It's also known as Caapora. That's a mythic Tupi character of the Brazilian forests, featuring certain characteristics according to the region: it's a dark skinned little boy or a little Indian child, agile and naked  or wearing a "tanga" and smoking a pipe; or a brave Indian girl, friendly to the human contact but very jealous and ferocious when betrayed, running any kind of business and enterprise belonging to the ones who see her; also as a child with a big head or a one legged woman who walks hopping. From the State of Maranhão (in the North) to the South, is presented as a tapuia (a kind of Indian), dark and fast; in the State of Ceará (in the North) besides the common type, is also presented with curly hair, burning coal eyes, ridding a wild pork and squeezing a japenga branch with the hand; in the State of Pernambuco (also in the North) it appears with only one rounded foot, followed by the dog "Honey-Eater" (Papa-Mel).

	In the State of Bahia is a "cabocla" (caboclo - masculine - or cabocla - feminine - is the inhabitant of the countryside and also the mixed race between the White and the Indian) or an old black man or even a little black kid that "can only be seen one half" - like the classic African entities; along the Saint Francis River (Rio São Francisco), the States of Minas Gerais and Bahia, is a little enchanted caboclo, inhabitant of the forests, with a rounded face and only an eye right in the middle of the front; in the State of Paraná as well as in the whole South, is a hairy giant, both symbols of physical force. He loves cachaça (the popular alcoholic Brazilian beverage made of sugar cane) and tobacco, making crazy, cheating and bringing "caiporism" for the chasers that do not give him such offerings. He reigns over all animals and make secret pacts with the chasers, punishing them with death if the pact is reveled to others, or betrayed. He beats unmercifully the chasers' dogs; whistles disorienting the chasers and in the State of Sergipe, he kills the voyagers with tickling. King of the prey, he can resurrect the animals that were killed without his permission by the contact of the muzzle of his ridding pig, his rod stick, the touch of the japenga branch or a simple verbal order what terrifies the people of the countryside.

It's been discussed the existence of the Caapora-Caipora of the 16th century, contemporary of the Curupira of the colonial times and not simply a later "fusion". Friar André Thevet informs of the horror among the Indians about "an evil spirit that takes them during the night", called Agnan, Peaa-Onan ou Kaa-gerre, being equally menacing. Jean de Léry called him Kaegerre, a corruption of the name guara, "inhabitant", "local". Father Daniel, a missionary in the Amazon (1780 a1797), tells us about the ancient meaning of the word: "from what it's inferred that the devil disguised in human figure, coropira, has many communications with the already civilized brothers living in villages; and much more with the savage ones who call him caaporas, that is, inhabitants of the bush". During the night, the Indians defended themselves in the journeys with a torch exactly like the black Africans or the Orientals that this way kept the fabulous beats away in the dark hours, with the clarity only mastered by men. There are reports that the garlic keeps the Caipora away and the interdiction of chasing during the Holy Friday, what identifies the acculturation of the catholic catechesis to the myth.

 

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