Case file · Folklore / legend
Boitatá in Anchieta's letter
In a letter from São Vicente dated 1560, the Jesuit José de Anchieta wrote that the Indigenous people feared the 'baetatá', a fiery thing that ran along the beaches and rivers at night and attacked people. It is the oldest record of the boitatá, the fire serpent of Brazilian folklore.
1560 CE · -23.96, -46.40 · status: legend
The account
The name is Tupi for 'fire thing' or 'fire serpent'. In later folklore, especially in southern Brazil, the boitatá is a huge glowing snake that guards fields from people who burn them. The same letter names the curupira.
The sceptical view
Folklorists and naturalists usually link it to will-o'-the-wisps, marsh gas or bioluminescence.
Connections in the atlas
- Jean de Léry and the spirit Aygnan
- The ipupiara of São Vicente
- Luz mala
- Rivalino Mafra da Silva disappearance
- Curupira