José Maximiano, also known as Corpo-Seco (Dry Body in Portuguese), is the main antagonist of Brazilian folklore common in the interior of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and the Midwest region whose legend, relatively recent, of the mid-twentieth century was first originated in São Paulo state. One day, it rose from its grave, completely rotten, and lives clinging to trees after they dry up.
History[]
In the interior of São Paulo, there is a variant of this legend, it is said that if a person passes near the dry body, it jumps on the person and sucks all their blood, because if no person passed by to feed on, the dry body dies, because it feeds on human blood (similar to a vampire). There are also reports of this legend of the dry body in the state of Paraná, Amazonas, Minas Gerais, and in some Portuguese-speaking African countries, recounted by veteran Brazilian soldiers of the UNAVEM III mission and in the Central West region of Brazil, mainly.