Saci-Cererê

A myth linked to chaos and disorder, the Saci has permeated the Brazilian imagination for at least two centuries. Unlike what many may think, however, the Pererê is not the only type of Saci that exists. It is the best known, the most notorious, but there are countless others.

In Saci Pererê – Resultado de um Inquérito, organized by Monteiro Lobato in 1917 and published the following year, more than 70 testimonies share narratives of the most diverse kinds about Saci. There are Sacis with monkey ears, goat horns, and dog tails. There are others with fire in their eyes, pestle hands, or bodies covered in cornmeal.

Even so, this variety of names is not always accompanied by a description that allows one to distinguish one Saci from another. There is talk of Saci Ceperé, Saci Cererê, Saci Trique, Saci Siriri, Saci Serumpererê, Saci Perereca, Saci Saterê, Saci Mofera, Saci Saperê, Saci Saderê, Saci Patarê, and Saci Sia-Teresa. Some with merely a line of description.

In “O Selvagem” (1876), Couto de Magalhães already recorded the Saci Cererê among the narratives circulating in the south of the Empire. He described him as a small indigenous person, “lame in one foot,” with a red cap and a wound on each knee. The author recognized, however, that he found these stories mixed with Christian beliefs and could not fully understand what the character's function was among the plants.

The naturalist Emílio Goeldi, when studying the birds linked to the Saci stories, mentions the Saci-Fogo and the Saci-Cererê as incarnations of terror. He recounts having heard stories of a one-legged being that breathed fire during the night. Other records mention his custom of dancing a small ember through the hole in his hands, which he uses to light his pipe.

Another very frequent element in the old records concerns the eyes of the Saci. They were eyes of fire, luminescent, that danced like will-o'-the-wisps through the night.

When approaching travelers, Sacis usually ask for tobacco or fire for their pipe. Whoever offers receives their gratitude and help. Whoever refuses, however, is pursued by the Saci and suffers all kinds of misfortune.