INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

Gosh, it’s nearly summer. Can you believe it?! We have some really good monsters this summer and I’m excited to bring them to you from my extremely hot office at home, which I’m sure will be absolutely sweltering as the year goes on. 

DESCRIPTION:

This week we’re heading somewhere pretty hot all the time, and that’s over to South America, specifically Brazil for the Boto or the Encantado! 

The Encantado is a shapeshifting dolphin from Amazonian folklore, but it’s most commonly found around north Brazil at the tip of the Amazon river. They are usually in their dolphin-like shape, however, they are Amazonian dolphins, which are pink, visibly toothy and long-nosed, unlike regular bottlenose dolphins that most people think of. They are a normal size, however, as they are pastel pink, they do stand out in the murky river waters. They can speak in squeaks and whistles, but can also speak the native Brazilian Portuguese, which I imagine from a dolphin would be pretty weird. There are both male and female Encantados, but the male version is a lot more common.

The dolphin is their usual form, however they only ever really shapeshift into one other creature, a human. This only ever happens at night, and is actually quite rare for them to do. They look like normal people, however, the only part of it that doesn’t transform is its blowhole, which is still apparent on the top of their head - so Encantados will always be found wearing a hat. Sometimes it’s reported that they don’t transform their hands very well either and can sometimes look a bit like their natural flippers. The men would usually wear full suits and the women elegant dresses and look very formal and sometimes, old-fashioned. They were also sometimes known to live on the land long-term, taking up music and making money through performing. 

Why do they bother transforming? Well apparently Encantados are from an Encante, or a utopia of wealth and happiness, with no death or pain - and so they are naturally attracted to the pleasures and hardships of human life. They’re very attracted to parties and sex, which very often ends up resulting in hybrid-illegitimate children. An Encantado would often be begged to stay at a party, and anyone who gave chase would see them run to the river whilst they slowly transformed back into their dolphin form. Whenever appearing on land, they would technically be enchanting everyone around them to see them as human - and they would actually still be a dolphin with various river creatures being used as their fancy attire. 

They are most commonly found around the Brazilian festival of Festa Junina or the June Festival, which happens once a year - where they would play music, dance and drink amongst the human community. If you met a handsome stranger, you most likely have bumped into an Encantado and by the end of the night - they would have seduced someone and taken them home and impregnated them. Sometimes Encantados were even known for taking the person back to the Encante, never to be seen from again - or if they were, they were never quite the same. 

Although they were also okay with kidnapping anyone who gets too close to the water to keep them company in their perfect homeworld. But they were most known for kidnapping for love or kidnapping their children that were conceived through the seduction and kidnapping of their human mothers and fathers. It’s said that female Encantados would sneak into married men's houses, take them away to a hut where she would visit once on the same night every year - then on the 7th year, she would transform him into a baby and transfer him into the wife’s womb - pretty creepy right? These children were all known as filhos de boto, child of the boto or the dolphin’s children, and are still used for unknown-fathered children in the area now.

In terms of other powers, they have an insane musical ability, being able to pick up many instruments they find and be able to play them beautifully and use them as seduction tools. They had a certain way of bewitching onlookers to this to have sex with them, as well as turning humans into Encantados themselves. They also can control storms around their area, causing flooding, thunder and lightning or even mudslides, and most maliciously, can cause illness, insanity and death in humans that cross them. It’s even said that you would go mad from looking one in the eye, and it would give you lifelong nightmares - maybe I’ve seen one then, that would certainly explain that.

In order to be cured from the insanity or illness from an Encantado, you would need to seek out a Shaman or holy man - who would cast a magical powder made of flour and chilli into the water where the Encantado appears. This would break any spell, and stop the monster coming back, but the victim would have to be held back during the ceremony, drawn to the water by the Encantado. Also any gifts given the person will revert back to their non-enchanted form which would usually be dead leaves and other river junk.

ORIGIN:

For the etymology, Encantado means enchanted one in Brazilian Portuguese, and they’re named that way because they are from the Encate, this magical underwater realm they call home. There are technically two names for these monsters though, and the other is Boto, which does translate into dolphin and sometimes is put together with Encantado, making Boto Encantado - meaning enchanted dolphin. Boto is normally used as a nickname for the Amazonian pink dolphins only though, and is sometimes even Boto Cor De Rosa in Portuguese.

Now with history, I am so sorry to tell you this but I have no idea when this myth started. Unfortunately, it’s not on record literally anywhere - so we know it was spread through word of mouth and it was most likely started by Amazonian tribes as firstly, a deterrent to go anywhere near the water - which is common within folklore across the world. 

But I can give you background and stories about these monsters, so don’t give up hope. Apparently, the most important thing to note is that Amazonian river dolphins are not nice like bottlenose dolphins, and are known to nudge and antagonise swimmers and canoeists. They’re also pretty freaky to look at. I'm just going to say it now. 

What we think inspired the myths is pretty real though, and it’s actually dolphins genitals, which are remarkably like humans. Of course, there have been loads of studies into human and dolphin similarities, including the famous Margaret Lovatt study where the dolphin would be satisfied by her and then when she was removed from the experiment, the dolphin literally killed itself. What we have found is that they are remarkably clever, and almost sentient beings - they’re also one of the few species other than humans to have sex for pleasure, rather than just procreation - so our genitals looking similar in regards to this is interesting. 

Another theory is that the Encantado myth was a cover-up for something more sordid, which was incestuous relationships within small, isolated river communities, which is unfortunately quite common. So it was easy to par this off to the Encantado, who were famous for their fatherless child thing - than actually admit that the child was born of incest. 

