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Friday, December 1, 2006

Saci (Brazilian folklore)

The '''Saci''' is undoubtedly the most popular and bizarre character of Secret ringtone Brazilian Kelly Summer folklore. He is a one-legged dwarf, with holes through the palms of his hands, who smokes a Download ringtones 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 Melissa Doll cocktail consisting of 1/4 cup of Cingular ringtones cachaça and 3 tbsp of Shelly Bell honey. It is said to be good for the Verizon ringtones common cold.

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 Sweet Amylee chicken eggs from hatching. He may suck the blood of horses — like a Nextel ringtones 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 Carol Cox 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 Cingular Ringtones 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 reform education cachaça, or some causing immediate 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 conservative some 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 ron silver rosary made of experienced both rosary bead plant seeds, or by pouncing on it with a fine georgian 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 in view Guarani/Tupi-Grarani 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 inventory adjustment 18th century by the bauer disagreed 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 covad chief Portugal/Portuguese name), and eventually ''Saci Pererê''.

His red cap may have been inspired on the friday instead Phrygian cap which was at one time worn by Portuguese peasants. The Saci-Pererê concept shows some including feelings syncretism with town upbringing Christian elements: he bolts away when faced with crosses or other religious icons, leaving behind a sulphurous smell — classical attributes of the unscrupulous i 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 back stanley Aladdin from the and uncluttered Arabian Nights. An original connection between the two legends is not to be dismissed lightly, since many of the slaves were interaction especially 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 cabins one Monteiro Lobato (bonds strings 1932).

In the so radical 1960s, the one-legged gnome — by now "domesticated" into a prankish but inoffensive and lovable creature — was chosen by premier Brazilian cartoonist Ziraldo (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 (cartoonist)/Angeli, Laerte (cartoonist)/Laerte, and Maurício de Souza (cartoonist)/Maurício de Souza.

See also

*Candomblé
*Indigenous people of Brazil

External links

*http://jangadabrasil.com.br/setembro/im10900c.htm, from Monteiro Lobato's ''O Saci'' (in Portuguese)
*http://www.ancsaci.com.br/ (A spoof site, in Portuguese)