South American Bestiary - Part 1 of 4

A boto. Image acquired here.

How do you do folks? I thought I would gather and show some of the creatures found on South American cultures, mythologies and folklores. The whole list has 105 creatures, so I'm dividing it in four parts. Please note that such myths have several iterations which may not be here. I also plan to later make D&D5E stats for a few of these creatures.

1) Abaçaí - A sort of indian Pan. A spirit which leads one to dance, sing and party. It possesses the person, leading him or her into a trance. The Abaçaí can also transform into any animal, person or object.

2) Abúhukü - Nocturnal creatures who embody disease, death and other evil things. They associate with the spirits of dead poisoners, murderers, and male adulterers. They have an extra face in the back of their head, and sticky bodies that make escape from their embrace impossible. An abúhukü will cut a hole in the skull before sucking out the innards of its victim . Sometimes prey is rolled in palm leaves and tenderized. Either way, they leave an empty skin hanging from a branch. The abúhuwa were once far more common, and were allied with a race of evil jaguars that worked with them to decimate human populations. Humanity got a respite after a series of floods and fires that reduced the numbers of both predators.

3) Ajaklalhay - A tribe of birdfolk. It is said that, as the number of human tribes, deities and shamans grew, these birdmen felt their value decreased. So they decided to burn themselves into a huge bonfire from which they were reborn as all sorts of normal birds. But it is also said that not all of them went into the bonfire. The Ajalalhay knew how to talk with animals, how to summon storms, invoke lightning and strong winds.

4) Alicanto - These birds bring luck to any miner who sees them because they feed on gold and silver. If the lucky miner follows an alicanto without being caught, they can find silver or gold. But, if the alicanto discovers them, the bird will guide the greedy miner off a cliff or into a ravine and cause them to fall to their death. The alicanto's color depends entirely on their diet. If the alicanto eats mostly gold, then their feather's color will mirror that, the same goes for silver. They make their nests near hillsides and caverns where they can collect gold and silver to eat. One account I found says the alicanto is too heavy to fly and that it has a curved beak and long legs which end on claws.

5) Amaru ("snake") - A gigantic two-headed snake, the andean equivalent to the dragon. In what seems to be the original written legend, it was turned to stone. it is mentioned that the natives used the dust from the body of the petrified Amaru to heal their ailments. The Amaru is usually associated with the underworld, the earth and seismic movements. This creature is said to cause tremors and earthquakes when it moves through the depths of the earth due to its huge size. It is important to point out that the Amaru of the legends is not always a unique, individual entity; indeed, in a few tales it appears as if there is just one Amaru, but most of them seem to suggest that there are actually several more of them. After the Incas were conquered and the region was influenced by spanish culture, the Amaru gained aspects of european dragons such as wings.

6) Anchimayen - Anchimayens are described as little creatures that take the form of small children, and can transform into fireball flying spheres that emit bright light. They are the servants of a kalku (a type of Mapuche sorcerer), and are created from the corpses of children. It isn't clear to me if they're the same creature as the Anchimallén, which is a type of man-eating dwarf which lives in caves, throws rocks at people and uses spears. It might be that the legend changed over time as all legends eventually do.

7) Andurá - A tree which flames up at night. It seems that this doesn't harm it whatsoever. Sounds useful as a landmark or as a source of fire.

8) Anhanguá - A spirit which protects animals, specially the females and young ones. There may be more than one. It usually appears as a white deer with red eyes, but can assume any shape. One tale says that an amerindian once tortured a young fawn so its screams would attract its mother. When the latter came, he killed her just to realize that the Anhaguá had used an illusion and that he had killed his own mother.

