Soucouyant (수쿠양)

WitchTrinidad and Tobago · CaribbeanLegendFear 8/10

Description

By day, an ordinary old woman. By night, she sheds her skin, hides it in a mortar, and transforms into a ball of fire to fly through keyholes and suck blood from sleeping victims. Of West African origin, adapted in Caribbean folklore. If you find her skin and rub it with salt and pepper, she cannot put it back on and dies at dawn

Origin & Background

Soucouyant belongs to a type of spirit known as jumbies. Some believe that the soucouyant was transmitted to the Caribbean from European countries in the form of French vampire mythology, and this belief was mixed with the faith of African people who were brought as slaves. In the French West Indies, particularly in Guadeloupe and Martinique, as well as in Suriname, there exists a being known as Soukougnan or Soukounian, who can shed their skin and transform into a fireball in vampire form. Generally, these beings can appear regardless of gender or age. The term 'Loogaroo' is also sometimes used to describe soucouyant, which may have originated from the French word for werewolf, loup-garou.

The Legend

Soucouyant is a folkloric character that appears as an elderly person (or elderly woman) who hides during the day. At night, they shed their wrinkled skin and place it in a mortar. In fireball form, they fly through the dark sky searching for victims. Soucouyant can enter the victim's house through any size of hole, such as cracks or keyholes. They suck blood from the victim's arms, neck, legs, and other soft areas while the victim sleeps, leaving black and blue marks on the body by morning. If a soucouyant sucks too much blood, it is believed that the victim will either become a soucouyant or die completely. Additionally, soucouyant practices black magic and trades the victim's blood with the demon Bazil, who lives in the silk cotton tree, in exchange for evil powers.

Variants

The name varies by region: in Guyana, Belize, and Jamaica, it is known as Ol' Higue or Ole Haig; in Suriname, it is Asema; in the Bahamas and Barbados, it is Hag; in Saint Lucia, Louisiana, Trinidad, and other places, it is called Soucouyant or soucriant; and in Grenada, it is referred to as Soukouyan.

In Popular Culture

Beliefs about soucouyant are still somewhat preserved in some Caribbean islands such as Guyana, Suriname, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Haiti, and Trinidad. Many Caribbean islands have plays about soucouyant and other folkloric characters, with Trinidad, Grenada, and Barbados being examples.

This article is based on the Wikipedia article "Soucouyant" (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikipedia