Known as the land of crab and good fishing, the city of São Caetano de Odivelas, located in the northeastern Pará just over 100 km from the capital, Belém, is home to a unique cultural event: the boi de mascaras (bull masks), also known as boi-tinga, referring to group of the same name.

They are verses of five or six syllables, recited to entertain, calm or amuse children, to choose who should start a game or who should take part in play.

The game, which remained during Colonial Brazil and the Brazilian Empire, basically consisted of throwing water at others, using jars, bowls, syringes and squirts. This was complemented with a “bath” of flour, starch, mud or chalk.

A small, sometimes rhyming text, which is difficult to pronounce.