José Leite de Vasconcelos considered as a possibility that the mouras encantadas may have had assimilated the characteristics of local deities, such as nymphs and spirits of nature. Consiglieri Pedroso also referred to the mouras encantadas as "feminine water genies". The tales of the mouras are part of a wider lore of the "mouros encantados", who some times appear as giants or warriors, which also include the "mourinhos" or "maruxinhos", a very small elf like people who live under the ground.