| External image | |
|---|---|
 https://kr.pinterest.com/pin/587930926391751689/Oil painting of an orange shaggy curupira intruding on a girl in hammock ―Manoel Santiago [pt] (1926)O Curupira – Lenda Amazônica[1] |
TheCurupira,Currupira orKorupira (Portuguese pronunciation:[kuɾuˈpiɾɐ]) is a forest spirit in the myth of theTupí-Guaraní speaking areas in theBrazilian andParaguaianAmazon andGuyanas. It is a guardian of the rainforest that punishes humans for overcutting.
TheCurupira notably has feet pointing backwards allowing it to leave a backward trail offootprints, and by this confusion and other supernatural means causes the traveler to lose his way.
It is often said to look like a short-staturedtapuio orcaboclo (civilizedindigene or one of mixed race), but also said to be a bald but otherwise shaggy man (though the women have flowing hair). Some say it has blue or green teeth. The red-haired image has become fixture, perhaps due to conflation with thecaipora.
The Curupira according to early Jesuits was a feared being known to leave gruesomely scarred bodies, to be appeased by offerings. But it underwent a mutation via European influence, and was recast into more of a mischievous trickster type spirit, often bungling and letting humans outsmart it, though it could still cause misfortune and death.
The Curupira legend spansVenezuela, Guyana, Peru and Paraguay, and appears to have been passed fromKaraib-speakers to Guarani-speaking populace.[2]
The lore of theCurupira is not only found in Brazil, but also inParaguay andGuiana coinciding with the distribution of theTupi–Guarani languages.[3]
The nameCurupira means "covered in wounds or blisters",[4] and derives from an agglutination ofNheengatu:kuru "grain, rough", etc. andpiré "skin" (cog. Guarani/Tupi:pí), thus "rough or pimply skin". This kurupire may have been passed on perhaps from Nheengatu-speakers in Brazil to the Tupinambá speakers, then to the Guaraní-speaking population in the south.[5][6]
The name is normally styled "Curupira" (inPará) and spelt "Currupira" in the south.[7] It is also argued that curupira goes by other names depending on region, namely Çacy tapereré (Saci Pererê) in the south, Caipora in the central region ), and Maty-taperé in the North[a].[8] Sometimes transcribed "Korupira".[10][2]
Some commentators have argued theCurupira andCaipora to be the same, others say they are different.[11] The usage is regional, for example, fromMaranhão south toEspírito Santo, its persistent nickname isCaipora[12] (cf.§ Conflation with Caipora).
TheCurupira is a "hominoid spirit"[13] or god,[7] perhaps a "wild man",[15] considered the guardian of the forest. It punishes humans who wantonly harvest lumber by making him lose his way, wander timelessly in the forest, so he becomes unable to reach his home.[16]
TheCurupira is described as a small-staturedtapuio ("brown man"[17][b]),[18] or a "caboclinho" (diminutive ofcaboclo), of similar meaning.[19]
Notably, theCurupira has his feet turned backwards,[c] to mislead trackers with footprints proceeding in the opposite direction, so that one trying to flee theCurupira actually pursues it.[18][20][d]
TheCurupira allegedly has family, a wife and children[20][22] living in the hollow of dead trees. The women have long hair.[23][21][e] Sometimes they trespass upon a humanroça (crop field) to steal the mandioca (manioc).[14] Or else it is said that the wife is some old, ugly eviltapuya woman who plays accomplice to his misdeeds, and among their children, the youngest is theSaci[f][24] Note thatCaipora (Kaapora) has been discussed as a variant of Curupira, and its wife is identified as Tatácy (in Amazonas) and Tatámanha (in Pará).[25][g]
Curupira was blamed for causing bad thoughts and nightmares.[26] It is also said to have been a "mischievous wood-sprite"[h] that engages in conversation with humans, foments distrust and dissent among individuals, and enjoy watching them fall into misfortune,[27] but this description, taken to mean a "comical spirit" has been viewed unfavorably.[28][11] The Curupira is attested as being regarded as a "god of thinking" or of "lies and deception"[30] (cf.§ History for further details), which may have to do with it being seen as playing with one's mind in general.