9) Ao Ao - As one of the cursed sons of Tau and Kerana, it is one of the central mythological creatures among Guarani-speaking cultures. The Ao Ao is often described as being a voracious sheep-like creature with a massive set of fangs. Alternatively, it is also described as being a large, carnivorous peccary. Its name is derived from the sound that it makes, howling "Ao ao ao!" when it is pursuing its victims. The original Ao Ao is said to have profound reproductive powers and thus sometimes is identified as being the Guarani spirit of fertility. Ao Ao produced many offspring who are cursed in the same manner, and collectively they served as lords and protectors of the hills and the mountains. It is said to have people as its sole source of food. According to most versions of the myth, the Ao Ao, upon locating a victim for its next meal, will pursue the unfortunate person over any distance and over any terrain, not stopping until it catches its prey. If a person attempts to escape by climbing a tree, for example, the Ao Ao will circle the tree, howling incessantly and digging at the roots until the tree falls. In fact, according to the myth the only way to successfully escape from an Ao Ao is to seek shelter by climbing a palm tree. The tree contained some unknown power against the Ao Ao, and if its intended victim did climb one, the creature would howl in defeat and leave in search of another meal. Ao Ao is known for eating clothes.

10) Apu ("lord") - These are the spirits of the mountains - and sometimes solitary rocks and caves, that protect the local people in the highlands. One for each mountain.

11) Boi Vaquim - A winged bull with golden horns which exhale fire. Its eyes are two diamonds. To catch it with a lasso, one must have a fast horse, be brave and have a strong arm.

12) Boiúna ("Black Snake") - Nocturnal black snake creature which is the most powerful creature of the rivers within the Amazon rainforest. It can take on various shapes in order to frighten away any fishermen that enter its territory. Some of the forms the Boiúna can take on are a canoe, a sailboat, a transatlantic, and a woman.

13) Boitatá ("Fire Snake") - The legend says that the woods suffered a period of darkness. There was a huge flood as well. All the animals ended up on a hill. A snake woke up due tot he flooding. It was starving and went out to eat. It had the advantage of being the only animal which could see in the dark. For some reason, it only ate eyeballs, so many that they filled its body, making it luminous and flaming. Whoever finds the Boitatá may become blind, crazy and even die. Some believe it protects the woods from people which may set it on fire.

14) Boraro - Both a creature and its red skin, which seems to lead people to become feral or boraro-like. The Boraro’s skin myth is the following: a man found the skin of a boraro while its owner was fishing shrimps, “the skin was like clothing; the boraro always removed it to swim”, the man put the skin on, and it took control over him. It made him do some dreadfull things: kill and eat the boraro, go to his home and take over his place there –even sleep with his wife. Years later he returned to his tribe and told his story. He went back with a relative to the boraro territory and the relative donned the boraro wife’s skin while she was fishing. They ate the woman and returned home. Their kinsmen refused to believe them so all went back to the boraro land. The two original men put on the boraro furs, killed and ate the other men. Boraro is also another name for the Curupira, seen below.

15) Boto - The name of the river dolphins of the Amazon River. It is also the name of the legend associated with them. It is said that during parties and festivals, the boto turns into a handsome man dressed in white clothes and with a white hat which hides the nostril atop his bald head, for it doesn't go away even after it transforms. He seduces young women and sometimes makes them pregnant. So when a woman has a child of an unknown father, it is said the kid is "child of the boto".

16) Caboclinho do Mato - a little man living in the woods. He is one of the spirits which teach the shaman apprentices. He was an ordinary amerindian which drank so much ayahuasca (a psychoactive beverage) that he was transported to the spiritual world, body and all, without dying.

17) Cabra Cabriola - A goat-like monster which causes fear and eats children, "two at a time", so when I used it in my table, I made it up with two heads. It can run along hills and valleys.

18) Caipora - a dark-skinned, small amerindian, naked with a very long red mane, smoking a cigar and very mischievous. Sometimes Caipora is depicted as a girl and other times as a boy. The representation of the creature varies among the different regions of Brazil, and is sometimes confused with Curupira, which is another mythological creature who protects the forest. In some regions, the indigenous tribes believed that the Caipora was afraid of the light. For this reason, they would walk around the forest protecting themselves using firebrands. Some say it rides a great peccary holding a stick. In some other areas of Brazil, the Caipora is considered to be a cannibal and would eat anything, even the smallest insects. The Caipora is known as a forest dweller, as a king of the animals of sorts, and is very vengeful of hunters who do not respect the rules of "fair-play" when hunting. It is told that it scares away prey and "hides" animal tracks or makes hunters lose their way in the jungle. It disorients the hunters by simulating animal noises and by leaving fake tracks.

