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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
281:, 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.
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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.
178:, 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.
141:
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
288:, 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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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:
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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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Cultural Power, Resistance, and Pluralism: Colonial Guyana, 1838-1900
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The Twilight Companion: The Unauthorized Guide to the Series
193:("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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19:"Asema" redirects here. For the moth genus, see
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456:. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 150.
490:. Rutgers University Press. pp. 6, 8.
354:. University of California Press. pp.
242:. Unsourced material may be challenged and
697:. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 63.
262:Learn how and when to remove this message
758:Trinidad and Tobago Folklore Characters
603:Maberry, Jonathan (September 1, 2006).
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56:The spirit has several regional names:
590:Courtesy The Heritage Library via the
279:Items of Folk-lore from Bahama Negroes
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788:Witchcraft in folklore and mythology
240:adding citations to reliable sources
484:Anatol, Giselle Liza, ed. (2015).
33:, among other names, is a kind of
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633:Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology
346:Welland, Michael (January 2009).
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150:, the demon who resides in the
731:by Josanne Leid and Shaun Riaz
388:. Grand Central. p. 104.
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798:Caribbean legendary creatures
450:Moore, Brian L., ed. (1995).
416:Abel, Ernest L., ed. (2009).
382:Hopkinson, Nalo, ed. (2001).
843:Trinidad and Tobago folklore
657:Gresh, Lois H., ed. (2008).
350:Sand: The Never-Ending Story
663:. St. Martin's Publishing.
630:Bane, Theresa, ed. (2012).
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778:Female legendary creatures
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783:Witchcraft in fairy tales
636:. McFarland. p. 96.
524:. Lulu.com. p. 197.
422:. Abc-Clio. p. 137.
16:Kind of blood-sucking hag
609:. Citadel. p. 203.
558:. Penguin. p. 46.
118:, and elsewhere in the
737:by Giselle Liza Anatol
848:South American ghosts
808:Culture of Guadeloupe
518:Broussard, T. (ed.).
833:Culture of Mauritius
236:improve this section
139:black and blue marks
838:Culture of Suriname
763:Trinidad Soucouyant
552:Press, ed. (2009).
823:Culture of Jamaica
803:Culture of Grenada
176:French West Indies
46:Caribbean folklore
828:Louisiana culture
813:Culture of Guyana
753:montraykreyol.org
616:978-0-8065-2813-7
592:Trinidad Guardian
365:978-0-520-25437-4
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144:black magic
95:The Bahamas
44:present in
772:Categories
333:References
183:Loup-garou
104:Soucouyant
31:soucouyant
385:Skin Folk
370:Loogaroo.
252:July 2023
223:does not
191:jé-rouges
120:Caribbean
112:Louisiana
108:soucriant
61:Ol' Higue
793:Vampires
710:5 August
676:6 August
571:5 August
537:5 August
503:5 August
469:5 August
435:5 August
401:5 August
317:Rougarou
307:Chonchon
296:See also
187:werewolf
132:fireball
116:Trinidad
99:Barbados
86:Suriname
65:Ole Haig
322:Shtriga
244:removed
229:sources
174:In the
77:Jamaica
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166:Origin
126:Legend
73:Belize
69:Guyana
24:(moth)
22:Symira
358:–67.
148:Bazil
82:Asema
52:Names
853:Hags
712:2017
699:ISBN
678:2017
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