Boraro
Boraro are tall, pallid cannibal monsters of Tukano tradition in the Amazon, with backward-turned feet, no knees, glowing red eyes, and stone weapons for hunting humans.
At a glance
- Tradition
- South American folklore (general)
- Region
- Amazon Rainforest (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The Doom-Howlers
- Symbols
- Stone
Near this figure
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Stone bears image-domain Stone denotes hardness, permanence and foundation, closed against entry and therefore inviting meaning, raised upright to make a presence where there was only ground.
why
Boraro are tall, pallid cannibal monsters of Tukano tradition in the Amazon, with backward-turned feet, no knees, glowing red eyes, and stone weapons for hunting humans.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Backward facing feet confuse trackers
why
The backward feet are the practical heart of the design, since a track that seems to lead away from a boraro in fact leads toward it.
Sight and sound
- Glowing red eyes
why
The recorded description is unusually specific for a forest monster: they are tall and humanoid, with hairy chests, glowing red eyes, ears that jut outward, an enormous phallus, and legs with no knees ending in feet that point backward.
Offensive powers
- Devouring
why
Once the victim is helpless, the boraro chews a hole in the top of the skull and sucks the internal organs out through it, leaving the body outwardly whole.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Shadow carries
3 citations
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Boraro."
- Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins, s.v. "Boraro."
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Boraro."