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Overview
In Lopes Neto’s retelling, Blau Nunes repeats a story attributed within the fiction to his Charrua grandmother. A princess brought across the Atlantic is transformed by Anhangá-pitã into a little lizard. Her magical object becomes the transparent red stone forming her head, so brilliant that observers can scarcely look at it. The demon teaches her the routes to treasure-filled caverns. This Christian–Moorish–regional synthesis belongs to the authored narrative; the book’s quoted Teschauer comparison does not independently verify the whole origin story.
A sacristan from São Tomé encounters her emerging from a violently heated lagoon. He catches the small green creature in a horn vessel and brings honey. When he returns, a young woman stands in his room. She offers treasure but also names him as her destined partner. Their relationship is discovered after he takes consecrated wine for her. The authorities imprison, torture and condemn him. As his execution approaches, supernatural disturbances intensify; Teiniaguá tears a channel from the lagoon toward the Uruguay River. The abandoned prisoner follows her, and together they relocate the treasures to the Cerro do Jarau.
The sacristan later guides Blau through seven trials. At their end Teiniaguá appears as an aged woman manipulating a white wand and offers powers over fortune, attraction, healing or harm, fighting, wealth and art. Blau’s repeated refusals conceal a wish for Teiniaguá herself and everything she embodies. He leaves without her gift, though the sacristan supplies a coin that generates more coins. The wealth produces isolation, losses for trading partners and disappearing income, so Blau returns it.
His third invocation of the holy name breaks the enchantment. The cavern’s wealth and threatening apparitions collapse into fire and smoke. The old woman becomes Teiniaguá, then the princess, then a beautiful woman described in the author’s historical regional vocabulary. The sacristan likewise resumes a youthful human form, and the pair walk away together. The ending releases them into ordinary life; it does not leave the princess eternally imprisoned or the treasure freely available.
Origins & earliest records
Lendas do sul, published by Echenique & C. in Pelotas in1913. Lopes Neto acknowledges literary reshaping in his preface. The story’s Charrua grandmother is a figure in Blau Nunes’s framed narration, not an independently identified field informant. Its two-century enchantment and the notes’ suggested seventeenth-century origin remain narrative and editorial chronology.
Records & interpretation
A Salamanca do Jarau, complete framed narrative through release and all eleven Elucidação notes. Preface explicitly describes a literary presentation of transmitted legends.
In the literature
“seu corpinho verde de lagartixa engraçada e buliçosa”
A Salamanca do Jarau, III, sacristan’s encounter
In Blau’s account of his Charrua grandmother’s tradition, a transported Moorish princess is transformed by Anhangá-pitã into a little lizard with a brilliantly red transparent-stone head. He teaches her the treasure caves. A sacristan later catches her as she emerges from a boiling lagoon, keeps her in a water-filled horn and brings honey. She appears as a young woman, identifies herself and proposes love and a future lineage if his rosary does not expel her. Their secret union and his removal of sacramental wine lead to discovery, torture and a death sentence. During the execution procession her intervention produces wind, fire, ominous birds and a channel draining to the Uruguay. After religious forces drive the procession away, the sacristan crosses the river to her, and they take the treasures to Jarau. Two centuries later she appears as an old woman, offering Blau powers after seven trials. His unspoken desire is for her, but he receives none of those offered gifts. Returning a troublesome enchanted coin, he completes the greetings that release the sacristan and her together. She changes from old woman to lizard to Moorish princess to a beautiful tapuia; the couple walk away as humans while the treasures burn.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Lendas do sul — A Salamanca do Jarau
A Salamanca do Jarau, complete framed narrative through release and all eleven Elucidação notes. Preface explicitly describes a literary presentation of transmitted legends.
- 02
Lendas do sul — A Salamanca do Jarau and Elucidação1–11
Lendas do sul, Pelotas: Echenique & C.,1913, identified in digital title and Gutenberg original-publication catalogue. Complete A Salamanca do Jarau, opening through final release and all eleven Elucidação notes read. Historical Portuguese spelling retained; digital text repeats VII before coin episode, which is not silently emended. No original facsimile pagination claim or complete whole-volume review.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Lendas do sul — A Salamanca do Jarau
Lendas do sul, Pelotas: Echenique & C.,1913, identified in digital title and Gutenberg original-publication catalogue. Complete A Salamanca do Jarau, opening through final release and all eleven Elucidação notes read. Historical Portuguese spelling retained; digital text repeats VII before coin episode, which is not silently emended. No original facsimile pagination claim or complete whole-volume review.
- In Blau’s account of his Charrua grandmother’s tradition, a transported Moorish princess is transformed by Anhangá-pitã into a little lizard with a brilliantly red transparent-stone head. He teaches her the treasure caves. A sacristan later catches her as she emerges from a boiling lagoon, keeps her in a water-filled horn and brings honey. She appears as a young woman, identifies herself and proposes love and a future lineage if his rosary does not expel her. Their secret union and his removal of sacramental wine lead to discovery, torture and a death sentence. During the execution procession her intervention produces wind, fire, ominous birds and a channel draining to the Uruguay. After religious forces drive the procession away, the sacristan crosses the river to her, and they take the treasures to Jarau. Two centuries later she appears as an old woman, offering Blau powers after seven trials. His unspoken desire is for her, but he receives none of those offered gifts. Returning a troublesome enchanted coin, he completes the greetings that release the sacristan and her together. She changes from old woman to lizard to Moorish princess to a beautiful tapuia; the couple walk away as humans while the treasures burn.
Complete A Salamanca do Jarau, I–X as digitally labelled (VII repeated), plus Elucidação1–11
This is LopesNeto’s literary synthesis with nested speakers, not a verbatim named Charrua performance or verified arrival of historical Moors. The original narrator cannot decide whether her rescue is driven by love, pride or hope of human life. Carbúnculo/farol comparison and Teschauer1911 quotation in note6 remain this author’s reported comparison, not a separately inspected original. Note11’s1650 origin estimate is editorial conjecture, not a demonstrated first attestation.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textSimões Lopes Neto1913: complete Salamanca do JarauResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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