I was 18 years old...
....and I went to an Harvest Festival at the alderman's house...
...with my late mother...
...Aunt Maria Emília from Ribeira Verde...
...and aunt Deolinda, the mother of the "Galinhas".
We were coming back, around 1 a.m.
It was a late party.
We were standing by my grandmother's door, at the Ribeira Verde...
...by that big house...
We were about to go separated ways
And suddenly a man appeared in front of us.
He was small and he held a white cane.
He started walking down the road
Tim...tim... with the cane on the pavement
We got scared, it appeared out of nowhere.
I was very scared.
I asked: "Mother, what was that?"
She said: "Girl, that man is going to Oliveira...
...to pay his taxes and left home earlier."
She said this so I wouldn't be scared.
True story.
We stood there, scared and talking...
...As he walked away until he vanished.
Later we heard the cane tapping very far away from us.
... tim... tim... tapping.
This happened to me...
"THE TARDO - Documentary"
There are stories that can't be found in books.
Stories engraved in water streams...
Carved on trees...
... and in the memory of the people.
People inhabiting this deep Portugal...
...who doesn't forget their ancestors and beliefs.
Good versus evil or the divine against the profane.
Are the themes that shape some of the Portuguese stories...
...a country that doesn't forget his tales
Is there someone who hasn't heard about the three Marys...
...the tale of the enchanted Moura or the Bogeyman?
"Don't walk around after dark or else the Tardo will come after you."
How many of us have heard this expression ...
... without understanding what it means?
The Tardo can transform himself into various creatures:
A horse, a pig, a donkey...
And it is described as a noisy and provocative being.
He wanders around at night to scare people...
...but also looking for someone to set him free from his "fado".
The tales about it are plenty.
Do you know what is the Tardo?
It was what people said it appeared to them...
...and I have seen it when I was a little girl.
Actually, I did...
At my parents home at Ribeira Verde
On a Sunday...
My father hadn't arrive yet...
...and my mother and I were waiting for him.
As my father arrived, a very strong wind started to blow.
It looked like a hank wandering...
My father came to the door and called us.
I saw a small girl around this tall.
A child.
And puppies around her.
A group of other dogs joined them...
... and started barking at our door.
The doors slamed shut because of this wind.
The wind was really scary.
That walked towards the Ribeira Verde's bridge.
It left...
My parents told me it was the Tardo.
Wandering around at that time.
In the villages it was said that the Tardo...
... could transform himself...
...into many animals:
The pig, the donkey, the horse.
This was because people believed...
...that walking on the streets at night was dangerous.
And this was a way to make...
...everyone...
...affraid to walk around at night.
At my home town people talk a lot about this.
Once, a fearless man...
...because he didn't believe in those stories...
Walking close to a crossroad...
...found a pig in a brushwood.
He thought he was lost...
...and tried to grab him.
He asked his neighbor...
... to keep the pig...
...while they'd try to find its rightfull owner.
The pig was to be kept in doors, until morning.
At dawn, they went to check on the pig...
...which had been locked inside.
But when they got there, the pig was gone.
How did it vanish?
They didn't know...
It had to be the Tardo.
This is just one of the many tales people tell.
In which, after the last Hail Mary bell had been rung...
It was not wise to leave their home.
What I am about to tell you...
... happened around 1958 or 1959.
I was walking down this road...
...coming from Rebordões.
I was heading to the seminar.
I had to go through a path...
...that ran deep through the woods.
It was small path...
... filled with bushes ...
A small path filled with bushes and trees.
I could barely see anything...
I could barely see anything, because of the shadows.
So I had to figure the path out as I walked.
I walked for a while and passed by some very tall cedars...
...filled with leaves from top to bottom.
I couldn't see anything.
From behind the cedar...
...a small animal came out. It looked like a dog.
It was white.
It stopped right in front of me...
...and then ran into the bushes.
He ran ...
I kept walking, and walking...
After the cedars...
... there was open sky for about ten meters.
And another...
There a big animal appeared in front of me.
It looked like a white calf with spots.
... With spots.
And I ...
I cringed, with this one as much as I had with the other.
But I thought: "I have to move forward".
So I walked forward.
But the animal stopped right in front of me.
So I walked a little faster and said:
"Oh, I am gonna kick you!"
And he ran away.
He ran and so I went on down the path...
I grew up listening to this stories.
Like most people from my generation.
People who were born in the 80s or 90s.
We all heard a lot about the Tardo...
...through our parents and grandparents.
The truth is that we grew up listening to all of this.
I remember hearing my grandparents talk, my uncles and aunts...
...and even my parents saying...
...that at a certain days and certain hours...
...people were afraid from going to certain places or streets.
Specially if they had crossroads or they had no light.
As you know, electric lamps were rare at the time.
They talked a lot about a specific place...
...specially here, near Oliveira de Azeméis...
... called Ribeira Verde.
This place is still ...
...not very well lit at night.
It does not have electric light...
