Caipora (Portuguese pronunciation:[kajˈpɔɾɐ]) orCaapora (Kaapora[1]) is a forest spirit orhumanoid and guardian of wildlife or game inBrazilian folklore.
The word "Caipora" comes fromTupi and means "inhabitant of the forest", and perhaps may be traced to Kaagere (also meaning "forest dweller", and an alias ofanhanga) of theTupi-Guaraní mythology, but this is far from definite.
Caipora is variously represented as a dark-skinned, smallNative American girl (caboclinha) or boy (caboclinho), a dwarf or large-sized hairy humanoid or beast. It is often said to ride an animal such as thepeccary, and armed with a stick or whip made of certain plants. It takes bribes of tobacco and alcohol, and sometimes also has a pipe.
Its description varies greatly depending on the region or source. It is sometimes confused withCurupira, which is another mythological creature who protects the forest, but it is also amenable to comparison with other mythical creatures (Saci,Pé de garrafa) with which it may share certain traits.
Luís da Câmara Cascudo contended that Caapora (Caapóra[2]) is themasculine and Caipora (Caipóra[3]) is thefeminine form (thus preceded by femininedefinite article: "A Caipora" ), the gender changed by vowel shift from a to i.[4] Or, Caipora is the vulgarized spelling,[5] while Kaapora is the localized name used in the states ofRio Grande do Norte,Paraíba andCeará, etc., according toJoão Barbosa Rodrigues.[6]
Other alternate forms areCahapora orCahipora.[7]
InBahia, the being is female, and her name is corrupted toCaiçara/Kaiçara due to assimilation withCaa-iara, the lady of the forest, andcaa-içá, meaning "fence, etc.",[8][9] but this term is generally recognized as having other meanings: "caiçaras" refer to coastal-dwelling people, derived fromcaiçara, referring to branches used by fishermen to trap fish.[10][a] (See further description of Kaiçara, below).
The termscaapora andcaaguera/kaagere (syn.anhanga) both mean "forest dweller", containing the stemcaa "forest" inTupi.[11][12][13][14]
Alternative etymologies are that Caiporo may descend fromcai-pora meaning "one who carries fire" or "one who burns"; or possibly fromcaí-pora "one who is shy" or "one who runs away", according to the gloss byTeodoro Fernandes Sampaio (1928).[15]
The term Caipora isfiguratively applied to persons whose presence or intervention is considered to be of bad influence,[16] and sometimes also applied to persons who is going through tough times, with bad luck and unhappiness.[16] Note that according to the natives, the Caapora is so powerful that the Indian who has encountered it becomes unsuccessful at every step,[17] that is to say, a hunter or fisherman who encountered it could be afflicted with ill-luckedcaipórismo for the rest of his life.[2][b]
The word "Caipora" has also been used to describe the slaves who had escaped into the forests.[18]
The lore specifically about the Caapora/Caipora are not attested by the Jesuits,[4] and cannot be classed as a piece of nativeTupi-Guarani myth known from the missionary era, unless the aforementioned identity with the Kaagere/Anhanga can be ascertained, but Casudo considers the original ancestry of the Caapora to be obscure.[4]
Nevertheless, the lore is ubiquitous all over Brazil, said to inhabit not only theAmazon rainforest but "the hills ofRio Grande do Sul or the fields ofSanta Catarina andMinas Gerais" in the south.[4]
The Caapora is described as dwarf-sized being, looking like an indigenous human,[21] and dark-skinned.[22] Sometimes described as a large-headed child and other times as an enchantedcaboclinha (diminutive female form ofcaboclo, i.e., indigenous girl-child[23]),[16] or enchantedcaboclinho (boy)[24] though still considered a "dark, robust, hairy, agile" girl/boy at that.[22] The girl form may be naked or be wearing atanga/thong (orloincloth[25]).[26] Cascudo believes there is relative consensus that Caapora is a dwarf figure.[27]
However, by a number of commentators, the Caapora is considered a giant, e.g., "a large man covered in black hair" byJosé Vieira Couto de Magalhães, and by others.[7][27][c]João Simões Lopes Neto (1913) described it as a hairy giant man.[2][28] Couto de Magalhães also records aNheengatu (Tupi) tale about theJabuti (tortoise) and the giant Caapora".[29][27][26] AdditionallyJuan Bautista Ambrosetti (1917) also recorded that the "Caá-Porá" was considered a hairy giant with shaggy hair in the state ofParaná. This Caá-Porá would eat raw the animals downed by hunters but left undiscovered.[30]Cornélio Pires (1921) described the caipora as acabocro (var. ofcaboclo[d]) and a "big, fat guy, hairy as a beast, bearded, short-headed, with a flatsnub nose, thick lips and a full face".[34]
The Caapora ofCeará is bristly-headed, but not hairy-bodied, with sharp teeth like thehowler monkey, and (glowing red[35]) eyes like embers.[36] Elsewhere in theNortheast Region, it rides adeer or even arabbit[37] (suggesting a small size).
