Mrs. Gloria and Mr. Agostinho realize that something strange is going
on at their countryside house. The clothes out on the washing line are
scattered all over the yard, the hen keeps running away and has stopped
laying eggs, the guava tree keeps rustling non-stop and the horses’
manes are tied up in knots; in short, everything’s a mess. It doesn’t take
them long to figure out what—or who—is behind all this: it’s Saci, a
figure of Brazilian folklore who arrives in a whirlwind and causes no end
of mischief wherever he goes. Saci is a one-legged black boy who wears
a red beanie and smokes a pipe. He’s neither good nor bad, just a right
little trickster, like many a boy.
