Author Archives: Quinlan Stewart

Headless Mule Legend

Text: Below is the performance describing the Brazilian Headless Mule legend.

Interviewer: Do you have any stories of legendary figures?

Interviewee: Yeah, so in Brazil we have, uh, I used to be really, like deathly scared of this one mythological creature, in Portuguese the name is Mula sem Cabeca. In English, it, uh, the Headless Mule, and it’s basically a mule, headless mule, but in the place of its head, it’s, uh, it’s like a bunch of flames. So, uh, when I used to, when someone read to me that story and showed me, like, a picture, I was like always scared of, like, going to my Grandmother’s farm, where there were like horses and stuff, so I was just, like, very scared of horses, but, uh, it’s like a cool little Folklore. I don’t know the story behind it, but I think there is, like, an origin story.

Context:

The interviewee is a 22 year-old college student who grew up in São Paulo, Brazil. At first he could not recall any legends from his childhood, and then he remembered the figure above. He learned about the legend from a family member reading him a story about the figure from a children’s book.

Analysis:

This mythical creature exemplifies how folklore interacts with published media. The widespread Brazilian folkloric legend of the Headless Mule was incorporated by a children’s book publisher as a folklorism, which helped further disseminate the story. The interviewee’s own life experience affected how he interacted with the legend, as growing up around a farm made him worry that this legendary animal might attack him around his grandmother’s farm animals. The legend of the Headless Mule is a clear example of the frightening effect of the uncanny. The familiar sight of farm animals was made scary by its alteration. This folkloric belief is similar to that of the evil headless horseman, but this time, it is the evil farm animal that is headless, not its rider, showcasing how across cultures, headless entities are folk figures of horror.

Splitting the Pole

Text: The excerpt below is a folk performance describing superstitions over splitting the pole.

Interviewer: Do you have any folk beliefs of what brings good or bad luck?

Interviewee: Ok, yes. So one of them is, if you split the pole, so if you’re walking with someone, but you split a pole, or like, as long as it’s above your waist, it counts for me. That means that you, in the future, will split apart of that person and never see them again, so like, for me, like, I feel like it brings bad luck to relationships. So either I’ll walk along the other side of the pole, or if you split it, you go back and hit it, it’s fine. So that brings bad luck, but there is like a way to undo it, I guess, as well.

Context:

This excerpt is from a conversation with a fellow Forms of Folklore student. The conversation started by specifically talking about their Romanian heritage, and the folklore that came with that identity. After talking for a while about that topic, the conversation shifted to general superstitious beliefs, as recorded above. The interviewee engages with this folk belief whenever they are walking with someone, and separated by a pole.

Analysis:

This belief is an example of sympathetic magic, as the physical separation by the pole reflects the separation of a relationship. This belief likely exists because when walking and splitting from someone for a short time, that feeling of separation is felt by a person, and that feeling, through this folk belief, is enlarged to the feeling of separating from a whole relationship. There is a way to remove the bad luck through conversion magic, by hitting the pole, allowing people to feel at ease, even after committing this offense.

Eye Twitches

Text: The excerpt below is a folk performance describing a student’s superstitious beliefs about eye twitches.

Interviewer: Do you have any folk beliefs of what brings good or bad luck?

Interviewee: This isn’t good or bad luck, but like, if your eye’s twitching it means that someone is thinking about you, so my mom would always come in my room and be like: “ok, name everyone that you think would be thinking about you, and when it stops, that’s the person that is thinking about you.”

Context:

This conversation came from a discussion with a Forms of Folklore USC student. I inquired about different folk traditions that were related to her Romanian heritage, and she responded with the above excerpt. Her Mom is fully Romanian, and she associated the tradition with Romanian folk beliefs. She engaged with the folk belief when young, with her mother initiating a folk ritual, to use the eye twitches to see who was thinking about the ritual participant.

Analysis:

There exists the folk belief about eye twitches, and also the folk ritual performed by the interviewee and her mother. The sign exists as it gives a sense of control over the insecurity of who is thinking about you. This ritual with the interviewee and her Mother allows the folk participant to gain some control over their insecurity, by being able to see if others think of them. It is interesting how muted the knowledge granted from the ritual is. The behavior gives minimal information, only telling if others are thinking about them, not more useful details, like what that person thinks about the folk participant. This outcome is likely because if the folk belief was believed to portray more details, then someone could verify more accurately whether the sign was true. The ritual has to strike a balance between calming the folk participant, and not being too much more detailed, where it might be proven false.

