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to old
Congolese women as witches who shed their skins in the night and sucked human blood. This have many parallels to the Yoruba Aje with a few differences. Among the Yoruba, the Aje leaves her body and turns into an animal, but the Hag sheds her skin and turns into a ball of fire. Both the Hag and the Aje are associated with old women, leaving their bodies behind and sucking blood.
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It is likely the origin of the
Soucouyant as well as the Bahamian "Hag" have a strong connection to the Aje, or the witch of the Yoruba people. The Hag, which is similar to the Soucouyant, is very similar to the traditional definition of the Aje. Many Bahamians who descended from the Yoruba referred
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The
Bahamian Hag as described by Clavel: "when a hag enters your house, she always shed her skin. When you first see her, she appears like the flame of a candle floating about; in some way, she puts you to sleep, and resumes her body (but without the skin); she then lies on you, and sucks away every
292:, written by Clavel and published in 1904, describes the Bahamian version. The parallels of the Bahamian Hag and Yoruba was made during the 19th century by Alfred Burdon Ellis in his book about the Yoruba published in 1894. But he associated it with the Yoruba spirit of nightmare, known as Shigidi.
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Belief in soucouyants is still preserved to an extent in Guyana, Suriname and some
Caribbean islands, including Saint Lucia, Dominica, Haïti and Trinidad. Many Caribbean islands have plays about the soucouyant and many other folklore characters. Some of these include Trinidad, Grenada and Barbados.
168:
To expose a soucouyant, it is believed one should heap rice around their house or at the village crossroads; the creature will be obligated to gather the rice, grain by grain, and be caught in the act. To destroy one, coarse salt must be placed in the mortar with the stripped-off skin so that she
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drop of blood that God has put in you." There are more references to the
Bahamian Hag in Folk-tales of Andros Island, Bahamas, published in 1918 by Elsie Clews Parsons that are the same as the 1904 version of Clavel, but the Hags can also be men.
189:, specifically the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and also in Suriname, the Soukougnan or Soukounian is a person able to shed his or her skin to turn into a vampiric fireball. In general, these figures can be of any gender and age.
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Soucouyants belong to a class of spirits called jumbies. Some believe that soucouyants were brought to the
Caribbean from European countries in the form of French vampire-myths. These beliefs intermingled with those of enslaved Africans.
152:
on the body in the morning. If the soucouyant draws too much blood, it is believed that the victim will either die and become a soucouyant or perish entirely, leaving the killer to assume their skin. The soucouyant practices
299:, Velma E Love describes the Aje as "a blood-sucking, wicked, dreadful cannibal who transforms herself into a bird at night and flies to distant places, to hold nocturnal meetings with her fellow witches."
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The
Soucouyant is a folklore character who appears as a reclusive old woman (or man) by day. By night, they strip off their wrinkled skin and put it in a mortar. In the form of a
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145:, they fly across the dark sky in search of a victim. The Soucouyants can enter the home of their victim through any sized hole such as cracks and keyholes.
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With the passage of time and gradual changes in the story, the soucouyant is no longer exclusively described as an elderly woman.
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perishes, unable to put it back on. The skin of the soucouyant is considered valuable and is part of black magic rituals.
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Soucouyants suck humans' blood from their arms, necks, legs and other soft regions while the victim sleeps, leaving
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The Things That Fly in the Night: Female
Vampires in Literature of the Circum-Caribbean and African Diaspora
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The Things That Fly in the Night: Female
Vampires in Literature of the Circum-Caribbean and African Diaspora
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The term "Loogaroo" also used to describe the soucouyant, possibly comes from the French word for werewolf:
740:
Myths and Maxims: A Catalog of
Superstitions, Spirits and Sayings of Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean
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Death Gods: An Encyclopedia of the Rulers, Evil Spirits, and Geographies of the Dead
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Vampires and Zombies: Transcultural Migrations and Transnational Interpretations
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Vampire Universe: The Dark World of Supernatural Beings That Haunt Us, Hunt …
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Cultural Power, Resistance, and Pluralism: Colonial Guyana, 1838-1900
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The Twilight Companion: The Unauthorized Guide to the Series
204:("red eyes"). As in Haiti, the Loogaroo is also common in
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Fischer-Hornung, Dorothea; Mueller, Monika, eds. (2016).
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30:"Asema" redirects here. For the moth genus, see
8:
467:. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 150.
501:. Rutgers University Press. pp. 6, 8.
365:. University of California Press. pp.
253:. Unsourced material may be challenged and
708:. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 63.
273:Learn how and when to remove this message
769:Trinidad and Tobago Folklore Characters
614:Maberry, Jonathan (September 1, 2006).
349:
67:The spirit has several regional names:
601:Courtesy The Heritage Library via the
290:Items of Folk-lore from Bahama Negroes
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799:Witchcraft in folklore and mythology
251:adding citations to reliable sources
495:Anatol, Giselle Liza, ed. (2015).
44:, among other names, is a kind of
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644:Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology
357:Welland, Michael (January 2009).
223:
161:, the demon who resides in the
742:by Josanne Leid and Shaun Riaz
399:. Grand Central. p. 104.
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809:Caribbean legendary creatures
461:Moore, Brian L., ed. (1995).
427:Abel, Ernest L., ed. (2009).
393:Hopkinson, Nalo, ed. (2001).
854:Trinidad and Tobago folklore
668:Gresh, Lois H., ed. (2008).
361:Sand: The Never-Ending Story
674:. St. Martin's Publishing.
641:Bane, Theresa, ed. (2012).
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789:Female legendary creatures
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794:Witchcraft in fairy tales
647:. McFarland. p. 96.
535:. Lulu.com. p. 197.
433:. Abc-Clio. p. 137.
27:Kind of blood-sucking hag
620:. Citadel. p. 203.
569:. Penguin. p. 46.
129:, and elsewhere in the
748:by Giselle Liza Anatol
859:South American ghosts
819:Culture of Guadeloupe
529:Broussard, T. (ed.).
844:Culture of Mauritius
247:improve this section
150:black and blue marks
849:Culture of Suriname
774:Trinidad Soucouyant
563:Press, ed. (2009).
834:Culture of Jamaica
814:Culture of Grenada
187:French West Indies
57:Caribbean folklore
839:Louisiana culture
824:Culture of Guyana
764:montraykreyol.org
627:978-0-8065-2813-7
603:Trinidad Guardian
376:978-0-520-25437-4
297:Divining the self
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323:Manananggal
155:black magic
106:The Bahamas
55:present in
783:Categories
344:References
194:Loup-garou
115:Soucouyant
42:soucouyant
396:Skin Folk
381:Loogaroo.
263:July 2023
234:does not
202:jé-rouges
131:Caribbean
123:Louisiana
119:soucriant
72:Ol' Higue
804:Vampires
721:5 August
687:6 August
582:5 August
548:5 August
514:5 August
480:5 August
446:5 August
412:5 August
328:Rougarou
318:Chonchon
307:See also
198:werewolf
143:fireball
127:Trinidad
110:Barbados
97:Suriname
76:Ole Haig
18:Loogaroo
333:Shtriga
255:removed
240:sources
185:In the
88:Jamaica
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177:Origin
137:Legend
84:Belize
80:Guyana
35:(moth)
33:Symira
369:–67.
159:Bazil
93:Asema
63:Names
864:Hags
723:2017
710:ISBN
689:2017
676:ISBN
649:ISBN
622:ISBN
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571:ISBN
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313:Adze
238:any
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