Bahia's Kaiçara is dark-skinned, that is, "a smallcabocla, almost black",[38][25] whereas inIlhéus, Bahia, they know her as Kaapora and describe her as a "youngcabocla, fair-skinned and beautiful".[39] Furthermore, in one Bahia tale, the Caipora is an "old black man",[28] who after receiving tobacco, aids a man lost in the woods by using a freshly cut stick (vara) to magically transport him back home.[40] In a second Bahia tale, the Caipora was a hairy little boy, and only one side of whom could be seen, black as a devil.[41][42]
He dwells in the (hollows of) rotting trees, according to an ethnicTimbira informant.[17][21] Some say he dwells with, the so-called "forest hog" (porco-do-mato) or peccary. He also famously mounts these creatures for his rides. The "forest hog " may be either the creature known in Portuguese asqueixada (white-lipped peccary) orcaititu (collared peccary).[27] He may also ride atapir,[17][21] orporcupine,[43] or other creatures.
Caipora rides his pig or peccary while holding a stick, and waves them around to cause them to flee (so as to spoil the hunt for undeserving hunters),[45] or just to drive his animal, as with ariding crop.[46][e][f]
In theNortheast he is said to carry a whip of the spiny vine (Portuguese:japecanga/yapekanga, aSmilax sp.[26][g])[36][42] and by transforming into any beast he wishes, lures the dogs into the woods, then whips them,[37] riding a deer or rabbit.[37]
The Caipora's weapon may be described as simply a "thorny vine" or "spinyliana" (Portuguese:cipó espinhento),[48] and may be made from various plants, such as thejapecanga,nettle,nettlespurge,[h] orfavela (Cnidoscolus quercifolius).[42] In some states, she is said to use the thornyliana vine to punish to death an ex-lover who has gone off to marry another girl (cf.§ Love relationships).[49]
Some say the Caapora controls a massive herd ofcaititu peccaries, riding the largest of them,[17][21] or that he rides the last pig at therearguard of the whole herd.[50] In a Bahia tale, the boy-Caipora rides a lean, bony pig out of the pack.[41] Some state he is surrounded by all kinds of beasts, not only peccaries, deer, but even serpents and insects.[51] He allegedly usesfireflies to act as his scouts.[17][21]
The Caipora is lord and protector of small game (the lesser-sized animals that are hunted),[52] but she does not have dominion over feathered game (birds).[53]
Formerly it was considered to be easily bribed with tobacco[36] andcachaça liquor to bestow a bountiful catch.[27] Thecaboclinha is even said to encircle passers-by at night, demanding tobacco for her pipe (cachimbo).[43] In its female aspect, the Caipora is compared toDiana the huntress-goddess of Roman myth, as Caipora may assist or hinder the hunt depending on the state of grace of the hunter. If displeased with the hunter, she willclub the hunting dogs with an invisible weapon.[30][i] Cascudo writes that she also loves unflavored porridge (Portuguese:mingau) without salt or sugar, and she especially hatespeppercorn, so that she will refuse the peppered gruel, and beat the person under her grace.[53]
The Caipora is very vengeful of hunters who do not respect the rules of "fair-play" when hunting.[citation needed] The Caipora particularly frowns upon the hunting of pregnant females and those with their young.[42] It is said that the caipora scares away prey[42] (make them disappear so none to be found to hunt[34]), set traps,[54] or makes hunters lose their way in the jungle by disorients the hunters with simulated animal noises,[51] or by leaving fake tracks.[54][j]
According to a popular belief, its activity intensifies on those days in which hunting is not supposed to take place, therefore on Fridays,[34] (or moonlit Fridays[42]) it is a taboo to hunt, and Sundays and the religious days, it is forbidden[55][54] or limited to hunts of precise nature.[42] Thus Caipora lays in wait among the ferns on Fridays, and causes the hunt to fail: all the game disappears, and even worse, the hunter's shot will hit a companion or a dog.[34] In one collected anecdote (Guarabira, Paraíba), a man who went hunting on a Friday found no game, except a dove (Portuguese:juruti, juriti,Leptotila genus), and though he shot itscrop and its innards fell out, the bird revived and flew away.[53]
While religious belief prohibits the hunt on a Friday, Sunday, or holidays, there is a possibility one could bribe the protector of the forest out of punishment by bribing him withrope tobacco [pt]. The hunter should go to a trunk of a tree, make the offering, preferably before the hunt on a Thursday night, and say "Here you go, Caipora, [now] let me go away (Toma, Caipora, deixa euir embora)". However, this bribe is not failproof.[55][56]
As in the foregoing example (dove), it is said that the Caipora even has the power to resurrect creatures[54][57] by various means, "at the touch of pig's snout (see example below),[k] his stinger-goad (see example below),Smilax (greenbriar) branch, or by verbal command".[58]
In the aforementioned Caipora as a hairy black boy, who was half invisible and rode a thin pig (tale 2 from Bahia), a hunter shoots several pig with a rifle, but the Caipora arrives holding a "stinger" (ferrão, or rather his sting-tippedgoad[42]). When the Caipora strikes the downed pigs, they all revive, but the sting breaks off when he overdoes his battering of the last, largest pig. The Caipora then turns up in disguise at the blacksmith's tent to have the sting on the goad repaired.[41]
