Myths and Legends: Journeys Through Time

Myths and Legends: Journeys Through Time

The rainforest is a beautiful place. Lush green foliage, beautiful flowers in colors of

any and every kind, huge trees that stand tall and provide a multitude of places for

the many kinds of exotic insects, birds and animals to hide. Not only do these trees

provide homes and hiding places for the inhabitants of the rainforest, they also provide

food and materials to make homes and weapons. There are humans that live within the

rainforest and make it their home, usuing their surroundings to create homes, weapons

for hunting, and items to gather fruits, nuts, roots, berries and leaves for food. Since

these people live off the land they come up with ways to protect it or believe in spirits

or beings that help them protect the land and the rainforests. One such being is called

“Curupira”. The Tupi people believe that there exists a being named Cururpira that

protects the rainforest. The Tupi are a group of people indigenous to Brazil. They are

the original indian inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest and were large in number. One

Tupi tribe had anywhere from 300-2,000 people. Each tribe had it’s own name and village. The

different tribes would often war with each other and weren’t unified. Despite being the

same ethnic group the only things that they had in common were their language (for which

they are known as many words in the Brazillian language are of Tupi origin), their agriculture

and their religion. As stated earlier, they believed that a being named Curupira protected the

rainforest and all of the animals within. Cururpira comes from the word “curu” which means

boy and “pira” which means body, thus his name literally translates to “boy body”. Curupira

is said to appear as young boy with fiery red hair and backwards feet. Instead of his toes

pointing ahead of him, his toes point behind him, his heel being in front. When he walks

through the forest, his tracks make people believe that he’s walking the direction opposite

of where he is truly walking. He fiercely guards the forest and the animals that inhabit it.

Curupira does not mind the hunters, or the gatherers that come through the forest to hunt

the animals they need for food, or gather the plants they need to survive but he takes

great offense to anybody hunting the animals purely for sport, or to be cruel and malicious.

He does many things to mess with the people that come into his forest, such as making

noises like moans and groans to throw off a hunter’s perception, casting the spell on the

hunter that makes him unable to leave the forest. In this case the hunter will continously

walk in a circle crossing his path over and over. Also, he will deliberately leave a trail for

a hunter to follow, having told the hunter that he knows where an animal is, or where a

particularly good spot to hunt is only to lead the hunter away from the animals. The best

example of Curupira comes from the Canadian television show BeastMaster. The show’s main

character Dar, has been given the gift of communicating with animals by the forest spirit

Curupira, portrayed as a blonde female. Along with this gift he has sworn to protect the

forest and it’s animals. When Curupira believes that he is not doing his job, she will often

appear to him and remind him that she gave him his powers and what his duty is. As far as

protective spirits go Curupira is a very fierce protector but prefers to rely on trickery and

mischief to get his point across. So remember, when travelling through an area, always be

respectful and ask for permission as one can never know what mischievous, protective

spirit might be around.