TheCurupira is fond of tobacco, and rewards hunters for offering it, but they must keep it secret from their wives.[31][9] Besides tobacco it lovescachaça (sugarcane booze),[33] and hunters are known to offer these as propitiation to the Curupira.[34][35]
Curupira can also be regarded as a rider of a deer, rabbit, or pig,[9] or apeccary, variously given to be awhite-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari)[36] or acollared peccary (T. tajacu[37] ; cf.§ Conflation with Caipora). In the lore of the state ofPernambuco, theCurupira orKorupira (though the sources consider these a variant of thecaipora/caapora) rides a deer, and is accompanied by his dog named “Papa-mel".[38][39][40]
The physical appearance is described variously.[17] He is said to have enormous ears and blue or green teeth (in theSolimões River basin).[41][21][17] It is also said to be balding or bald-headed (Tupinambá:piroka[i]) but hairy-bodied with long body hair (in theRio Negro basin).[41][17] NaturalistBates remarked that it was like anorangutan with shaggy hair, living in trees,[14] so that in later commentary the curupira was generally attributed with red/orange hair.[j][42][1] Others have said it has a bright red face and cloven feet.[14] Other regions held that it was one-eyed[9] (Rio Tapajós basin), or that it has noanus hence becomes solidly or massively built (according to Pará lore).[k][7][43]
While Bates considered theCurupira andCaipora as distinguishable,[14] they were considered to be the same by German naturalistMartius.[11]
Long red body hair seems to have been ascribed originally to theCaipora, said to be similar toCurupira.[44] The Caipora is said to ride acollared peccary (taitetú),[45] and the Curupira has come to be commonly portrayed riding one also.[37]
TheCurupira also confuses travelers in the woods by producing high pitched whistling soundmimicking the call of thetinamou (inambú) bird.[46]
TheCurupira allegedly beats on the projecting root of the tree (sapopema, i.e.,buttress root) to diagnose if it remains sturdy enough to resist storms. Thus when paddlers traveling by canoe in the rivers of Pará hear beating noises in the forest, they will say it is the sound of Curupira performing that chore.[16][47]
According to the fieldwork ofCharles Wagley conducted in the 1950s, theCurupira was known not only to make "long shrill cries" from the depths of the forest, but could mimic human voices to lurerubber tappers or hunters and lead them astray.[19] In an old anecdote of an actual encounter, the child-sizedcurupira was strong enough to throw the man up in the air and break his legs. The man took out holy wax from his pouch, causing the creature to come no closer, but it had suchcatinga (bad odor) about him it rendered the hunter unconscious.[l][19][13]
Supposedly the Curupira sings a certain enchanting song that attracts humans, and the lyrics literally mean "I'm walking along my path, behind me come walking, walking".[48]
To counter against theCurupira's effect of losing one's way, the traveler must fashion a cross or a wheel made ofliana vine (Portuguese:cipó), and while the spirit is engaged trying to unravel it, the traveler gains opportunity to escape.[21] The naturalistBates also records that themameluco youth who frequently accompanied him refused to proceed without hanging a charm made ofpalm-leaf formed into a wheel, in order to ward against the curupira.[14]
Herbert Huntington Smith (1879) records a story[m] where aCurupira kills a native hunter and brings back the heart to the man's wife and child to eat. The wife realizes the deception at night and flees with the child. She is helped by a frog that spits a gummy substance, which lifts her up to a tree. TheCurupira gets stuck on the frog's sticky goo trying to climb, and dies.[49]
Another story was given byCharles Frederick Hartt tells of a hunter who was asked to hand over his heart, but outwits theCurupira. The man passes off a monkey heart as his own, persuadingCurupira to carve out its own heart, thus committing his own murder. Hartt compared it to the Norwegian folktale "About Askeladden who Stole from the Troll" ("Boots and the Troll"). The hunter later goes to collect the green teeth of theCurupira, and discovers it has revived, giving him a magic bow, but sworn to secrecy. The inquisitive of his wife loosens his tongue and the hunter dies.[50][22] In a variant version, the hunter breaks the taboo against using the magic bow to hunt birds, and is pecked to death by a flock. The hunter is mended by theCurupira usingwax to replace his flesh, but the warning not to eat hot foods thereafter goes unheeded by the hunter, who melts away due to the heat intake.[9][52]
The oldest mention of his name is by the JesuitJosé de Anchieta, in São Vicente, on 30 May 1560:[2]
"It's a well-known thing and it's rumored by everyone that there are certain demons, which the Brazilians callcorupira, that often attack Indians in the bush, wound them with the whip, tormenting and killing them. Our Brothers are witnesses of this, having seen [the dead] killed by them. Therefore, the Indians [in order to appease the demons] traverse the path through thesertão hinterlands, full of rough woodland and steep hills, to reach the highest mountain, leaving bird feathers, fans, arrows and such things [as a kind of oblation], begging [the demons] to do them no harm".[53][54]
Other early mentions[2] were made by JesuitFernão Cardim [pt] (1584),[55] and by the DutchmanJohannes de Laet (director ofDutch West India Company, in 1640)[55]
Acuña (1641) is mentioned as an earlier testimony, but he writes on the Mutayu tribe, reputed to have feet facing backwards, known to be a great craftsmen ofstone axes, whom Acuña said were a subbranch of theTupinambá.[56] However,Sérgio Buarque de Holanda (Caminhos e Fronteiras 1957) argued the "fabulous Mutayu" and theCurupira myth to be a product derived from the rainforest people's tactical practice of wearing shoes to throw enemies off their path.[57]
Cardim records thatCurupira is the devil the indigenous people revere and fear above all else, but do not craft any idols of them.[55] De Laet's mentions it,[58] and together with his collaborator Marcgravius (Georg Marcgrave) wrote in Latin that the names for the Devil among the populace was "Anhanga,Jurupari, Curupari [sic]",[29] of which the Curupira was called anuomenmentis, perhaps meaning "spirit of thoughts" as glossed by FatherSimão de Vasconcelos [pt] (1663).[59][n][2] But this Latin can also be construed as meaning the deity of “lies” and “deceptions” according toGonçalves Dias (1867).[60][29]Cascudo does not appear to warm to that interpretation, and writes that Father João Daniel (1797) would have disagreed.[29] João Daniel had described a deity that shouted out loud demanding offerings, and the populace got straightforwardly "beaten" for being derelict in their propitiation obligations.[29]
As the "god of thoughts" (or "god of lies" perhaps),Curupira had been treated as a venerated part of thepantheon, but later got corrupted to a sort of "imp orbuffoon" according toDaniel Garrison Brinton.[59] Compare mythographerHartley Burr Alexander who characterizedCurupira as less Satan and morePan-like.[9]
Martius's characterization as "mischievous wood-sprite",[27] which were taken to mean a "comical spirit" has been cited by other scholars, but they may have taken exception to this view.[o][11][28] Martius's point thatCurupira as less sinister than theJurupari[27] seems lost to them.
