Curupira: the Brazilian Forest Guardian with Backward Feet
Published · text produced with AI under human direction and review; quoted passages were checked word for word against the digitized editions cited.
The short answer
The Curupira is a being of the forest in Brazilian folklore, recorded along the Amazon. Smith describes him as small, with his feet turned backward, so his tracks point the wrong way. In Couto’s account he beats on tree buttresses before a storm and punishes people who needlessly damage trees by making them wander lost. Henry Walter Bates (1863) and Herbert H. Smith (1879) wrote about the belief in English.
Quick facts
- Pronounced
- koo-roo-PEE-rah.
- Also called
- Corupira (Barbosa Rodrigues, 1890), Currupira (Couto de Magalhães’s southern spelling, 1876), Curupíra (Bates, 1863). Barbosa Rodrigues proposed the spelling Korupira, with a K.
- Where it is told
- “Everywhere on the Amazons”, according to Smith; Couto adds countless legends, north and south of Brazil.
- What he looks like
- small, with backward feet (Smith, Couto); shaggy, or with cloven feet and a red face (Bates). Some say green teeth.
- Oldest written record we checked directly
- Bates (1863). An earlier reference is a Jesuit letter by José de Anchieta, usually dated 1560, which we did not quote. We have not verified its date or place against the original letter.
- Closest English-language relative
- Smith himself names the troll stories of Norway. The Irish Jack-o'-the-Lantern and Lady Wilde's "stray sod" share the idea of being led astray. Resemblances, not ancestors.
- What has no document
- a single origin established by the passages checked here.
The legend, retold
This is our retelling, built only from details in Smith (1879) and Barbosa Rodrigues (1890).
A man goes hunting and does not come back. The Curupira has killed him, cut out his heart and liver, and put on his clothes. He walks to the house, where the wife waits with their small child, and calls her old woman, a form of address Smith explains as an Amazonian marital nickname.
She answers and hardly looks at him. He hands her meat to cook: her husband’s heart and liver. She roasts it, and the three of them eat on a mat. Then he lies in the hammock and asks for the child to sleep with him.
After a while she goes to look at him, and sees that it is not her husband. She packs her things in a basket, slips the child out of his arm and leaves a heavy wooden mortar in its place. Then she runs.
He wakes and follows, calling the same words. She hides under a bush; a bird sings the bush's name to give her away, but he does not understand. At last a frog that makes a thick gum lets down a rope of it, hides her in a hollow tree and smears the trunk. The Curupira tries to climb, sticks fast, and dies there.
If you know the will-o'-the-wisp, or the troll
Each story below keeps its own place and date. None of this means that one story came from another.
Herbert H. Smith’s own comparison. Smith retells a hunter story credited to Prof. Hartt, who already compares it to Boots and the Troll. The lost hunter feeds the Curupira a monkey’s heart instead of his own. The Curupira imitates him, borrows his knife, cuts himself open and dies. Smith then explains how Boots tricks the troll into making a hole in his stomach, and later compares the Curupira stories to the trolls of Norway:
So far as I know, there are no Old World legends which resemble these more closely than do the troll stories of Norway
The light that leads you into the bog. In Ireland, Jack-o'-the-Lantern was the "misguiding traveller" of the bogs. A storyteller in The Dublin Penny Journal (1836) says he knew what would happen if he tried to walk home:
treacherous lanthern would lead me through all the bogs
The Curupira does the same with sound instead of light. Maria dos Reis warned Smith that he calls from the bushes, and calls again farther away each time you follow.
The herb that will not let you go home. Lady Wilde, writing on Irish beliefs in 1887, describes the Faud Shaughran, the "stray sod":
whoever treads the path it grows on is compelled by an irresistible impulse to travel on without stopping, all through the night
Couto de Magalhães records almost the same fate as the Curupira's punishment: to wander the woods for an immense time without finding the way home. The difference is the reason. The Irish traveler steps on the wrong grass. The Brazilian one has cut down trees for no reason.
What the sources say
Henry Walter Bates, The Naturalist on the River Amazons (1863)
In his account of the forest near Pará, Bates distinguishes the crash of falling branches or trees from noises he and his companions could not explain:
With the native it is always the Curupíra, the wild man or spirit of the forest, which produces all noises they are unable to explain.
