The Dolphin Who Comes to Dances
Along the Amazon, people say pink river dolphins take human form on festival nights, arriving as handsome strangers in white hats.
What was reported
The boto, the Amazon's pink river dolphin, is at the heart of one of the region's best-known legends. On nights of festivals, people say a boto can come ashore as a tall, handsome man dressed all in white, wearing a hat he never takes off, because it hides the breathing hole on top of his head.
He dances well, charms the young women, and leaves before dawn, slipping back into the river. Children with no known father were sometimes said to be 'children of the boto'.
Explanations offered
The legend belongs to a wider Amazonian belief in the encantados, creatures from an enchanted world under the river. One result has been good for the dolphins: many river people believed harming a boto brought bad luck, which protected them for generations.
- When
- Told for generations
- Where
- Santarém, Pará, Brazil
- Witnesses
- River communities of the Amazon
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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