Grandma Moon always told me that there are only two worlds, your world, which is the real world and other worlds. These last are the fruit of human imagination. In them the reality, time and truth are not important. The important is that these worlds exist and give meaning to their world, and that’s all that matters. One of these worlds is the world of dreams. This world is populated by numerous fantastic and magical beings, like fairies, elves and angels, but there are also scary beings as ghosts, witches, monsters and bogeymen. But the worst of these is-Tutu Maramba, or just Tutu.
The Tutus do not have forms, are like shadows, so they can appear in the shape of any animal, such as the alligator, which is now called alligator-tutu or simply Cuca.
Grandma said that the Tutus are things ourselves that are carelessly inside us, things we do not like and put in a dark and well hidden place. Except that one day they begin to grow. They sometimes moan and scream and cause some pain, and the more you run the Tutus always seem to reach you, but usually at this time we wake up. The whole world thinks the best way to deal with the Tutus is to stay still under the covers, squeeze the pillow and never go into the world of dreams. But Grandma says no, that our fear of facing them is that feeds the Tutus, and they would be so big, so ugly and so scary that even the ghosts, witches, monsters and bogeymen are afraid of them!
Grandma says that the best way to deal with the Tutus is open your heart and take care of them, try to understand them. She says they scream because we scream so loud that they think this is how we talk normally. And they run after us, because we running them and so they cannot tell us what they want. But if they say what they want, they usually go away. – But Grandma, they’re so ugly, so scary, I said, and stuck me under the covers again. And grandma put me on her lap and said I just call the Murucututu,
which is a little owl of the yellow belly. The owl said Grandma with her sharp vision sees in the dark things that others cannot. And so they have great wisdom. The owl will help her to see precisely how the Tutus really are. And grandma put me on her lap and sang until I fell asleep and with the owl on my shoulder I could enter the world of dreams, because the Tutus were no more ugly and not so great!
References and Subtitles/ Referências e legendas
1. Richard Armitage read “I’m Not Going Out There!” by Paul Bright, on the BBC children’s channel CBeebies.
2. The Cuca is a major mythological beings of Brazilian folklore, which was immortalized by the TV adaptation of child books of Monteiro Lobato, the Yellow Woodpecker Ranch.
3. Guy of Gisborne performed by Richard Armitage, Robin Hood. Serie TV (BBC) and Until it Sleeps performed by Metallica. Produced by Ana Cris. Images from Elvira. Software Pinnacle Studio HD.
4. Murucututu-de-barriga-amarela/Tawny-browed Owl (Pulsatrix koeniswaldiana). Images from http://luis.impa.br/foto/birdindexframes/murucututu-de-barriga-amarela
5. Lucas performed by Richard Armitage, Spooks. Serie TV (BBC). Produced by Ana Cris. Images from http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/. Software Windows Live Movie Maker
6. Song from MAWACA. Allundé, Alluyá (African prayer lullaby song). Murucututu (Traditional Brazilian lullaby). The ‘mbira’ African are used to entertain children as they have a gentle, hypnotic sound. The two lullabies “Allundé, Alluyá ‘and’ Murucututu ‘are connected by an instrument known as’ kalimba’, who arrived in Brazil at the hands of black slaves, being absorbed into the indigenous culture, which came to be called the sansa. “Allundé, Alluyá” calls for protection to the sun god for the children of the tribe and the Brazilian song “Murucututu” asks the owl to let the boy sleep soundly. Murucututu is the name of an owl from the forest, invoked by mothers to give indigenous children sleep.