It was common for people to go through this path.
My father, for instance, told me that...
...some young men from Nogueira do Cravo played...
...at a football club named Sporting Club Bustelo.
And as they came from training at night...
...specially during winter nights...
...they were afraid to walk down that road.
Actually they would play some pranks at each other...
...pretending to be the Tardo in the woods.
So, as far as I heard...
...from my parents and the rest of my family...
...Tardo was a figure...
...that could have many faces and forms.
It appeared at night ...
... at certain places.
And its purpose was to cause fear...
...to those who crossed him.
It could transform into an animal like...
...a dog or a horse.
Many stories talk about horses.
The noise of horses...
A white horse that ran by people at high speed.
But people also talk about sounds and sensations.
The wind, for instance.
Strong winds formed out of nowhere.
Most recent stories...
...told by younger people...
...around my age or so...
...talk about people going down a certain road...
...and then they hear something behind them...
...and when they turn...
...they get slapped in the face.
But the Tardo is not exclusive...
...from the region between Douro and Vouga.
Minho and Trás-os-Montes...
...and even Spain, at Asturias and Galicia...
...have similar stories.
This similarity is linked with the Celtic heritage...
...from the northwest of the Iberian peninsula.
In the research I did...
...I could read things from a lot of places.
We focused mainly here.
S.João da Madeira, Oliveira de Azeméis...
...Santa Maria da Feira, Vale de Cambra.
But there are very similar tales...
...through all the northern part of Portugal...
...and even Galicia.
We gathered information from Paços de Ferreira, Cinfães...
...Beira Interior...
Galicia and Asturias,...
Trás-os-Montes, Minho...
This whole area...
Of course there were differences.
From region to region ...
...there are slight changes to the stories.
For instance, in Galicia...
...these beings have no intent...
...to cause a deep fear or to be cruel.
In Galicia we have...
... more mischiefs and little problems...
...caused to the everyday life.
While in Portugal, mainly here...
...there is a link to something more evil...
...than a simple mischief.
In Minho, the Tardo has a specific meaning.
It means nightmare.
It is associated with nightmares.
It has a lot to do with fear.
With the night and the darkness...
...which is something that is always present in our lives.
And in the past it was worst, when we didn't have electric light.
In Minho the Tardo is precisely a nightmare.
It's seen as a being...
...who was a baby and died...
...without ever being baptized.
So he had no right to be buried on sacred ground.
So he goes to the darkness, as we say.
He goes for the limbo, the purgatory.
He can't go to heaven, to paradise, and so he keeps wandering.
And haunts people while they sleep.
If the child isn't baptized...
...in popular tradition...
the family lives a permanent obsession.
My mother always told me...
When one of my daughters was born...
...I took some time to baptize her...
"Baptize this child. Don't take her out of the house!"
This obsession people had with baptism...
...for the baby if...
...by any chance ended up dying...
...do not have a destiny outside...
...of this Christian project the families had.
This is an obsession that can't be separated...
...from this creatures from the popular mythology.
The tales about this creature are rare...
...but there is one detail that deserves attention:
A red cap.
The Tardo has a red cap, so...
...it is a being that has a ...
...physical dimension...
...whose steps can be heard.
Someone who dreams with it...
... thinks he is awake and feels its steps.
How does someone get rid of this problem?
Stealing his red cap.
Plus, whoever takes this red cap...
...becomes rich.
There is a link...
...very common in our traditions associated...
... with the devil and the moors.
There was always a bad side, but also a good side.
In Minho there is a story about the enchanted cliffs.
Below these cliffs there is a plague...
...but it may also be a treasure.
It depends on how you deal with it.
The tradition with Tardo has a lot to do with this.
It's not very common.
The references are very few.
The ones I know are more than 150 years old...
...and were mentioned by Francisco Martins Sarmento...
...near Briteiros.
These mythical creatures...
...insert themselves...
... on the popular believable universe...
...that...
... goes around on multiple cultures.
And this is why we find...
... in northern Portugal.
The Trasgo, the Tardo...
We find in Galicia, Asturias and the rest of Spain...
...the Tardo, but also the Trasno.
As we move to Northern Europe we find...
...leprechauns, gnomes and elves.
These entities are replicas...
...of the ones from Greek mythology.
We had centaurs, cyclops...
...circopes, nymphs, fauns...
... Medusa...
They later were projected onto our popular mythology...
...through the werewolf, trasgos, olharapos...
...enchanted Moorish, fairies...
And then, each culture recycles those images...
...turning it into its own popular culture...
...and religious concerns.
The notorious tales from these places...
...got really well known because of pilgrims.
It's no coincidence that most of these tales...
...are popular in places that are part of the pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela.
Pilgrims came, stopped, talked.
Spent the nights on hostels...
...and there were no televisions, cinema or videos...
...so they told these tales.
And each community adopted these images...
...and fitted them into their own concerns...
...and their own geo-imaginary reality.
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