Another manner in which the Caapora is described as dispensing its boon of hunting is that in exchange for the offering of tobacco, booze (cachaça), orbaize (Portuguese:baieta, coarse woolen material), it would allow so-many wild pigs, or pigs from its own herd to be shot by the blessed hunter. If the hunter is without blessing, his bullets will be useless because any pig shot dead will revive at the touch of the snout of the Caapora's riding pig.[24]
After an encounter with the caipora, a person is overtaken with the dread of terror.[16] More sinister characterizations accuse him of luring children into his dwelling in a rotten tree.[21][17] The Caá-Porá is even alleged to carry a pipe made from human skull andtibia, and is supposed to devour humans by sucking on them, leaving theintestines scattered.[59]
The Caipora is merely a ghost that transforms into a pig or dog in regions ofArgentina andUruguay according to Cascudo,[9] such a being is described byJuan Bautista Ambrosetti, who remarks that as theshapeshifting specter, the appellation changes from Caá-Porá to just "Porá" denoting a type of ghost. He adds that it breathes fire to scare the animals away.[59]
And "in the forests ofPará,Amazonas andAcre, the modern-day Caipora allegedly engages in romantic commerce with humans, but demands absolute fidelity".[49] Recorded lore from thestate of São Paulo also alleges the hairy Caapora chases after unmarried girls who are out alone at night.[50]
Cascudo, who considered Caipora to be feminine, as aforementioned,[4] further wrote "Curupiras and Caaporas merged into Caipora, or rather, into the Caipora that the inhabitants of Acre describe, as do the people of theNortheast, as a small, dark, robust, hairy, agilecaboclinha (female childcaboclo[23]), with her hair covering her sex, hunting whoever gives her tobacco and having extremely jealous love[-relationships]".[22] Later literature has ascribed the dark-skinned Caapora with red hair, in common with the Curupira.[60][54]
The Caapora and Curupira are to an extent mutually substitutable, and what is told about the one in some region will hold true for the other according to tradition elsewhere[61] or according to a variant source. Just as the Caipora rides the peccary and swings his stick,[44] Curupira is known to mount aporco-do-mato (peccary) and carry a "thick piece of wood".[47]
Cascudo also noted it may be ascribed as having double right feet like some Curupira, or be one-legged like theSaci (or unipedal woman[16]), and also be considered either two-eyed or one-eyed (like theArimaspi, Scythian race dwelling near gold-guarding griffins).[4] Caapora is not known to be a guardian of vegetation, in contrast to the Curupira, but Caapora was the lord of smaller game.[52] Besides being one-eyed, the Caipora has been ascribed a round foot, like thePé de garrafa ("bottle-foot").[24]
In the state ofSergipe, Caipora is alleged to kill people by tickling, which is characteristic of the Saci.[9] Caipora may be a tobacco-loving girl carrying a pipe[43] (or a hairy man,[59] or a hairy beast with one[63]), just as the Saci is commonly depicted as holding a pipe.[61]
Casucudo floated the possibility that Caapoora/Caipora might possibly traced to the lore of the Kaagere (var. Kaagerre, Kaagire or Kaigerre),anhanga (French transliteration:Agnan[l]), recorded byAndré Thevet in the 16th century. The description suggests that the indigenous tribes believed the kaagere/anhanga that come at night to do evil-doing could be warded off using fire.[64] The poetAntônio Gonçalves Dias (1867) was convinced Caapora and Kaagere were identical, as they were of the same "forest-dweller" meaning etymologically.[21]
Casucudo observed that theChilean analogue of the Caipora might be theAnchimallén ofMapuche lore. The Anchimallén too was a protector of animals, also accepted offerings (though of blood), and dealt out misfortune and heralded bad news.[65] An Argentine analogue might be theyastay orllastay (though thisyastay may also count as part ofChilean mythology), who is depicted as afrostburned short fat man, and protector especially of the herds ofcamelids such as theguanaco andvicuña. He also has a black dog as constant companion.[65]
In the children's TV seriesCastelo Rá-Tim-Bum, Caipora is a regular character.[66] In this version is characterized as a female creature with a big red fur and a black mask. She has the ability to teleport when hear whistles and sometimes demonstrates wild aspects.
In the2001 TV adaptation ofSítio do Picapau Amarelo the character was introduced between the last two seasons as a regular character.
InHarry Potter, the Caipora protect the magical school Castelobruxo in Brazil. They are described as small, furry, and extremely mischievous.[67]
Artes do Caipora em Cordel, an illustrated children's book written by the poet and folkloristMarco Haurélio [pt] and illustrated by Luciano Tasso, was published in2013. The story accounts as a hunter who disobeys his father by going to hunt on a holy day; he finds the Caipora, who resuscitates all the animals that he slaughtered.
InLegend Quest: Masters of Myth, the Caipora makes an appearance on the episode of the same name.