There are a few stories of people encountering the Encantados though, such as one where two men were parading about town, drunk and disorderly and completely disappeared at dawn. The next day, two pink dolphins were caught and gutted, and apparently stank of the alcohol that the men were drinking. Another is that a man was suspected of being an Encantado and was chased into a river, then speared with three harpoons as he dived. A dead pink dolphin was then found later in the area with three harpoons sticking out of its body. 

I actually have an excerpt from my book recommendation this week, so here goes - the power that encantados have over the opposite gender is clear in many stories. They say that a man named Jesse was at a dance when two handsome strangers in white suits showed up and mesmerized the girls. These two fellows displayed some new dance steps that the people hadn't seen before, and everyone assumed it must be the latest fad. They also drank more alcohol than any man there. During the dance, Jesse's grandmother took him aside and told him that the two strangers were assuredly dolphins in human disguise. She was a wise woman who had seen many things, and Jesse knew that she must be right.

When the two strangers slipped outside shortly before dawn, Jesse followed. He knew that the river was too far away for them to make it there before sunrise, especially as drunk as they were. He lost them, but continued along the road towards the river. Then he found two dolphins in a tiny pool that was little more than a mud hole. These dolphins reeked of alcohol, so Jesse had no doubt that they were encantados. The dawn had indeed caught the two strangers before they could make it to the river. Jesse killed these two helpless dolphins, but afterwards he felt terribly guilty about it, just like he would feel if he had murdered people. But the damage had already been done. Jesse's girlfriend had fallen so thoroughly in love with one of the dolphin men that she refused to marry anyone else for the rest of her life and became an old spinster.

Now in terms of animal comparisons - of course the Amazonian pink dolphin is the clear winner. These dolphins are even mythical in their own right, and are known to be the guardians of manatees. It’s said that if you want to find a manatee in the Amazon, you must first win over a pink dolphin - who as I said earlier are a little bit antagonistic with humans. It’s considered incredibly bad luck to harm the dolphins, but even worse to eat one of them - so even in these stories of the Encantado, the people who hunt them are in for worse fates without the monster being attached to them. 

They are remarkably similar to our Selkie, Fossegrim and Peri-like creatures, who would fall in love with humans and have children with them - but inevitably go back to their original forms. However, with this monster, it seems that that is done maliciously, rather than through love and affection for the human. You could also compare them to the Scottish Kelpie, dragging the helpless to their deaths in the water and as a cautionary tale of the dangers of water - but it kind of embodies both aspects of both these monsters, making it a little bit unique and fun, as well as pretty scary.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, there’s nothing on the actual Encantado this week - and I’m kind of grateful, however, there are a load of things with semi-sentient dolphins in, so we’re going with that. 

For art, I will say to look at independent stuff this week, but please do be conscious of what you might find - the only ones I could find were pretty creepy. 

In movies, we have; The Dolphin, Johnny Mnemonic, Shark Tale, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: Sponge Out of Water, The Day of the Dolphin, 

For TV, we have; Elena of Avalor, Inside Job, Loonatics Unleashed, My Gym Partner’s a Monkey, SeaQuest DSV, Parodied, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Mystery Science Theatre 3000, Ducktales, Star Trek, Upright Citizens Brigade, Astro Boy, Cyborg 009, Digimon, Psychic Squid, Mars Daybreak, Spongebob Squarepants, Made for Love, Flipper and Lopaka, The Simpsons, American Dad, Spliced, The Penguins of Madagascar, Zig & Sharko, The Tick & Robot Chicken.

In video games, we have ones such as; Beyond Atlantis, Blue Planet, Sword of the Stars, Aero Fighters 2, The Fermi Paradox, Critical Depth, Zombie Wars, EcoQuest, The Stellaris, Insaniquarium, Jett Rocket, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, Kingdom of Loathing & Banjo-Kazooie.

My book recommendation this week is to have a look at Half Human, Half Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related Creatures by Jamie Hall which is where I’ve got most of my research from this week and the excerpt I read you earlier, which is all about hybrid monsters from around the world!

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

I’m sorry I’m going to say absolutely not for this one, and honestly I hope I’m right. After researching this monster and the dolphin they are based on - I’m creeped out. I like traditional dolphins and thought a pink one would be pretty cool, but they look like they want to hurt me and I don’t like it. 

Alongside this, I can see how this could be both a scapegoat for illegitimate children as well as a warning to the dangerous river - but I think the whole transformation part is a little far fetched. Also, if you did go to bed with an Encantado - would you not ask them to take off their hat? That’s wild to me - although I did see someone once who refused to take off a beanie, and it turned out he’d never brushed his hair and he was hiding a child-sized mat under there; gross.

I honestly was so surprised by how much I enjoyed researching this one, and how much information there was without much history to back it up - certainly a first in that aspect. But I really hope you’ve enjoyed this as much as me, this one has been a wild ride and I really liked it.

But what do you think? Did the Encantado prey on the women of the Amazon? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

This was a pretty creepy monster, but it was interesting to look into nonetheless - I do think the artwork I’ve seen of this will forever be burnt into my eye holes though, and I’m sorry if my advertising this week did the same to you. But at least you know about the monster too now? 

Next week, we’re heading over to ancient Mesopotamia and looking at a character from an absolute epic who has been written in the stars ever since, get your wrestling gloves ready for the Bull of Heaven next Thursday!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.