Date Collected
Fall 12-2018
Place item was collected
Porto Velho, Rondonia, Brazil
Informant
Elderlandia Batista Silva
Point of Discovery/Informant Bio
Elderlandia lives in Porto Velho, Rondonia, Brasil but was born in Manicore, an interior city in the state of Amazonas. She moved to Porto Velho about four years ago. Porto Velho is the capital of Rondonia and is an average sized city near the border of Brazil and Bolivia. I do not know her personally but when a friend of mine heard I was looking for legends she gave me her contact information. My friend said that Elderlandia has a lot of stories. Elderlandia is married with one son around the age of eight. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, though her husband is not. She works as a janitor at a school but is finishing a degree in Chemistry.
Context
Elderlandia told me this story after a mutual friend put us in contact when she found out I was looking for legends. We sent messages over Facebook Messenger where she typed out all these stories in her native Portuguese. I copied her messages and then translated them into English. She told me four stories over the course of two days (Saturday and Sunday when she had the most time) and began our conversation by saying, “I have great stories to tell, some are really scary.” This story was the only one told on the second day. All of the stories she told me happened to people she knows personally. When I asked if she had any personal stories she said no and that she is grateful for it because she doesn’t have a psychologist prepared for it. This story, like the others, takes place in what the Brazilians call “the interior.” This term refers to a city or village outside the state’s capital and usually has the connotation of being in the middle of the jungle. This one however, happened in the interior of Maranhao (rather than Amazonas) which is a state in Northeastern Brazil where Elderlandia’s friend, Margo, was born and raised. Elderlandia worked with Margo and they have been friends since. Margo told Elderlandia this story because they were having a conversation about strange stories that happened in the interior. She said that they thought stories like this only happened in certain places but after their conversation she said they realized that they can happen anywhere.
Text
Portuguese:
Oi Sister. Bom dia!
Desculpe não ter enviado ontem. Para hoje tenho uma que foi contada por ima amiga de nome Margô.
Isso aconteceu quando ela ainda era bebê, tinha aproximadamente 6 meses.
Os pais moravam no interior do Maranhão. E estava na época de batizar a pequena Margô.
Já a tardinha o pai saiu para ir falar com o padre da comunidade local sobre o batismo e deixou a esposa e os filhos em casa, Margô é a filha caçula.
Ao escurecer os cachorros comecam a latir desesperadamente, a mãe dela conta que um cheiro insuportável toma conta do ar. Um cheiro podre, alguma coisa queria entrar na casa e os cachorros não deixavam. A mãe começou a se desespar e a gritar por socorro. Os vizinhos mais próximos moravam a uns 10 quintais dd distância. Mas ouviram os gritos de desespero da mãe de Margô. Não foram ajudar porque estavam com medo.
Ela conta que era uma coisa grande, mas não sabia o que era e nem conseguiu ver o que era. Nessa época usavam a luz de lamparina ou lampiões. E fora da casa a escuridão era grande.
Em determinado momento a coisa chegava até a investir contra a porta. Só não conseguiu entrar pq os cachorros não deixavam. Isso se passou por quase meia hora.
Em seguida do ocorrido o pai chegou a galope, usava cavalo como meio de locomoção, ouviu de longe a briga dos cachorros. Chegou gritando: Conceição, o que tá acontecendo?
E Conceição, mãe de Margô, grita que tem um bicho querendo entrar na casa.
Quando a coisa percebe a chegada do pai de Margô, ela desaparece na noite.
Que medo...
Ela conta que no dia seguinte ao olharem em volta da casa. Tudo estava destruído. Tinham horta e uma plantação de abóbora. Tudo estava arruinado.
E por incrível que pareça, no dia seguinte o padre foi visitar a família e os cachorros o atacaram.
Eles ficaram desconfiados do padre. E que alguma coisa queria o bebê Margô.
Cada história. Nossa...
English Translation:
Hi Sister. Good morning!
Sorry I didn’t send this yesterday. For today I have a story told by my friend named Margo.
This happened when she was still a baby, she was approximately 6 months old.
Her parents lived in the interior of Maranhao. And it was the time to baptize the little Margo.
That afternoon the father left to talk with the local community priest about the baptism and left his wife and children at home, Margo is the youngest child.
As it started to get dark the dogs began to bark desperately, her mother tells that an unbearable smell filled the air. A rotting smell, something wanted to enter the house but the dogs didn’t let it. The mother began to get desperate and scream for help. The closest neighbors lived the distance of ten houses away. But they heard the desperate screams of Margo’s mother. They didn’t go to help because they were scared.
She tells that it was a big thing, but didn’t know what it was nor was she able to see what it was. At this time they used light from lanterns and lamps. And outside of the house the dark was intense.
In a certain moment the thing got up to the door. It only couldn’t enter bc the dogs wouldn’t let it. This continued for almost half an hour.
Right after the occurrence the father arrived galloping, using a horse as the mode of transporation, he heard the dogs from far away. He arrived yelling: Conceição, what is happening?
And Conceição, Margo’s mother, yells that there is a creature wanting to enter the house.
When the thing perceives the arrival of Margo’s father, it disappears in the night.
What fear…
She told me that on the next day as they looked around outside the house. Everything was destroyed.
They had a Garden and a pumpkin patch. Everything was ruined.
And as incredible as it may appear, on the next day the priest went to visit the family and the dogs attacked him.
They didn’t trust the priest. And that something wanted the baby Margo.
Every story. My goodness…
Texture
Elderlandia definitely believes all the stories she told me and mentioned many times in our conversation that they scare her. This story was typed in a Facebook Message so there isn’t any form of auditory inflection, though I copied her punctuation use (which is almost always incorrect) and spacing exactly in the English translation. Because I don’t know Elderlandia personally, I don’t know if her texting reflected anything of her emotions. However, many times when she would tell me how scary the stories she told are, she would follow the text with a nervously laughing smiley face emoji (Finch Stickers on Messenger). It seems that every time I asked her a question or she finished a story she would say again just how creepy the stories she knows are. I get the feeling that she has many more supernatural stories to tell. This story references baptism (assumedly in the Catholic church) and suggests that something wanted to take the baby away before its baptism. However, I do not consider this legend a supernatural religious legend because Elderlandia did not use it to support any type of belief and it seemed the focus was on the strange creature rather than the upcoming baptism.
Course
ENGL 2210
Instructor
Dr. Lynne McNeill
Semester and year
Fall 2018
Theme
G7: Supernatural or Supernormal Characters or Creatures
EAD Number
2.5.1.0.10
Recommended Citation
Patchett, Gianna, "Something Wanted the Baby" (2018). USU Student Folklore Fieldwork. Paper 469.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/student_folklore_all/469