CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE' — PIERSON 



169 



the river. As he came near, he heard the clanking 

 of chains and dogs getting into tlie boat. He rowed 

 them over. But when he had reached the other 

 side, the arma said to him, 'Never more will yon 

 row people over this river because you have taken 

 the arma of So and So in your boat.' And he never 

 rowed again." 



Another form the dead take is that of the morto 

 seco, or "dried corpse." The conception seems to 

 vary somewhat among local inhabitants, the morto 

 seco being at times confused with the alma penada, 

 and sometimes thought of as a separate phenome- 

 non. A middle-aged woman in the village said : 



When I was a little girl on the farm, about 7 years 

 old, I first heard of a morto seco. He was a man who 

 had died far from home. He was looking for some- 

 one with courage enough to carry him on his back 

 and help him fulfill a vow he had made to Sao Bom Jesus 

 de Pirapora and had never fulfilled ; to carry him on his 

 back at night until the cock should crow. After that he 

 could rest. Then the morto seco would say, "Tomorrow 

 night I'U come for you again." Imagine having a thing 

 like that come for you ! 



A farm woman said : 



The midwife who lives near here is a resolute person 

 who thinks nothing of going out alone at night. The road 

 she takes from her home passes by a wild, lonely place. 

 One night, as she was walking along, she heard a voice 

 say, "Can you get someone to carry me on his back to 

 Pirapora? I will pay him. I have much money." She 

 thought to herself "God have mercy ! I know what that 

 is." She replied that she would see if she could find some- 

 one. She looked hard into the brush and then she saw 

 him. He was just bones tied together and the place where 

 the mouth and nose should be, bees had filled with wild 

 honey. And he kept swinging his bony hand in front of 

 his face, the mosquitoes were so bad. Surely he will not 

 be eternally lost. God will yet give him salvation. Some 

 day he will find a person to take him to Pirapora. He 

 must have made a vow to Sao Bom Jesus de Pirapora and 

 never fulfilled it. One doesn't abuse a santo that way. 



Revealing a somewhat different conception, a 

 farmer said : 



The morto seco is a man who has been cursed. 

 Cursed by his father, his mother, his godfather or his 

 godmother. An evil man. You know, they used to bury 

 the dead under the floor of the church at the Freguezia 

 Velha. Once, my great-grandfather dug up a grave there 

 so they could put another body in its place and he found 

 the man who had been buried for many years to be seco, 

 just as he had been buried. He was a morto seco. The 

 morto seco is so evil that not even the ground will receive 

 him. God deliver me from such as that ! What horrible 

 things ! 



Another f ai-mer said : 



They are souls so bad — so terribly evil — that neither 

 God nor the devil wants them. For certain, God has 

 banished them. And they must be terribly evil if not even 

 the devil will have them. 



The cross is employed as an especially effica- 

 cious means of protection against possible harm 

 from these and other mysterious beings. It is 

 thought to possess magical power to keep all evil, 

 "everything that comes from Satan," away from 

 its vicinity. This conception is reflected in a 

 phrase commonly used in the community (as else- 

 where in Brazil), '■'■fugiu dele como o diabo da 

 cruis'^ (he ran from it like the devil from the 

 cross). 



If a person dies unshriven by the side of the 

 road, a relative, a friend or other sympathetic 

 person will erect a cross near the spot. Several 

 crosses to be seen in the area surrounding the vil- 

 lage were originally set up under these circum- 

 stances. Crosses are sometimes erected also at 

 crossroads. "Where roads meet is a place of much 

 evil," said a farm woman. "If a cross is not put 

 up there, persons who use those roads may suffer 

 harm." A family living at the end of a path or 

 trail leading off from the road sometimes places 

 a cross by the roadside at that point. This may 

 be done in fulfillment of a vow (see p. 173). ""A 

 cross is sometimes also set up near the entrance 

 to a house, as "a means of protection against all 

 harm," including the evil eye and the sad. A few 

 feet from the door of a farm home, for instance, 

 is a wooden cross about 3 feet high, decorated with 

 artificial flowers and paper streamers. "It is good 

 to protect our home," said the mother. "It keeps 

 the evil eye away and also the saci. Credo! I'm 

 afraid of that saci^ 



The cross is made of whatever wood is at hand 

 but preferably of cedar. "The first cross," re- 

 marked a local carpenter, "was made by Sao Jose 

 and he used cedar for it. That's why we like to 

 use cedar too." It may be ornamented with one 

 or more white cloths. Passersby often set lighted 

 candles in front of it or leave flowers nearby. 



Several wayside crosses in the community were 

 erected so long ago that no one now living knows 

 the precise circumstances under which they were 

 set up. Reputedly the oldest cross is the Cruz 

 Preta (Black Cross), of dark-colored wood, lo- 



