Middletown transcript., 1921-03-12
devil OF BRAZIL
NiSchievous Imp a Creation Of
The Aborigines.
Is Pictured as Having Strong Spice
of Humor and Little Desire to
! Hurt Human Beings-Has
But One Lea.

! His color Is black, his nose broad
snd fiat. A long, pointed tongue Is
sticking out of his mouth; the teeth
are triangular ana sharp; otherwise
he has the face Of an infant. He has
three fingers on each hand, as shown
by tie traces he leaves on the bark of
trees he climbs. His palms are pierced
in the middle. His ears are big and
he wears a red cloak and cap. He
smells of sulphur and his eyes emit
thick, sitting smoke. But his most dis
tinctive Characteristic is that he has
only one leg; he neither walks nor
runs. but jumps along, writes a New
York Tribune man. D..
This is the description compiled
from the accounts Of many witnesses,
of Sacy Perere, special indigenous
devil of Brazil, whose biography was
not long ago published in book form at
Sac Paulo. The preface declares that
there is so little original, native ele-
ment in Brazilian culture that 1t is
worth while to preserve whatever
there Is. So the great Brazilian news
paper, o Estado de Sac Paulo, insti-
tuted an inquiry regarding Sacy Per
ere, who is described as one of the
very few tropical native products.
Readers were asked to submit what
ever they knew or heard concerning
this Brazilian representative Of tie
Evil One and the answers were col
lected in the book entitled 20 Sacy
Perere" (the Sacy Perere). In the
Neue Zurcher Zeitung Dr.. A. Usteri
publishes extracts from the testimony,
out of which Sacy emerges as fairly
harmless, amiable and humorous sort
of devil, who, in spite of his terrify-
ing appearance, does not really want
to hurt human beings, although he Is
fond Of practical jokes Of rather
crude brand.
Sacy Perere is 100 per cent Ameri-
can. He was here before Columbus,
for he was invented by the aborigines
of Brazil, the Tupi Indians. His name
is Of Tupi origin, Caa Cy, meaning
evil eye, and perereg, the jumping one.
So Caa Cy Perereg, Portuguesif1ed In
to Sacy Perere, means jumping evil
eye. To his above description should
be added that, according to witness
of scientific accomplishments, his
smell comes from sulphur hydrogen
(H:S).
His one leg has story, told by old
negroes, wEo have it from their slave
ancestors. According to this story.
once upon a time the devil decided to
give banquet in his cave. There was
plenty of everything and more than
plenty of cahaca (sugar cane brandy.
The guests got SO drunk they could
hardly move, and the ensuing confu-
sion gave chance to gang Of small
devils apprentices to 60 joyriding to
the earth. The devil became enraged
and pursued the youngsters, capturing
them all except one, whose leg, how
ever, he s1ashed off. The little devil
was the original Sacy, and his off
spring were born with one leg only.
Now the Sacys are very clever and
swift and they can easily put it over
on the devil, though they are one
legged.
The Sacy and his gang appear usual
ly during tornadOes, when they ride
tie wind. They alight on the backs of
horses and tie knots in their names.
Sometimes a Sacy is observed on the
roof Of house. He scares the passer-
by or throws dirt down the chimney.