A youth in his service, described as a Mameluco, would not enter the forest alone. When the strange noises came, he made a charm intended to protect them:
he took a young palm leaf, plaited it, and formed it into a ring, which he hung to a branch on our track.
Whose story is this: beliefs Bates reports while describing the forest near Pará, including those of a youth in his service. Bates calls myths “rude theories” invented in “the infancy of knowledge”. That is his judgment; we do not adopt it.
Herbert H. Smith, Brazil, the Amazons and the Coast (1879)
Smith’s account describes both the danger of being led astray and the reversed tracks:
Everywhere on the Amazons one hears of the curupira, who lives in the forest, and leads people astray that he may destroy them.
his feet are turned backward, so that his tracks are reversed
Then he gives the story "Old Maria dos Reis, of Santarem" told him, the one retold above. The turn of the story:
After awhile the woman came to look at him, and then she discovered that it was not her husband, but a curupira.
Whose story is this: Maria dos Reis of Santarém told Smith this story. He identifies it as one among many found among Indigenous people and prints it in English.
Couto de Magalhães, O Selvagem (1876)
Couto lists the Curupira among beings he places under the moon, with the Saci, the Mboitátá and the Urutau.
Our translation
Tradition depicts him as a small Tapuio, with his feet turned backwardOriginal (Portuguese)
As tradições representam-n'o como um pequeno Tapuio, com os pés voltados para traz
Our translation
is punished by him with the sentence of wandering for an immense time through the woods, unable to find the way homeOriginal (Portuguese)
é punido por elle com a pena de errar tempos immensos pelos bosques, sem poder atinar com o caminho da casa
Whose story is this: Couto describes river travelers in Pará whose paddlers attributed distant knocking to the Curupira. Tapuio is the word in his description; we retain it without adding an identity gloss.
João Barbosa Rodrigues, Poranduba Amazonense (1890)
Barbosa Rodrigues prints Amazonian legends with a Portuguese version labelled a near word-for-word translation. In the hunter’s tale the Curupira addresses the man as his grandson, and the hunter addresses him as his grandfather. A year after the Curupira dies, the hunter returns for his green teeth:
Our translation
He struck the teeth with the axe at once. He came back to life and sat up.Original (Portuguese)
Bateu logo com o machado nos dentes. Elle ressuscitou e assentou-se.
The Curupira then gives him an arrow that is a surucucu snake, and a rule: tell no one, not even your wife.
His version of the husband story includes the wife’s words when she examines the sleeping figure:
Our translation
This is not my husband... This is not my husband... This is the Corupira.Original (Portuguese)
Este nào é meu marido... Este nào é meu marido... Este é o Corupira.
Whose story is this: Amazonian tales presented by Barbosa Rodrigues with a translation and notes. Here we use the Portuguese passages as printed, without assigning the anonymous narrators an identity.
Versions side by side
| Version | Record | What the Curupira is like | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| The forest noise | Bates, 1863, near Pará | Shaggy tree-dweller, or cloven feet and a red face; has a wife and children | Blamed for unexplained sounds; a palm-leaf ring is made as a protective charm |
| The guardian | Couto de Magalhães, 1876, Pará | Small, feet turned backward | Beats on tree buttresses before a storm; makes tree-wreckers wander lost |
| The husband | Maria dos Reis to Smith, 1879, Santarém | Kills a hunter and wears his clothes | The wife sees, runs; a frog's gum traps him |
| The hunter | Hartt via Smith, 1879; Barbosa Rodrigues, 1890 | Asks for the hunter’s heart; addresses him as brother or grandson | Cuts himself with the hunter’s knife, revives a year later, gives an arrow; disclosure kills the hunter in Smith, while Rodrigues has a boy die after trying the arrow |
| The husband, 1890 | Barbosa Rodrigues, Amazonian tale | Wears the dead man’s trousers and shirt | The wife recognizes the impostor; the Cunauaru frog’s resin holds him by his hair |
Why this story exists
Here we move from documents to interpretation.
The Brazilian accounts discussed here describe forests and river travel. Bates explains a crash as a falling bough or tree, then distinguishes other noises he cannot account for; Couto records paddlers hearing distant knocking. Our interpretation is that the Curupira gives a name and a will to unexplained sounds, while the reversed tracks turn following a trail into a danger.
