Brazil Legend

I was visitng brazil one year and i came across an old man selling burnt wooden pictures and we got to talking and i asked him if he knew of any local legends he could shar with me and he gave me the following story.. It a story of a young blossoming girl named Vitoria Regia..

A young native related a story to me of the water lily tale, the Vitoria Regia. This tale belonged to the Tupi-guami tribe, a tribe of Indians who lived on the banks of the Great River, where young indigenous girls used to dream about the moon, the goddess Jaci, and the beauty of the stars.

A young girl, Neca-Neca, was told the story of an ancient belief that a fearsome but handsome and powerful warrior god lived on the moon. This young girl fell in love with the warrior on the moon as time passed and she turned her back on the young men of her tribe that her parents tried to get her interested in.

Neca-Neca waited patiently during the days that the moon was not visible, waiting for it to emerge in its full splendour each lunar cycle. She spent hours awake, staring into the sky, trying to see the face of her imagined love. She was often seen running through the jungle in the middle of the night, her arms outstretched trying to catch its rays and embrace her warrior lover as the moon shone at its fullest. But for Neca-Neca chasing the moonbeams was a hopeless task, the great love of her life remaining a distant dream.

Months later, disillusioned and sad because at not being able to touch the moon, Neca-Neca left her sleeping net. It was a clear night, a night with a full moon and there she was, large and beautiful, reflected in the waters. The moon shone high above the jacaranda trees in the cloudless sky and the young girl raced through the jungle till she came to the lake. Here she saw the brilliant reflection of the moon.

At last, she thought. My beloved has come down to earth to bathe in a pool.

Without a thought Neca-Neca plunged into the water to try to touch the moon. Too late she realised her mistake, realising it was only an illusion and the girl sadly drowned.

The moon felt sorry for this young native girl and decided to immortalise her on earth as she could not take her to the spirit realm and turn her into a star. The warrior god did indeed exist according to legend, taking pity on the beautiful girl who had loved him and died trying to embrace him. He transformed Neca-Neca into a star of the fresh flowing waters of the Amazon river, now a giant flower that reigns as queen of all aquatic plants, the giant water lily, Vitoria Regia, whose flower opens wide only at night.

It is said that the Vitoria Regia opens itself fully only on the nights when the moon is full and the sky cloudless and clear over the Amazon jungle.

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