Takatukahane

Imagine that you are in a bar near the Amazon River in Brazil. It’s a hot night and you’re sipping your caipirinha cocktail. All of a sudden, the most handsome man you’ve ever seen enters the door of the bar and your eyes meet immediately. You can’t resist his charm, it’s almost like you’re enchanted. You want to spend the night or even your whole life with him.

After a wonderful night together, it’s now morning and you find yourself in bed alone. Because long before dawn the man you fell in love with a night ago, returned to the Amazon River where he belongs. As a dolphin. (Now you understand better the reason for the blowhole on his head.)

Boto Encantado, enchanted dolphins, live in the Amazon River and go out at night to seduce young women, disguised as handsome men. In the middle of the night, they wander around the bars and make lonely women fall in love with them and sometimes impregnate them. Children with unknown fathers are called “filhos de boto”, which means children of the dolphin. (Problem solved!)

The only part of their bodies that couldn’t be disguised is the blowholes on their heads, which are always hidden underneath a hat. Locals cite events such as the fact that the dead/hunted dolphin smells of alcohol, or that a man who suspects it is a magical dolphin was hit with three harpoons while diving back into the river, and in the morning a dolphin was found on the shore with three harpoons.

Hunting dolphins is believed to be bad luck among the locals and is an important taboo. But in some areas, dolphins are still hunted to make love potions. For example, it is said that by holding the dried eyes of dolphins in your hand, you can make the person you are talking to fall in love with you. You can easily find many more dolphin “parts” for similar spells (if you’re maniac enough) at local markets.