Caipora () or Caapora (Kaapora) is a forest spirit or humanoid and guardian of wildlife or game in Brazilian folklore.
The word "Caipora" comes from Tupi and means "inhabitant of the forest" and perhaps may be traced to Kaagere (also meaning "forest dweller" and an alias of anhanga) of the Tupi-Guaraní mythology, but this is far from definite.
Caipora is variously represented as a dark-skinned, small Native American girl (caboclinha) or boy (), a dwarf or large-sized hairy humanoid or beast. It is often said to ride an animal such as the peccary and is 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 with Curupira, 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.
Nomenclature Luís da Câmara Cascudo contended that Caapora (Caapóra) is the masculine and Caipora (Caipóra) is the feminine form (thus preceded by feminine definite article: "A Caipora" ); the gender changed by vowel shift from a to i.; Or, Caipora is the vulgarized spelling, while Kaapora is the localized name used in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba and Ceará, etc., according to João Barbosa Rodrigues.
Other alternate forms are Cahapora or Cahipora.
In Bahia, the being is female, and her name is corrupted to due to assimilation with , the lady of the forest, and , meaning "fence, etc.",; but this term is generally recognized as having other meanings: "caiçaras" refer to coastal-dwelling people, derived from caiçara, referring to branches used by fishermen to trap fish. (See further description of Kaiçara, below).
Etymology The terms and (syn. anhanga) both mean "forest dweller", containing the stem "forest" in Tupi.;
Alternative etymologies are that Caiporo may descend from meaning "one who carries fire" or "one who burns"; or possibly from "one who is shy" or "one who runs away" according to the gloss by Teodoro Fernandes Sampaio (1928).
Figurative use The term Caipora is figuratively applied to persons whose presence or intervention is considered to be of bad influence and sometimes also applied to persons who are going through tough times, with bad luck and unhappiness. Note that according to the natives, the Caapora is so powerful that the Indian who has encountered it becomes unsuccessful at every step, that is to say, a hunter or fisherman who encountered it could be afflicted with ill-lucked caipórismo for the rest of his life.
The word "Caipora" has also been used to describe the slaves who had escaped into the forests.
Description The lore specifically about the Caapora/Caipora is not attested by the Jesuits and cannot be classed as a piece of native Tupi-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.
Nevertheless, the lore is ubiquitous all over Brazil, and they are said to inhabit not only the Amazon rainforest but also "the hills of Rio Grande do Sul or the fields of Santa Catarina and Minas Gerais" in the south.
Dwarf or giant, boy or girl The Caapora is described as dwarf-sized being, looking like an indigenous human and dark-skinned. Sometimes described as a large-headed child and other times as an enchanted (diminutive female form of caboclo, i.e., indigenous girl-child), or enchanted (boy) though still considered a "dark, robust, hairy, agile" girl/boy at that. The girl form may be naked or be wearing a tanga/thong (or loincloth). Cascudo believes there is relative consensus that Caapora is a dwarf figure.
However, by a number of commentators, the Caapora is considered a giant, e.g., "a large man covered in black hair" by José Vieira Couto de Magalhães, and by others. João Simões Lopes Neto (1913) described it as a hairy giant man. Couto de Magalhães also records a Nheengatu (Tupi) tale about the Jabuti (tortoise) and the giant Caapora". Additionally Juan Bautista Ambrosetti (1917) also recorded that the "Caá-Porá" was considered a hairy giant with shaggy hair in the state of Paraná. This Caá-Porá would eat raw the animals downed by hunters but left undiscovered. Cornélio Pires (1921) described the caipora as a (var. of caboclo) and a "big, fat guy, hairy as a beast, bearded, short-headed, with a flat snub nose, thick lips and a full face".
The Caapora of Ceará is bristly-headed, but not hairy-bodied, with sharp teeth like the howler monkey, and (glowing red) eyes like embers.Lore of Ceará according to Elsewhere in the Northeast Region, it rides a deer or even a rabbitLore of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba according to (suggesting a small size).
