2005
- Saci-Pererê Saci-Pererê: The Mischievous Legend of Brazilian Folklore
