The mysterious and magical aspect is known in the capoeira universe as mandinga. It is, in a certain way, an important component in the learning of the art. The term "mandinga," according to Waldeloir Rego's 1968 study, may refer to the Mandinga region of western Africa, since the Africans brought to Brazil believed that this region was home to powerful sorcerers. 

The capoeiristas of the old days had lots of mandinga. They turned themselves into leaves, they became animals… Besouro was a great capoeirista, but under the protection of prayers.
– Mestre Waldemar 

Mandinga exists in capoeira, as in a patuá [amulet] that you wear around your neck. Inside the patuá, there were prayers that prepared your body, prayers that knives wouldn’t pierce you. But people who have sexual relations are unprepared, with their bodies open. This was how they managed to kill Besouro. He slept with a woman and the next day when he was returning home, he passed under a wire fence, and the wire hurt his back, and so he saw that he was weak on that day (…) It was on that day that they killed Besouro, with a knife prepared of tucum wood.
– Mestre João Pequeno 

It wasn’t just with capoeira that I freed myself from my enemies. The good capoeirista is a magician. He has the power of learning good prayers and using a good protection amulet, because capoeira doesn’t free us from bullets. So, I used a good amulet and good prayers. Today I don’t use them, but I haven’t forgotten. Everything is here in my mind. The prayers were to protect me from curses and bullets. If I happen to fall into water, I have the prayer of Anja fé to protect me from drowning. The amulet that I used had prayers of Santa Inês, of Santo André, of Sete Capelas, of Sete Folhas. After I used it, I put it on the table on top of a clean plate. It would jump, because it was alive. But there was some kind of problem, because it fled and disappeared from me. It was some error that I committed and the amulet went away and left me. When I entered into Horácio de Matos’ gang at seventeen years old, I already had this amulet. It protected me from many things. The person who gave it to me was an African who, even today, when I talk about him, my eyes tear up. He was called uncle Pascoal.
– Mestre Cobrinha Verde

There are many parts of mandinga. There’s the mandinga of black magic and there’s the mandinga of the capoeirista’s cleverness, when he reaches the point where he can really be called a capoeirista. And especially when he’s an angoleiro. It’s not that there don’t exist elements of mandinga in Regional. But there are people who enter the roda, exchange beatings, and claim that they’re good. But they’re not good. That’s what mandinga is: It’s wisdom, it’s being able to hit your adversary but not doing so; you show that you didn’t hit him because you didn’t want to. It’s not breaking your partner’s mouth with a cabeçada, breaking his ribs, punching him in the face; this isn’t capoeira.
– Mestre Curió 

Mandinga is not taught; mandinga is learned.
– Contramestre Electrista 

Today capoeira is in the whole world because it’s a self-defense system of great value; it has its traitorous mandinga to overcome any obstacles – if the time is right. If not, then leave it for later; there will be another chance. Whoever gets beaten up never forgets; whoever beats up others never remembers. This is the cleverness of the capoeirista, who runs away to save his life. These are the fundamentals of the capoeirista who knows his profession of mandingueiro.
– Mestre Noronha