Cabra cabriola
A cabra cabriola or cabra-cabriola (literally "leaping nanny goat"[2]) is an imaginary bogeyman type being from Portuguese myth told to children, whose legend is also told in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Brazil.
It is imagined to be a fire-breathing, sharp toothed, but goat-like, child-eating beast.
Legend
[edit]The cabra cabriola is said to be a man-eating goat, said to leap and buck a thousand times (hence the name, from cabriolar "to prance, caper").[4]
The cabra cabriola is considered a bogeyman monster that terrifies children into good behavior.[6] It is said to be armed with huge jaws and sharp teeth used to devour youngsters, breathing fire from its eyes, mouth, and nostrils, while it bellows out its standard chant:[7][8][3]
Eu sou a cabra cabriola |
|
| —Pereira da Costa, Francisco Augusto (1908)[7] |
The wording of the chant may vary according to versions.[10]
In one narrative, the Portuguese mother must leave her three children home at night to go to work, and tells them never to let anyone in unless they recognize her voice. Her advice works the first time around when the cabra cabriola arrives and utters the aforementioned chant, because the beast uses its natural thick voice, and is shunned by children. Undeterred, the beast hides in wait until the mother returns, and learns the manner of her speech, then goes to the blacksmith to re-forge his tongue in order to replicate the woman's soft voice. He arrives back, and now says:
Filhinhos, filhinhos, |
Children, children , |
| —Pereira da Costa, Francisco Augusto (1908)[7] |
and the unfortunate children believing it to be their mother, open the door and are devoured.[7][3]
There are numerous other folktales surrounding the creature.[7] In another tale localized in the Algarve region of Portugal, a poor widow tells her children to hide under the bed as she leaves for work, and secured the door closed with a pin. But the cabra cabiola entered the home. The woman got a ill-feeling hunch and returned home to find the door locked from within, and peering through the keyhole she espied the cabra cabiola. She told the goat to "Jump out of there", but the goat refused in verse (similar to his cliché chant). The woman was too afraid to confront it, so first hired a fox (for the payment of a rooster) and then a wolf (for a lamb) but both of them turned scared and retreated. Then the ant offered help, in return for sopinhas (soup) of honey and oil, which was in the house, so it could only be paid if it succeeded. Though tiny, the ant stung the cabra cabriola on the belly and it fled in pain screaming: baa, baa.[a][11]
Parallels
[edit]As a bogeyman-type device for frightening children into obedience, the "Cabra Cabriola" of Brazil[6][1] (and the Portuguese language sphere) is named alongside the Lupishomens (Lobisomem,[12] i.e. werewolf),[13] the Papa-figo (var. Papa-meninos), the Mula (i.e., Mula-de-padre, the priest's mule or concubine[8] which is equated with the Mula-sem-cabeça the Headless Mule[14]),[15] the Curupira, the Caapora (Caipora), and the Cuca (Coco).[12]
Gilberto Freyre conjectures that the origins of the cabra cabriola may be traced back to the lore of the Caprimulgus (nightjar, but literally "goat-milker") which goes on forays during the night to milk nanny-goats as well as eat children.[1]
See also
[edit]- Chupacabra, the "goat-sucker" monster of Latin America
- Maria da Manta, devilish Maria, figure in Portuguese folklore
- Mão Pelada, "bare handed" in one front paw, a ravenous creature in Brazilian lore (shares Portuguese name for crab-eating raccoon)
- Mula sem cabeça - headless mule
- Papa-figo, a bogeyman type figure
Explanatory notes
[edit]- ^ Portuguese: bé, bé
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Freyre, Gilberto (1986) [1956]. The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization. Translated by Samuel Putnam (2nd English ed.). Univ of California Press. p. 137. ISBN 9780520337077.; 1987 Portuguese ed., p. 129
- ^ Putnam (translator) at Freyre (1986), n190.[1]
- ^ a b c d Cascudo, Luís da Câmara (2002). "Cabra Cabriola (Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia)". Geografia dos mitos brasileiros (in Portuguese). Editora Itatiaia. pp. 210–211. ISBN 978-85-260-0709-3; e-text; 1983 edition
- ^ "Cabra antropófaga, dando mil saltos e curvas (cabriolando)"[3]
- ^ Souto Maior, Mário (1988). Alimentação e folclore (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro: FUNARTE, Instituto Nacional do Folclore. p. 30. ISBN 9788574750347.
- ^ a b Souto Maior (1988): "Terrível papão para medir medo aos meninos e contêlos nas suas travessuras (A terrible bogeyman to instill fear in children and make them refrain themselves from causing mischief)".[5] The term papão or pt:bicho-papão is the Portuguese equivalent of boogeyman.
- ^ a b c d e Pereira da Costa, Francisco Augusto [in Portuguese] (1908). "Folk-lore Pernambucano". Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brazileiro (in Portuguese). 70 (Parte II): 80–81.
- ^ a b Shields, Mary Ellen (1977). Ascenso Ferreira: A Study in Populist Esthetics. Stanford University. p. 114.
- ^ Leite de Vasconcelos, José [in Portuguese] (1907). "Canções do berço". Revista Lusitana (in Portuguese). X (1–2). Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional: 48.
- ^ Another version in a lullaby anthology runs as follows:
Cabra cabriola
Corre montes e vales,
Corre meninos a pares
Tamêm te comerá a ti
Se cá chegares
I Leaping Goat,
Race through mountains and vales,
And I shall eat you too,
If you happen to arrive hither.
—Leite de Vasconcelos, José (1907).[9] - ^ Oliveira, Ataíde [in Portuguese] (1905). "(389) A cabra cabriola". Contos tradicionaes do Algarve (in Portuguese). Vol. 2. Algarve: Typpgraphia Burocratica. p. 441.
- ^ a b Accioly, Marcus [in Portuguese] (2001). Latinomérica (in Portuguese). Ministério da Cultura, Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, Departamento Nacional do Livro. p. 141. ISBN 9788574750347.
- ^ "Lisboa. 19 de Agosto". Gazeta de Lisboa (in Portuguese) (196): 931. 20 August 1824.
- ^ Cascudo (2002), p. 383.
- ^ Cascudo also likens the cabra cabriola with the Mula imported from far away.[3]
External links
[edit]- Uol Archived 2006-01-10 at the Wayback Machine
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