The typical ‘aboio’ in northeast Brazil is a song without words, sung by cowboys when they are driving cattle to corrals or guiding the herd to pastures.
It is a fairly lamentable song or hum, a slow melody, well suited to the slow plodding of animals, always finished with a phrase to stimulate the cattle: ei boi! (hey, bull!) boi surubim! ei lá, boizinho! (hey there, little bull!).
Whether behind (at the rear) or in front of the herd (at the lead) the cowboy encourages the following herd, peacefully, to listen to the song.
In the semi-arid region of Brazil it is always an individual song, sung freely without words, phrases or verses, except the final exclamation, which is spoken and not sung. Those who excel in it are said to be the “aboio aces”.
There is also cattle-singing with verses that are poems with agri-pastoral themes, of Moorish origins and which possibly came to Brazil through Moorish slaves from Madeira Island in Portugal, where this kind of singing existed.
According to Luís da Câmara Cascudo, the word ‘aboio’ is of Brazilian origin, having been taken to Portugal, where once it meant ‘to put a buoy in something’.
Cattle-singing is not done for fun. It is an historic, serious activity, respected by the people of the semi-arid regions.
One can cattle-sing in the forest to orientate dispersed companions during a stampede, seated on the gate of the corral watching the cattle enter and guiding the herd on the roads. It works for cattle roaming free in the fields as well as for corralled cattle and even, to a lesser extent, for milking cows, but in this case it isn’t carried out by a ‘true’ cowboy.
The writer José de Alencar, in his book O Sertanejo, says of the ritual of cattle-singing: The words in the song of the cattle-singer can’t be distinguished; nor does he articulate them, because he speaks of his cattle with heart-felt language, which soothes the animals and captivates them.
Recife, 13 June 2003.
(Updated on 20 August 2009).
Translated by Peter Leamy, January 2011.
sources consulted
CÂMARA CASCUDO, Luís da. Dicionário do folclore brasileiro. Rio de Janeiro: Edições de Ouro, [19--?].
NICÉAS, Alcides. Aboio: um ritual agreste. Recife: Fundaj, Inpso, Centro de Estudos Folclóricos, 1979. (Folclore, n. 93).
how to quote this text
Source: GASPAR, Lúcia. Aboio (Cattle-Singing). Pesquisa Escolar On-Line, Joaquim Nabuco Foundation, Recife. Available at: <http://basilio.fundaj.gov.br/pesquisaescolar/>. Accessed: day month year. Exemple: 6 Aug. 2009.