Saci-Pererê, the One-Legged Trickster (Campfire Story)

In Brazil, when something goes wrong around the house, people don't say, 'Oh, well.' They say, 'It was the SACI!'

The SACI is a little trickster, no bigger than a ten-year-old. He has only one leg, so he gets around by hopping, very fast. He smokes a little clay pipe. He has a big mischievous grin. And on his head he wears a magic RED CAP. That cap is where all his power comes from. With it, he can disappear in a puff of smoke, or turn himself into a spinning WHIRLWIND.

And he loves to make trouble. If the milk turns sour, it was the SACI. If the beans burn, the SACI. If the salt gets into the sugar bowl and the sugar gets into the salt shaker, the SACI. If you wake up and the horse's mane and tail are tied in a hundred tiny knots, that's the SACI, who rode the horse around the field all night. And if you can only ever find one sock of a pair? Well, the SACI only has one foot. He only needs one sock.

There was once a boy named Pedrinho who lived on a farm in the hills of Brazil, and he decided he'd had enough. 'Grandpa,' he said, 'I'm going to catch the SACI.'

His grandfather chuckled. 'Then you'll need three things. A sieve, like for sifting flour. A glass bottle with a cork. And a lot of patience.'

'Why a sieve?' asked Pedrinho.

'Because when the SACI travels, he travels as a WHIRLWIND, a little spinning dust devil. When you see one coming across the field, you throw the sieve right into the middle of it. The SACI can't get through the holes. Then you grab his RED CAP, and he's yours. Put him in the bottle and cork it tight.'

So Pedrinho waited by the field with his sieve and his bottle. He waited all morning. He waited all afternoon. And then, late in the day, he saw it. A little WHIRLWIND of red dust and dry leaves, spinning across the field, heading straight for the barn.

Pedrinho ran, and threw the sieve with all his might. Right into the middle of the WHIRLWIND! And the spinning stopped, and there in the dust, tangled up in the sieve, was the SACI, hopping mad on his one leg, with his pipe in his mouth and his RED CAP on his head.

Pedrinho snatched the RED CAP. 'Got you!'

All the SACI's power was gone. 'Give it back, give it back!' he squeaked. 'I'll do anything!'

'Into the bottle with you,' said Pedrinho. And the little SACI shrank down and hopped into the bottle, and Pedrinho corked it tight.

For a whole week, things on the farm went perfectly. The milk stayed sweet. The beans never burned. The horses' manes were smooth. Every pair of socks had two socks.

It was very, very boring.

And Pedrinho started to feel sorry for the little fellow, stuck in his bottle on the shelf, hopping up and down, looking out the window at the fields. So one night, Pedrinho took down the bottle. 'If I let you go,' he said, 'will you promise to only do a little mischief? Just a little? And never anything mean?'

The SACI grinned and nodded. Pedrinho pulled the cork, and gave back the RED CAP. And the SACI popped out, put on his cap, gave a whistle, and spun off out the window into the night as a WHIRLWIND.

The next morning, Pedrinho woke up and reached for his socks. And there was only one.

'SACI!'

Storyteller tips: before the story, ask who's ever lost one sock. After it, keep a "Saci" running joke going for the rest of the campout: anything that goes missing, the Saci took it.

Some places in Brazil celebrate Saci Day on October 31, as a homegrown alternative to Halloween.