Couto’s version adds a rule about trees: anyone who cuts them down or damages them needlessly is made to wander lost. The passage does not give a general exemption for other uses of the forest. Reading it as a story about protecting the environment is our modern interpretation.
Smith says the stories’ distribution in southern Brazil, Paraguay and Guiana roughly matches that of the Tupi language. He cites De Laet and Acuña as earlier writers on reversed-footed people and quotes Humboldt. We read those references through Smith, not the earlier works themselves; we do not assign them a century here.
What is documented, and what is not
Documented directly in our reading: Bates (1863), Couto de Magalhães (1876), Smith (1879) and Barbosa Rodrigues (1890). Rodrigues also reproduces a passage attributed to Anchieta. A Jesuit letter by José de Anchieta, usually dated 1560, is an earlier reference which we did not quote or independently date.
Not documented in what we checked: a single origin or date. The sources also differ. Bates gives cloven feet in one description; Smith says the Caipora is a different being, a giant without reversed feet. Bates describes the Caypór as similar to the Curupira. We keep those authors’ distinctions rather than make a claim about how people tell the stories today.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Curupira real? The sources record him as belief and story. Bates, Smith and Couto wrote down what people told them; none of the texts we checked offers proof of a case.
Why are the Curupira's feet backward? The trait is in Couto (1876) and Smith (1879). Smith gives its effect: the tracks are reversed, so whoever follows them goes the wrong way. Why he was born that way, no source we checked says.
How do you pronounce Curupira? Roughly koo-roo-PEE-rah, with a light, tapped "r".
What does Curupira mean? None of the texts we checked gives a reliable meaning for the name, so we leave it open.
Is the Curupira the same as the Caipora? Smith (1879) says Indigenous stories distinguish them and notes that authors had confused them. Bates (1863) describes the Caypór as a similar forest being. Those are the historical accounts compared here.
Can I watch something about it? Our 19-minute episode is in Portuguese only, with no English audio: watch on YouTube.
One account at a time
Further reading
Brazil, the Amazons and the Coast
Herbert H. Smith (1879)
The chapter on myths of the Amazonian Indians (pp. 559-566) has the story Maria dos Reis told in Santarém, the hunter tale, and Smith's own notes on the backward feet and the trolls of Norway.
The Naturalist on the River Amazons
Henry Walter Bates (1863)
Chapter II, on the forest near Pará, is where Bates hears the Curupíra in every unexplained noise; chapter X has the Caypór masquerade at Ega.
O Selvagem
Couto de Magalhães (1876)
In Portuguese: the short description of the Curupira as the protector of the forests, in the part on the gods subject to the moon.
Poranduba Amazonense
João Barbosa Rodrigues (1890)
In Portuguese and Nheengatu: the hunter and the Curupira, and the Curupira who came home as a husband, each with a near word-for-word translation.
Cite this page
Vigil Page. "Curupira: the Brazilian Forest Guardian with Backward Feet." Published 25 October 2026. https://vigilpage.com/legends/curupira/
Revision history
- : First publication.
Read next
- The Saci: another being Couto lists among those under the moon.
- The Boitatá, the fire snake from the same list.
- The lobisomem, the Brazilian and Portuguese werewolf.
- The Headless Mule.
- Film: 12 creatures of Brazilian folklore.
- All legends, with sources
- In Portuguese: our longer guide
Sources
- Henry Walter Bates, The Naturalist on the River Amazons (1863), chapter II (forest noises near Pará) and chapter X (the Caypór at Ega): read free.
- Herbert H. Smith, Brazil, the Amazons and the Coast (1879), "Myths of the Amazonian Indians", pp. 561-566 (the Curupira, Maria dos Reis's story, Hartt's hunter tale, the trolls of Norway): read free.
- Couto de Magalhães, O Selvagem (1876), the passage on the Curupira, p. 138-139: read free.
- João Barbosa Rodrigues, Poranduba Amazonense (1890), "O Corupira e o Caçador" and "O Corupira e uma mulher": read free.
- An earlier reference is a Jesuit letter by José de Anchieta, usually dated 1560, which we did not quote or independently date. A passage attributed to Anchieta is reproduced in Barbosa Rodrigues’s Poranduba Amazonense (1890).