Case file · Witch trials
Matinta Perera, the whistling witch
In Pará lore, Matinta Perera is an old woman who at night becomes a bird, the striped cuckoo, and whistles shrilly on rooftops until someone promises her tobacco or coffee, which she collects next morning.
1955 CE · -1.52, -48.62 · status: legend
The account
The curse is said to pass from woman to woman before death. The year used here is approximate, standing for its appearance in mid-20th-century Amazon ethnography; the belief is older.
The sceptical view
The cuckoo's eerie call at night explains the sound; accusations have fallen on elderly, isolated women.