Folklore characters from the Caribbean

Yesterday, dear reader, I shared with you a few of the superstitions from my country and invited you to share some of yours as well. A special thanks to those of you who responded. And I think that one thing rang true as together we laughed at our idiosyncrasies, and that is that though we live in different parts of the world, underneath it all, we share many similarities.

Today, I'd also like to share a bit about some of the characters in our folklore, again with my own little soliloquy, and again I invite you to drop the links below if you have previously shared posts about mythical characters in your culture.

The folklore characters in the Caribbean are derived from our colonial past and therefore, similar to our superstitious beliefs, reflect the older stories told by our Amerindian, European, African and Asian ancestors. While I hope for this post to be lighthearted, please note that no hurt or disrespect is intended, and I am only sharing stories of these characters as they have passed down from generation to generation in my country. All right, my friends, let's get to it.

Should you see a Trinidadian bathing with a blue soap, installing blue bottles in their gardens to survey their plants, dousing each other with bowls of piss, throwing grains of salt over their left shoulder, or displaying any other such odd behavior, don't be alarmed... well, not at first. It might just be someone performing an old ritual to rid themselves of an evil spirit. Or not. The person could be batshit crazy, and if that's the case, you better run in the opposite direction.

But just so that you'd be prepared either way, these are the characters of our local folklore:

The Soucouyant

In the Caribbean, our witches weren't regular witches. And so, you couldn't scare them with threats of fire or anything like that. Know why? They were fire.

So get this, the soucouyant, soucriant, or old hag seems to derive from old vampire stories, but the character is a shape shifter who goes about as a stooped old woman by day, but makes a pact with the devil and sheds her skin after the sun sets, tucks it into a mortar, transforms into a ball of fire, and roams moonless night skies in search of innocents and young calves so that it can feast on their blood. I've always wondered what the soucouyant did when it rained.

The soucouyant was blamed for many sudden and inexplicable infant and animal deaths. And so, pity the lonely old woman who lived in a community where a newborn baby died of something like SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) back in the day, right?

So how do you catch a soucouyant? Well, as legend goes, you lay in wait for when she emerges as a ball of fire, and you lather the discarded skin with salt and pepper. Of course, the skin would shrink and burn and the next morning when the soucouyant returns satiated from her nightly trysts, she would don her skin only to realize it pinches and burns and then she would prance and scream, "'kin, 'kin, you nah know me!" or "Skin, skin, don't you know me?" When that happens, all the villagers are expected to gather and stone the elderly woman, chasing her out of the area.

Also, I think you're supposed to walk on the left side of the road when you pass them, make signs of the cross with your finger, or even throw rice grains or salt in doorways, and the soucouyant would have to sit and count each one.

The Lagahoo

The lagahoo or loogaroo is believed to be derived from the French word for werewolf, Loup-garou. In local culture, the lagahoo is another evil shapeshifter, man by day and by night, he transforms into a headless character who roams the street, carrying a coffin across his shoulders with three lighting candles atop that. For a belt around his waist there's a thick, ropelike chain that trails behind him. And so, the lagahoo was known for "dragging chain at night".

To be rid of the lagahoo, you have to beat it with a holy stick, that is a stick that's been soaked in holy water for nine days.

La Diablesse

This she-devil is known as a temptress who frequents parties and lures men to their deaths. She's got a voluptuous shape but a hideous face which you'd never see because she covers her features with a large brimmed hat, and she always wears dresses that flow all the way to the ground to cover one cow's hoof. To escape the La Diablesse, you must wear your clothes inside out and walk home backwards.

Papa Bois

Papa Bois is the protector of animals in the forest. He walks around on cloven hooves, but don't let that fool you, he can run faster than a deer. In fact, according to legend, Papa Bois is yet another shapeshifter because he can transform into a deer if he wishes to trap hunters who perform foul deeds like starting bush fires, cutting down trees and indiscriminately hunting animals.

He wears a beard of leaves and small horns. And if none of that is a dead giveaway, you've got to look out for the bull's horn he always carries and uses to warn animals when hunters approach.

Mama D'Leau or Mama Dlo

Mama D'Leau is the protector of rivers. She is a beautiful woman with long hair, a bit like a merwoman except the lower half of her body doubles as an anaconda instead of a fish. This snake's tail is sometimes used as a whip on the unsuspecting hunter. Mama D'Leau is said to force hunters to marry her and this is sometimes used to explain forest disappearances or strange drownings.

To escape Mama D'Leau's wiles, you must remove your left shoe, turn it upside down on the ground and again walk backwards until you are home, kinda like with the La Diablesse.

And as you can see, there's a lot of walking backwards to be rid of evil spirits, right?

Douens

Douens are the unbaptized souls of little children. They roam the forests in packs as nameless, faceless little creatures with wide straw hats covering their faces and hiding the fact that they have no eyes. Their feet are also turned backwards, but as legend would have it, children would be so drawn to play with them, they wouldn't notice these little nuances until it's too late. Personally, I think this story was told to scare parents into baptizing their children and to scare children into staying close to their parents' side, but that's just me.

Anansi

One cannot tell of folklore characters in the Caribbean without speaking of our beloved Anansi, the original spiderman. In some stories, Anansi is a man who takes the shape of a spider. In other stories, Anansi is simply a spider and a primary character in the tales we tell where animals can speak. However he is depicted, Anansi is a mischief maker, always getting into scrapes, always managing near escapes.

Buck

This may have originated from Amerindian culture because I believe that among the Warahoons, a native tribe that once lived here before the arrival of the Europeans, the bucks were believed to be powerful magicians.

In local culture though, the buck is supposed to be a short, midget type being that resembles a man with sharp claws and teeth. It possesses magical powers and so bequeaths unspeakable wealth (kinda like the genie does) on its master who must feed it and provide it with shelter.

And so, friends, there you have it. These are just some of the many characters of our local folklore. In years gone by, our foreparents did not have the internet and television and all the distractions present in our world today. Storytelling was their entertainment. This was their metaverse and, as you can see, theirs was an entertaining world indeed.

Now I've run out of time and space, but maybe next time I'll share with you a bit about the history of our Carnival celebrations and some of our traditional characters, which is another story altogether.

In the meantime, please tell me, what are some strange, mythical characters in your culture, and what are their stories? I'd love to know.

Farewell for now, my friends, I hope you enjoyed this post and I thank you for your time and attention.