Also, there used to be compartmentalization of the different gods' duties where Anhanga protected large game, Caipora/Caapora small game, and theMboitatá the grasses and shrubbery. But this divide broke down, and Curupira later came to be regarded as the unchallenged ruler over not just the forestry but all the wonders in it, according to the analysis ofCascudo.[61]
Eduardo Galvão [pt] (1955) informs: "Currupira is a genius of the forest. In the city or in thecapoeiras in its immediate neighborhood there are no currupiras. They live further away, far inside the forest. The people of the city believe in their existence, but they are not a reason for concern because currupiras don't like heavily populated places".[63]
Mapinguari has been paralleled with the Pokái in the tradition ofMacushi[p] who inhabit the forests in the mountain chains ofRoraimá state, is an identical myth. The Pokái is "a small, long-haired country urchin with a long nose, with feet turned backwards, lame in one leg, and using the heel of his foot to hit the drums".[41] The lore about theIuoroko orIuoroco among the Pariqui[q] people ofJatapu River may also be the same myth.[41][64]
Other counterparts are the Máguare of In Venezuela; the Selvage of Columbia, theIncanChudiachaque of Peru, and the Kauá ofKokamas of Bolivia.[41]
TheCurupira has also been paralleled withRübezahl the alpine god of theSudeten Mountains.[24]
Charles Frederick Hartt named three foreign mythical beings comparable to the curupira: Norwegiantroll as aforementioned, the Russianleshy, and the Algonquian "Manabozho/Manobozho" (cog.Ojibwa:Nanabozho).[2]: note 1
In one narrative, Manabozho watches themoose man magically extract a large piece of meat from his own wife (but heals her afterwards usingmeeta or 'magical cure'[65]); Manabozho then tries to imitate this on his own wife, nearly killing her. This parallels the motif in the narrative (cf. above) where the hunter tricks the curupira into carving out his own heart.[66]
ARussian Fairy Tales story collected byAfanasyev, about the fox that tricks the bear into smashing its own forehead and eating the contents, also exhibits the same motif.[67][68][66] The Russian leshy ("lyeshy") with green hair and green teeth is only superficially similar to theCurupira.[66]
TheState of São Paulo, as decreed by law of September 11, 1970, signed by governor Roberto Costa de Abreu Sodré, "establishes theCurupira as the state symbol of the guardian of the forests and the animals that live in them". OnArbor Day, September 21 of that year, a statue monument of Curupira was placed in what was thenHorto Florestal (nowAlbert Löfgren State Park), in the state capitalSão Paulo. The statuette was vandalized and removed to museum, but a new version was commissioned from Thirso Cruz, and the replacement restored to the park. Cruz had originally created the (since stolen) Curupira statue that stood in Fábio Barreto municipal forest,Ribeirão Preto, based on which the original Horto statue got created.[70]
In the municipality ofOlímpia, in that state, for over thirty consecutive years, no official documents are signed during the week in which the Folklore Festival takes place, in the month of August, a period in which the municipal authority is represented byCurupira, which exercises its power by protecting the local population and visitors who come there, birds, forests, etc.[citation needed]
The Fundaçao Brasileira para Conservação da Natureza (FBCN) has adopted the curupira as its official symbol in 1958.[71][72][34]
A being called the Demon Curupira was featured in several episodes of the 1999–2002 television seriesBeastmaster. Played by Australian actressEmilie de Ravin, this Curupira, while still possessing the backwards feet, had the appearance of a young and deceptively sweet-faced blonde girl clad in green. She was a spirit of the forest and very capricious; she protected the animals, particularly tigers, and with a kiss she could drain humans of their lives, reducing their bodies to mere husks. She was an uneasy ally of the title character, Dar.
In the 2020 animated filmThe Red Scroll, the character Idril is inspired byCurupira, although she does not have backwards feet, she clearly demonstrates the ability to leave inverted footprints on the ground in one of the scenes.[73]
The 2021 Netflix seriesInvisible City features numerous characters of Brazilian lore, including Curupira. Curupira, played byFabio Lago, is portrayed as a homeless person who is actually an entity that guards and protects Brazilian forests, perceived by his backward feet, flaming head, and illusion-like high whistles that combine nature and human voices.[74]
"Cha uatá, uatá
Ce rapé rupi
Cha uatá, uatá,
Ce rakakuera
Yure uatá, uatá"
Облакомился Мишка и ну тискать себе изо лба кишочки, до тех пор надрывался, пока не околел Mishka ate [the chicken] then and started squeezing the stuff out of his forehead, until it burst and he died.
