Dance of the Dolphin: the encantados

Folklorist Candace Slater's Dance of the Dolphin (1994) gathered hundreds of present-day tales from the Brazilian middle Amazon of botos and other encantados who rise from underwater cities in human form, seduce dancers at festas and carry people below.

1994 CE · -2.63, -56.74 · status: account

The account

Slater showed that the Enchanted Beings are feared for causing madness and death but also called on by healers, and that the stories change as towns, ranching and tourism reshape the river. The point is Parintins, a centre of this lore; her fieldwork spanned the middle Amazon.

Connections in the atlas

• Bates hears of the shape-shifting boto
• Yacurunas and the underwater cities

Sources

1. University of Chicago Press: Dance of the Dolphin
2. Wikipedia: Amazon river dolphin (in folklore)