19) Caleuche - A large ghost ship sailing the seas around Chiloé (a small island off the coast of Chile) at night. It is said to be a being who is conscious and sentient. The ship appears as a beautiful and bright white sailing ship, with 3 masts of 5 sails each, always full of lights and with the sounds of a party on board, but quickly disappears again, leaving no evidence of its presence. The ghost ship is also known to be able to navigate under water. It is the magic ship that the Warlocks of Chiloé use to have parties and transport their goods. It is also used by the warlocks every three months when they go on a journey to improve their magical abilities.

20) Camahueto - Bull with a small horn on its forehead. The horn is the most valuable part of the animal, used to plant small pieces in the earth from which other camahuetos will grow. When it has grown, it erupts from the earth with such force that it leaves a tremendous hole and drags down everything in its path in a rapid race to reach the sea. A sorcerer will stalk and capture the camahueto with a lasso and tear out the horn and bandage the opening. Afterwards, he will use the horn for curing many kinds of illnesses. One use of the horn is to scrape shavings from it into a mixture of sea water and apple cider until it turns into vinegar and coarse salt. This potion has the capacity to restore the vitality of older men and to those who have become impotent. Users of this preparation claim to have become like Hercules and gain the reputation throughout the islands as "a man like a trauco".

21) Capelobo - It's humanoid and hairy but its head is like an anteater's. You find out it is nearby due to its loud screaming. It likes to eat kittens and puppies. Its hooves are perfectly round, so even if you see the tracks you can't know which way it went. Its hands are clawed so it may crush open a person's skull and suck its brain. Some versions like to drink the blood instead.

22) Carbunclo - A carbunclo has a shining mirror on its head. The creature itself produces a bright bluish-white glow from its body, easily visible from over a league away. A carbunclo is larger than a mouse, perhaps cat-sized, and has a segmented body shaped like a small corn cob. The light is produced from within and shines out from gaps in the body segments. If an enemy is detected, the shell clamps shut, extinguishing the light and camouflaging the creature as an ordinary stone. I personally imagine it as a sort of giant woodlouse. Carbunclos are also capable of leaping and running swiftly. Miners try to catch carbunclos, because their bodies contain valuable ores.

23) Carcancho - Patagonian Bigfoot. These hairy men led a solitary existence in the mountains and meadows feeding on tubers. They could measure up to 2 m (6 ft. 7 in.) tall in the mountains, but were dwarfish (1 m – 3.3 ft.) in the lowlands, where they lived burrowing underground. They walked in the snow and their large foot-prints were the only clues of their existence.

24) Cherufe - An evil humanoid creature made of rock and magma. It is said that it inhabits the magma pools found deep within Chilean volcanoes and are the source of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Cherufe are also said to be the source of "magicians' ardent stones" (meteorites and volcanic stones) that cause damage in volcanic regions. The only way to abate the Cherufe's appetite for destruction was to satiate the beast's taste for human flesh by throwing a sacrificial victim, usually a maiden, into the bowels of its volcanic home.

25) Cuero - A creature that looks like a cowhide stretched out flat and laid on the surface of the water. It is usually white with black or brown spots. It has hooked claws along the edges. For some, these monsters are damned souls. In central Chile the cuero is an octopus that resembles a cowhide with numberless eyes and with four enormous eyes in its head. Anything that enters the water is engulfed and squeezed in the cuero’s folds, and dragged under to have its blood sucked out. After feeding the cuero will release its drained prey and find itself a solitary beach on which to stretch out, bask, and digest peacefully. Unexplained drownings are the work of a cuero. Cueros can be killed by tossing branches of quisco cactus (Cereus or Echinocactus) into the water. The creature will attempt to seize the cactus, injure itself, and bleed to death.

26) Cumacanga - To become a cumacanga, one must be the seventh daughter from her mother's affair with a priest. This woman then suffers the following curse: at night, her head goes away from its body, flying like a fireball and scaring people. Some also say she might try to bite whoever she finds.

Part two here.