Abstract. With the eyes of the suggestion Januária Cristina Alves found the cap of the saci in the red flowers of a Flamboyant tree, while lying beside her mother, stretched out in an ox cart. It was there that he recognized, like Luís da Câmara Cascudo, the place of folklore as the first breastmilk in his literature (1984, p. 16). It is not without purpose that the author chooses this narrative to open the introduction of her new book, the ABC of Characters of Brazilian Folklore (SESC, FTD, 2017, 416 p). The dimension of affectivity in the relationship between researcher and folklore - and, more specifically, with this orality arm represented by myths and legends - is something that cannot be ignored in studies of tradition.