the fearful man and the bush, plus the masses of the soul in pain

Uncle Navo was a shepherd from there, from Huertapelayo, and he would go out to the field with his sheep, and on the way she would appear to him, his wife, who had died some time ago. In his house he heard tremendous noises of furniture, of things falling, breaking, stones falling from the roof, some tremendous scandals, and the man was scared, because he went out to the field and the woman grabbed his legs and it wouldn't let him walk, and once he got caught in a bramble and couldn't walk, until dawn came and he saw that it was a bramble and he said: "I'm not afraid of anyone." He took the knife and cut the bramble that was holding him. The mystery of the other is that he said that in his house stones fell down the stairs from the chamber and the man lived in permanent fear and when he woke up and went to the sheep, on the road, she clung to his legs and wouldn't let him walk. So, he lived in a tremendous fright until one day she said to him: "-Do you want to tell me what you want? Why are you like me?". "- Simply because you have me all night in souls, that you had offered me a mass and you have not done it for me". He did the mass and the soul disappeared .

The first part of this story is a parallel to the very popular story of the Ripollés region collected by Román Violant I Simorra in his book El Pirineo Español.

Once upon a time there was a tailor, who, on returning from work in a town at night, found that, suddenly, they were pulling his dress, terrified, because he was certain that it was the souls in pain that were holding him, he asked clemency to the dead to let him go on, however, they did not release him. He spent the night beseeching in vain souls in pain, until when dawn came, he realized that a bramble on the road had caught on his cloak. He took out the scissors and cut the bush, at the same time that he said, in a bravado tone: "I would have done the same thing if you were a ghost".

In both stories, the souls in pain cling to the man's body or pull on his clothing, preventing him from moving forward. The two men suspect that it is the souls in pain that produce such an effect, however, in both cases, they discover that they are some brambles that prevent them from advancing and cutting them without fear exclaim: "I would have done the same thing if you were a ghost" / "I'm not afraid of anyone."

In these two legends, as well as in many others, such as the collection at La punta del Arco Iris, entitled "El ánima en Pena (Priego, Córdoba)", the man meets the lost soul outside the house and it wants to take. In Huertapelayo, Uncle Navo had promised a mass to the soul of his deceased wife and he had not done it for her; Priego's soul in pain had made a promise in life and had not fulfilled it, now needing someone to fulfill it for her. In any case, once what is requested by the soul has been done, it can rest and disappear.

The souls were something that is in all the towns. The souls in pain, the souls, it was said that if you went out and you met a soul in pain, that it could take you. Other times, you could ask him if he was a lost soul, or what he wanted, in case he had left any promises unfulfilled. He came to have it fulfilled by a family member or friend, and he fulfilled his promise to go to rest...

My aunt, a second aunt who has already died. She said that yes, that she had seen a soul in pain, and that she had presented it to her several nights. She asked if she was a soul in pain or a spirit, to say what she wanted, what was happening to her. Because they said that the same thing was a lost soul who had died because she had made some promise and had died before fulfilling it. Then the soul was suffering all its life until it had fulfilled the promise. She already said what she wanted, and the other person went, she fulfilled it and the soul rested.

The soul told her to go to San Francisco, to a church where the most popular image in the city was. There, in front of some altars, to listen to mass and pray I don't know how many Our Fathers. And he has stopped having nightmares about her, or seeing her every day or remembering her.

Another of the properties attributed to souls in pain, like furniture, things that fell, that broke, that we pointed out above, was their ability to manifest themselves through lights, smoke, noises, sounds... Always by the night, and in the house where they had previously lived. Uncle Navo lived tormented by the noises that he endured every night in his house: "at home I heard tremendous noises, stones falling from the roof, some tremendous scandals."

So we see how the souls, in order to get what they need, scare the people to whom they ask for their help, perhaps because otherwise they fear that they will not be taken care of. We can also see all these characteristics in "El ánima en pena de S. Carlos del Valle (Ciudad Real)", also collected in La punta del Arco Iris. The soul in pain here, returns to fulfill the promise that had been made to him.

During the war, there was a very humble family there, and they had seven children. So, one of them had to go to war. And the mother, the poor thing, offered:

- Oh, if my son comes alive, I promise the souls in purgatory to put a arroba of oil in lamps!

Well, it turns out that, during the war, the mother dies. And the son returns safe and sound. Then, the father reminds him that many years have passed:

- Oh, son, you had to keep the promise your mother made, lest the poor thing be suffering!

- Go Go! Quit the nonsense.

- Well, if that was a mother's promise! What are we going to accomplish? That's nonsense.

In short, one went to Barcelona, ​​another went to Valencia, another... They all disappeared from the town, and nobody remembered. But yes, to the one who made the promise, there came a time, that he was in Barcelona, ​​he went to his bedroom, and he saw the room full of smoke. Then he got scared. And he said to her wife:

- Hey, look, the room...

She passed by and says:

- Hey, there's nothing here.

And he went by again:

- That I can't pass here, that I'm drowning, that this is full of smoke.

And he remembered his mother's promise, you know? So he ran off and went to town. He gathers the brothers:

- Look, this has happened.

- Oh, the mother's promise, the mother's promise! Let's fulfill it.

They take a picture of the souls, which they had, they put the picture, they put a basin, and they say:

- Let's put from time to time, each one, two liters of oil. Without turning off the lamp. We are going to put two liters each.

They were six or seven children. So, that's how they do it. They put on the lamp, they leave, they come back after a while. The oil has disappeared. And they said:

- Oh well! And how does the lamp consume so much oil? Well, it turns out that they refill the basin. Until the arroba of oil was consumed, I think it was in twenty-four hours. Hey, a daughter told me, she's married to a cousin of mine. She says that it seems unbelievable, but that the oil was flying.