Tradition / Region: Brazilian mythology
Alternate Names: Black-Faced Ox
Category: Cow
The Myth
In Brazil, when night falls and children resist sleep, a familiar name is sometimes whispered: the Black-Faced Ox.
Boi da Cara Preta is imagined as an ox with a darkened face, something both ordinary and unsettling. It is not a beast of fields or farms, but a figure that comes when children refuse to rest or misbehave. Parents sing of it softly, not as a roar or threat, but as a presence that listens from the dark.
In the lullaby, the ox is called upon to come and take the child who will not sleep, especially one who is afraid of silly faces and shadows. The song is gentle, almost playful, yet behind it lingers the idea that something waits just beyond the cradle and the candlelight.
The Black-Faced Ox has no long tale of origins or deeds. It does not rampage or destroy. It exists in the space between comfort and fear, carried by melody rather than story. To children, it is a warning; to adults, a tool; to memory, a shadow shaped like an ox.
And so Boi da Cara Preta endures—not as a monster that acts, but as one that might, lingering in song, rocking back and forth with the rhythm of sleep.
Gallery
Sources
Guerra, D. (2010). Acalantos afro-brasileiros. Revista África e Africanidades, 8, 1-5.
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The Boi da Cara Preta