It seems to be related to the the Iara's legend and that one of the Mother of Water. It is widely known in the city of Saint Vincent (São Vicente) on the shores of the State of São Paulo, because once it attacked that town in the 16th century. Along the coasts of the State of Bahia, in the North, t is known by the Indians as a fishwoman, fatal for men. In Pêro de Magalhães Gândavo's book (1575) "History of the Province of the Holy Cross" (História da Provincia de Santa Cruz), there's an illustration showing Baltazar Ferreira attacking the Ipupiara.

		Pero de Gândavo, a Portuguese writer, tells us that in the year of 1564, a marine monster that the Indians called Ipupiara, had been killed on the coast of Saint Vincent - on the shores where the State of São Paulo is located nowadays. Another colonial writer, the Jesuit Fernão Cardim, used to say that those creatures were tall, but were also very repulsive. They killed the people hugging and kissing them, hugging them so tight until the victims were stifled. These monsters also devoured the human eyes, noses, fingertips and toes as well as sexual organs. There were also the ones belonging to the feminine version; these ones had long hair and were very pretty. According to these historians, the Ipupiara was "a beast, famished, repulsive and of brutal ferocious primitivity". The legend says that in the city of Saint Vicent (São Vicente) - actually located on a big island - in the year of 1564, the pretty Indian slave, a girl named Irecê, was going to the beach at night to date her boyfriend, a young man named Andirá (who was coming from the continent on a canoe), when she ran into a gigantic marine animal, of about 3 meters high, big headed, with a moustache, long arms, pointed teeth and which feet looked as flippers. Totally horrified, Irecê saw his boyfriend's canoe totally empty in the sea. This animal in the beginning was described as the Curupira - the phantom of the sea that got killed by the captain Baltazar Ferreira, he commander's assistant, who helped to rescue Irecê as he heard her shouting.

The Indians identified the animal as the Ipupiara, the demon of the waters. The people used to say it inhabited the place between the "old house made of rocks" (one of the first houses built in Brazil) and the Saint Vincent Beach (Praia de São Vicente - Gonzaguinha). The event that took place there, a mixture of horror and fantasy would have been remarked by many people at that time throughout the whole Brazil and even abroad. On the other hand no one commented on probably the unique Ipupiara's victim, the young man, Andirá that left his solitary canoe in the ocean, breaking Irecê's heart. As all legends, part of the story is based on true premises. Historians say the so-called monster was nothing more than a sea lion, lost among the cold currents coming from the southern waters in the winter, that let it finally arrive on the Brazilian shores.

Jean de Léry in his book called Voyage to the Land of Brazil, reports a similar case he heard directly from the Tupinambá Indians living around the Guanabara Bay (Rio de Janeiro) in the 16th century:

"(...) I don't want to omit a history told by one of them involving a fishing event. He told me that once, he was along with other Indians on a wooden canoe, when the sea was calm, in the open waters. Then it came a large fish that hold the canoe with its claws (note: it was definitely a sea lion or a dugong, locally known as peixe-boi - oxfish...) willing to turn the canoe upside down or getting on board. As I saw this - the savage added - I got a scythe and cut the hand off, which immediately dropped into the canoe when we saw that it had 5 fingers as a man's hand. And the monster, in deep pain, showed its head out of the water, a head that had a human form, releasing a little sigh (...)."

In the city of Saint Vincent, around the fountain (biquinha), there's a park where a Ipupiara statue can be found, making us remember the events that took place in Saint Vincent (São Vicente) in the 16th century at the very beginning of the colonization.

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