Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

Mystical Woman

Nationality: U.S.A
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 04/04/2018
Primary Language: English

The following story is collected from my friend. He is from U.S.A. This interview is done on phone. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.


B: “There is a woman, who is famous because she saved some fishermen.”

A: “When was this?”

B: “She is a long standing figure. Long time ago.”

A: “What’s the story?”

B:” There was a massive storm, which hit a particle city. Some fisherman went out to fish before the storm and caught unaware. People were worried about them and not sure if they would come back alive. They asked this women, she said they would be safe and come home. And they ended up coming home safe.”

A: “Do you think she used magic?”

B: “I believe in science, so feel like it is a coincidence. But there are many people, who pray to her, at certain times of the year. When I go back to Taiwan and see temples with her in it, we pray.”

A: “Do people in Taiwan think she had magical powers?”

B: “Many people do believe that. But it also changes from person to person. They pray to her it as a tradition”

 

Ghost

Nationality: U.S.A
Age: 22
Performance Date: 04/02/2018
Primary Language: English

The following story is collected from my friend. He is from the U.S.A. This interview is done face-to-face. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.

 

A: “Did you experience anything that can be considered supernatural?”

 

B: “There was one time, I was standing in front of pizza place close to my school. When I looked across the street, I saw a kid. He look like he was 4 years old or around that age. He was riding a bicycle. Bike’s colors were red, yellow and blue. The thing that caught my attention was that, he was unsupervised. He was in a long strip of sideway with no way of exit or enter. He had no way of disappearing from my sight, but he did. Weirdest part is, there were no one with the kid. And my city is very safe, so it was very surprising to see a kid, who is unattended.”

A: “Which city?”

 

B:”San Bernardino”

A: “When did this happen?”

B: “In high school. 2013”

 

A:”Did anyone reacted to kid disappearing?”

B: “When I asked my friend, he said that he did not notice. He was probably not paying attention.”

A: “Do you think he was a ghost?”

B: “I can not say he was not. Until I meet a person, who can tell the same story, I will stick to this answer.”

Headless Mule

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/20/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

In Brazil, there is a common myth, an urban myth, that on Thursday’s, a woman who has any physical relation with a member of the Catholic Church ends up becoming a headless mule, sort of like a donkey animal. And instead of having a head, she would have a big flame of fire. And she would run around and kill any animal of person on her path. She is attracted to nails and teeth, so if she were close to you, you had to hide your teeth and your nails. I was particularly afraid of it when I was little, I would always get cautious whenever it was a Thursday and I was at countryside and there were horses and donkeys running around. I was always thinking that maybe one of them would turn into one of the headless mules and just kill me.

This is the type of story that you only believe when you are young. As Pedro said, he used to take this ghost story seriously when he was younger but now he doesn’t. In my opinion, this is something rather impossible to happen and although there are people who do actually believe it can be true, I completely disagree. I had listened to this story before, at a young age, but I didn’t know the exact context of how the woman turned out to be a mule. Now I am more familiar with the folklore but in my opinion it’s an impossibility of the world.

Blonde Girl in the Bathroom

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 22
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

My ghost story is actually a very famous story in Brazil. I heard it for the first time when I was around 11 years old, I can’t remember exactly. My aunt told me when I was in my country house, close to Rio. She told me about the “blonde girl in the bathroom”, that’s what the ghost story is called. Essentially, the story is if (pause) you call “blonde girl of the bathroom” three times, while in a dark bathroom, a blonde ghost will appear. I had some friends and cousins who told me they actually called the blonde girl and it worked. They did that in all of the houses’ bathrooms and said that she was in all of them already. So the week we spent there I would barely enter the bathrooms because I was scared she would be there. That story was really impactful during my childhood because even though looking back today it seems like a silly story, I was really scared at the time.

This is a very famous ghost story in Brazil, in fact, I know Pedro since I was three years old and I heard his aunt talking about the blonde girl in the bathroom. His cousins used to believe it was real and even though I was scared in the beginning I never really took it seriously. When we are young we tend to believe in these stories with more frequency but as we grow older we stop believing in them. The only problem was that people said they had seen it before so that made it more authentic, which as a consequence, made all of us more frightened. Even though the story seems familiar to me, the version I heard with more frequency is that if we flush the toilet three times in a row while the bathroom lights are out, she would appear. I never really tried that because I was scared, but with time I just stopped believing in this ghost.

“Saci-Pererê”

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 20
Occupation: University of Chicago Student
Residence: Chicago; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/06/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

There’s this urban legend in Brazil of a child called “Saci-Pererê”. He is from an indigenous tribe and only has one leg and runs around naked with a smoking pipe and a red hood. He is known to be a funny and disobedient, who plays with animals and hides stuff. According to legend, the Saci is in the swirling wind and can be captured by throwing a sieve over the swirls. After capture, you must remove the hood of the creature to ensure its obedience and trap it in a bottle. I used to love him when I was younger.

Saci is a famous folkloric legend in Brazil, everyone knows him. He is said to be a myth but occasionally someone would appear dressed up as him in kid’s parties.  Brazil is known to have many figures in folklore and he is definitely one of the most popular ones. It is interesting to hear about him again because I didn’t remember the story of how to capture him, I only remembered of his appearance. I believe children like him so much because he represents the kids in a way: a disobedient person who likes animals and plays around with objects.

Academic source:

https://www.eamb.org/2011/03/saci-perere/