SOUCOUYANT
allyFemale vampire / Soucougnan
The Soucouyant is one of the most dreaded figures of Caribbean evening gatherings. By day she is a quiet old woman living apart from the village; by night she takes off her skin, hides it in a mortar or a jar, changes into a ball of fire and flies from house to house. Slipping through keyholes and cracks, she sucks the blood of sleepers, who wake exhausted and marked with bruises. The legend is told in Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Grenada; in Guadeloupe the same figure is named soucougnan, in Haiti lougawou, in Guyana Ol' Higue, the old witch. Folklore teaches the defences: scatter rice or salt before the door or at the crossroads, for she will have to count every grain until dawn; salt and pepper the abandoned skin so that she can no longer put it on; catch her at daybreak. Scholars link the Soucouyant to vampiric witches of West Africa, such as the adze of the Ewe or the obayifo of the Akan, likewise bound to nocturnal fire and the theft of vital force. Carried over by the Atlantic slave trade and then creolised, the figure mingled with European witch beliefs to become one of the great tales of the Antillean night.
Powers & Attributes
Role in the ROHO universe
A fragment of Onionkupón's Breath, bound to one of the five elements of the cosmic balance.
Sacred Mask
A mask carved of ancient energy — a symbol of the cosmic force proper to its pantheon.
Era
3,000–1,000 BCE — Cycle of Elemental Powers
Spiritual Lesson
To understand the nature of one's own balance and the wisdom hidden behind every trial.
Words of the Spirit
“The spirit crosses what the body cannot.”
Frequently asked questions
What is a Soucouyant?
In the folklore of Trinidad and Tobago and the Antilles, the Soucouyant is an old woman who leaves her skin at night, transforms into a ball of fire and sucks the blood of sleepers. Known also as soucougnan in Guadeloupe or Ol' Higue in Guyana, she counts among the great vampiric figures of the Caribbean.
How does one guard against the Soucouyant according to folklore?
The tales recommend scattering rice or salt before one's door or at the crossroads: the Soucouyant will be forced to count the grains until daybreak. One can also find the abandoned skin and rub it with coarse salt and pepper, so that the creature can no longer put it on and is destroyed by the light of the sun.
Where does the legend of the Soucouyant come from?
Folklorists see in it the creolised inheritance of vampiric witches of West Africa, such as the adze of the Ewe of Ghana and Togo or the obayifo of the Akan, likewise stealers of vital force associated with a nocturnal glow. Carried into the Caribbean by the Atlantic slave trade, the figure mingled with European witch beliefs to give the Soucouyant of the Creole evening gatherings.
Related spirits
Sources and references
- Gérard A. Besson, Folklore and Legends of Trinidad and Tobago (1991)
- Giselle Liza Anatol, The Things That Fly in the Night: Female Vampires in Literature of the Circum-Caribbean and African Diaspora (2015)
- Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Lore of the Antilles, French and English (1933)