Bigfoot

Text: Below is a student’s performance of the Bigfoot legend.

Interviewer: When did you first hear about Bigfoot?

Interviewee: Well, first I heard about Bigfoot probably in second or third grade because I had to do a group project for elementary school, and it was very intriguing to me at first because, you know, at that age. I was very fascinated by animals, especially large animals, you know, that’s why I chose Bigfoot. I could have chosen between Loch Ness monster and other conspiracies. But, so that’s when I first heard about Bigfoot.

Interviewer: Did you believe it? What did you think about it?

Interviewee: Well, honestly, I did believe in that moment, because I researched a bit and saw, you know, many people had seen it, but no one had ever photographed it, and because of that, I did believe it, but slowly as I grew up, I began not to believe it much, and viewed it as a tale. I mean, it’s like, there’s animals we haven’t seen, but something like that, with actual human characteristics, is difficult.

Context:

This interview arose from a conversation with another Forms of Folklore student, reflecting on childhood beliefs. I shared my memory and history of belief of the Bermuda Triangle, and after that, he recalled learning about Bigfoot. He first learned about Bigfoot in elementary school, when given a project to chose to study different legendary creatures.

Analysis:

This example showcases a unique mode of dissemination for folklore. The top-down institute, this interviewee’s school, facilitated children exploring and researching different “conspiracy theories”. This method is unusual as typically folkloric legends are pictured as not credible by official institutes, while certain folk groups hold the legends to hold some chance of credibility. My belief is that the assignment to explore different conspiracies was created expressly because conspiracy theories are typically not discussed in classrooms, and thus the students are more excited about learning about them than more official topics. The interviewee also said something interesting, in how he views Bigfoot to be less plausible, because, compared to other folk creatures, Bigfoot is more human. This assertion illustrates how people view humanity to be more unique, compared to other animals in the animal kingdom.

Black Milk Tea

Text: Below is a performance describing the consumption of black milk tea family ritual.

The Interviewee was asked to recount any folklore or superstitions he remembered.

Interviewee: Another, I guess, family tradition or superstition we have, you can also call it a superstition, like, uh, my Grandpa on my Dad’s side of the family always, he would always make black milk tea, brew, almost boil, these black tea leaves, concentrate it super, super hard, and then, like, add evaporated milk to it, and would alway add two cubes of sugar to it. That was just like his tradition.

Interviewer: And what was that supposed to bring, or, what is the purpose of that?

Interviewee: So, actually, like my Grandpa, and especially, like, my Dad’s side of the family, like, they, uh, suffered a lot during the Cultural Revolution in China. I’m not going to go through that, but there’s, like, a whole thing you can look at it. Um, it was also even hard to get black tea leaves during the Cultural Revolution during that time, so like for them, those black tea leaves that they had was, like, almost like sacred to them. Even though now it’s like fifty years later, and, like, that chaotic time is now passed, even I still, like, brew black tea leaves the way my Grandpa used. So, it’s like, I guess it’s like a tradition that, like, I’ve held on to even though he’s passed it on.

Context:

This excerpt is from a conversation with a grad student studying Biology after a MMA (mixed-martial arts) practice. The student was raised in Walnut, California, and has parents that are Chinese immigrants. Currently, the ritual consumption of black milk tea is performed by his father and grandfather whenever they want to bring about good luck, but historically, during the Cultural Revolution in China, it was performed rarely, only every once in a while, when they could find black tea leaves, living in extreme poverty.

Analysis:

This example illustrates how tradition can endure as context and place change. The original habit of consuming black milk tea was informed by extreme poverty, where the consumption of the tea’s ingredients could only happen rarely due to the circumstances of famine. Now, the tradition endures as a ritual consumption of the black milk teas, to recall that time in the past, and signify the surviving that took place. The original creation of this black milk tea could only happen when interviewee’s father and grandfather were lucky enough to find the ingredients, so now, even though the ingredients now take no luck to find, the tradition has held on to that feeling, as it now conveys good luck and fortune.