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!).

By the end of the 17th century, at the previously named Ilha Grande de Joanes, the first cattle farms were established with a flock that came from Portugal. The animals were introduced in the island by the colonizers, beginning a long crossbreeding process.