Bahia's Kaiçara is dark-skinned, that is, "a small cabocla, almost black",: "". whereas in Ilhéus, Bahia, they know her as Kaapora and describe her as a "young , fair-skinned and beautiful"."", requoted by Furthermore, in one Bahia tale, the Caipora is an "old black man", who after receiving tobacco, aids a man lost in the woods by using a freshly cut stick (vara) to magically transport him back home. In a second Bahia tale, the Caipora was a hairy little boy, only one side of whom could be seen, and black as a devil.;
Habitat, mounting animals, herd, dog He dwells in the (hollows of) rotting trees, according to an ethnic Timbira informant. Some say he dwells with the so-called "forest hog" () or peccary. He also famously mounts these creatures for his rides. The "forest hog " may be either the creature known in Portuguese as queixada (white-lipped peccary) or caititu (collared peccary).; He may also ride a tapir, porcupine, or other creatures.
Caipora rides his pig or peccary while holding a stick and waves it around to cause them to flee (so as to spoil the hunt for undeserving hunters), or just to drive his animal, as with a riding crop.: "always riding a large pig... and occasionally giving a shout to drive [the animal with] the rod()"
In the Northeast, he is said to carry a whip of the spiny vine (, a Smilax sp.) and by transforming into any beast he wishes, lures the dogs into the woods then whips them while riding a deer or rabbit.
The Caipora's weapon may be described as simply a "thorny vine" or "spiny liana" (), and may be made from various plants, such as the japecanga, nettle, nettlespurge, or favela (Cnidoscolus quercifolius). In some states, she is said to use the thorny liana vine to punish to death an ex-lover who has gone off to marry another girl (cf.).
Some say the Caapora controls a massive herd of caititu peccaries, riding the largest of them, or that he rides the last pig at the rearguard of the whole herd. In a Bahia tale, the boy-Caipora rides a lean, bony pig out of the pack. Some state he is surrounded by all kinds of beasts, not only peccaries and deer, but even serpents and insects. He allegedly uses fireflies to act as his scouts.
Protector of wild game The Caipora is lord and protector of small game (the lesser-sized animals that are hunted), but she does not have dominion over feathered game (birds).;
Formerly it was considered to be easily bribed with tobacco and cachaça liquor to bestow a bountiful catch. The caboclinha is even said to encircle passers-by at night, demanding tobacco for her pipe (). In its female aspect, the Caipora is compared to Diana 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 will club the hunting dogs with an invisible weapon. Cascudo writes that she also loves unflavored porridge () without salt or sugar, and she especially hates peppercorn, so that she will refuse the peppered gruel and beat the person under her grace.
The Caipora is very vengeful of hunters who do not respect the rules of "fair-play" when hunting. The Caipora particularly frowns upon the hunting of pregnant females and those with their young. It is said that the caipora scares away prey (makes them disappear so none to be found to hunt), sets traps, or makes hunters lose their way in the jungle by disorients the hunters with simulated animal noises or by leaving fake tracks.
According to a popular belief, its activity intensifies on those days in which hunting is not supposed to take place, therefore on Fridays (or moonlit Fridays), it is a taboo to hunt, and on Sundays and religious days, it is forbidden or limited to hunts of precise nature. 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. In one collected anecdote (from Guarabira, Paraíba), a man who went hunting on a Friday found no game, except a dove (, Leptotila genus), and though he shot its crop and its innards fell out, the bird revived and flew away.
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 with . 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 ()". However, this bribe is not failproof.
As in the foregoing example (dove), it is said that the Caipora even has the power to resurrect creatures by various means, "at the touch of pig's snout (see example below), his stinger-goad (see example below), Smilax (greenbriar) branch, or by verbal command".
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" (, or rather his sting-tipped goad). 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.
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), or baize (, 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.
As terror After an encounter with the caipora, a person is overtaken with the dread of terror. More sinister characterizations accuse him of luring children into his dwelling in a rotten tree. The Caá-Porá is even alleged to carry a pipe made from a human skull and tibia and is supposed to devour humans by sucking on them, leaving the intestines scattered.
The Caipora is merely a ghost that transforms into a pig or dog in regions of Argentina and Uruguay according to Cascudo, such a being is described by Juan Bautista Ambrosetti, who remarks that as the shapeshifting 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.
Love relationships And "in the forests of Pará, Amazonas and Acre, the modern-day Caipora allegedly engages in romantic commerce with humans, but demands absolute fidelity". Recorded lore from the state of São Paulo also alleges the hairy Caapora chases after unmarried girls who are out alone at night.
Comparative analysis