Honduras Chupacabras-Folklore Page I Mentioned Before

Translation of the Chupacabras-Original Folklore Page I Mentioned Before: it took me forever to locate this page again. I had wanted to print it before that nasty business with Benjamin Radford started. This page has been on the internet for ages:

Legends Of Honduras
http://www.honduraseducacional.com/Cultura/leyendas.htm

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The Sisimite
This being was recorded years ago, was seen by several people, only they were all people in the field, it is the perfect place for such beings, very mysterious and elusive. Even now Sisimite fully understood.
The Sisimite is comparable to the U.S. Bigfoot or Yeti of the Himalayas. Of course, being in a tropical climate is expected to be some differences.
The Sisimite also known by the name of Itacayo . Command a recreation of that have to be:
He eats fruit.
It is said that one of the departments of our country called Danlí appears like the Dwendi goes in search of young farmers to steal them.
The time to make the hunting exploits of the young is when the corn is gathered the maize (corn). Using corn is very high at high speed is camouflaged with great skill and takes his victim to his cave that is not easily accessible if it is found.
He has great strength and makes them strong as a howler monkey grunts. Once you have the young woman says that he has to have his children, pregnant girls giving birth to a creature half human, half beast.
He knows all this because it is known only one woman managed to escape from the clutches of Sisimite though it cost him the monster that had given birth to the grotesque being.
Young people, do not go alone to the corn as it can that they are observing Sisimite and plotting how to take them to their rooms.
Another version of Sisimite

THE Sisimite
Like their cousins ​​in the snow, the Yeti of Tibet and the Bigfoot U.S. and Canada, the Sisimite is another of those creatures that appear out of nowhere and disappear the same way. According to researcher Honduran Jesus Aguilar Paz,  Sisimite or Itacayo roams the mountains and live in inaccessible caves, feeding on wild fruits in the same way as their close relatives in Mexico and Argentina, the furry and Ucum respectively. "These monsters abducted women, and took them to their caves. It is said that this union were born ape-men." Although discussed in the mountain villages, the story of a woman who escaped from the hideout where she lived with a Sisimite. It is reported to have chased the creature carrying the three children they had in common and showing them to the mother. She managed to cross a river as the beast from the other side, showed him to attract small to achieve. Apparently Sisimite attempts had no effect, so that, enraged, threw the children into water and drowned. Federico Lunardi's Italian friar, one of the most important scholars of the Honduran culture, associated with this creature to God Chac of the Maya, "who holds the sky, the god of water." According to Lunardi, popular belief holds that in the interior of one of these caves, on a wall, are recorded "the hand with his fingers" and several tracks left by Sisimite attending midnight to the cave to sharpen their claws in the rock. [Sisemite's footprints are like human hands, and the fingerlike toes are "clawing" in the cave prints mentiond. I notice that "Apemen" are mentioned as "Children of the Sisemite" and this is a distinction which seems to have escaped Cryptozoologists. The story of the Sisemite's mate is repeated by Sanderson-DD]

The Cadejo
Older people have and some areas of the countryside of our country that this has been true and is true. Many report that they themselves have seen with their own eyes.
Interestingly, the cadejo is an animal (or a spirit or demon in animal form) similar to a dog. To control picture shows them how they were represented.
Cadejo The case is not unique to Honduras, occurs in several Central American countries, but this is the version that has at least in my country.
First the cadejo not a being that comes to you any time of day, no, he comes out only during the wee hours of the night. He is the faithful companion of travelers at night alone. Wherever they come from him the next. Many have quit or stay late sprung up where their girlfriends to play or socialize with friends ... in short, so many situations that we continue with our story better.
As I said the cadejo follows the walker and sometimes a person perceives their presence and see what turns a small dog comes along so you do not pay any attention to his presence, but progresses as the person realizes faster than that for animal never walk that far behind, this more than the animal is becoming larger. People who have been saved by a miracle that reaches the size of a horse, with eyes red as fire and spits fire for their noses.
At this point it is worth mentioning that there are two Cadejo, one white and one black. The white mone is a spirit that accompanies the traveler good night to care for and protect the black cadejo attack. The black cadejo is an evil that follows the night to scare walkers as we have seen, and finally kill him .
When the black cadejo crushing does decide to kill the person, ie not bite, just savagely beats her up to his death or leave it to the brink of death, which is why it is known. It is also interesting that when the black cadejo chasing a walker and comes with white cadejo, the latter takes the size of the black cadejo and engage in a tremendous struggle in which there is biting, hitting, clear, lots of blood. This is known by those who have been fortunate that the white cadejo save their lives.
This is the legend of cadejo. Be careful if you come out at night on the street or in the forest, more if they see a black dog following them, it may be the cadejo.

"Winged Serpent" attacking cattle

THE COMELENGUAS [Tongue-Eaters or Tongue-Removers: "Cattle Mutilations Beast"] 
In the 50's, in Nacaome, south of Honduras, a mysterious creature dreaded by the locals. In Oral Literature of the Southern Zone (Tegucigalpa, 1996), Karen Ramos and Melissa Valenzuela describe how many peasants saw a giant [snake] bird flying over the estates of the town. According to these witnesses, the day after the sightings were few cattle died in strange circumstances. One farmer said that he saw the creature attacking a bull, using his tail, like a thick snake to strangle the animal and eventually tear the tongue. However, this description is inconsistent with other stories in ensuring that the mysterious animal, baptized with the descriptive name of comelenguas left no signs of violence after their attacks. At that time, many farmers complained about the loss of cattle. Invariably, the cattle found dead, his tongue cut off root and dislocated jaws. Similar information was also collected thousands of miles away in the state of Goias (Brazil). The cases occurred in the 40's and had characteristics similar to those that took place in Honduras. These mutilations reminiscent of those that have been associated with the UFO phenomenon or the now famous chupacabras. A close relative is the bird comelenguas-leon, which frightened the inhabitants of the region Sabanagrande. According to tradition, this beast, described as a bird beak large and huge, devouring or crazy to those who had the misfortune to cross his path.
[Interestingly, the description seems to confuse the now easily recognised giant-bat Chupacabras with the Anhinga "Flying Serpent", and then calls them both by the mysterious remover-of-tongues as also reported in Brazil. More info on this below. It seems that the wild dogs are actually eating the tongues out of the already-dead cattle in both areas-DD]

The Timbo
In the early twentieth century, an annoying visitor roamed the cemeteries of the region and Texiguat Sabanagrande. It was the timbo, desecration of graves creature that fed on corpses and was also known as sacamuertos or Comemuertos. [Eaters-of-the-Dead-DD] That being looks like sharp-nosed dog in the face, walked on two legs, had a bulging belly and reddish hair. In this disturbing description added extremely strong arms and huge claws that served to start digging and rooting through graves.   [The name comes from North/Texas and actually turns out to mean "Hairless": and it is like the current Chupacabras in that it is described as a dragon-like lizard about three feet tall or like a mangy dog that roots through graves, and THAT part is probably true at least-DD]

The Crito (screamer)
Like in Brazil, Honduras screamer lives a creature that has never been seen but whose screams break the silence eerie night in the jungles and mountains of the country. In the region of Trujillo and the Sula Valley of several farmers said they heard the piercing screams of this being. "I know all the animals in these mountains and I've never heard anything like it," was what counted most. Some said they were "wandering spirits of men" killed in the trails and streams and shouting his despair.

THE GOLDEN LIZARD (El Lagarto Oro)
  It is said that in the enclave of Piedra Blanca, near Trujillo (Atlantic Coast), there was a cave inhabited by a gold lizard chasing cattle. In the cave, which has paintings, strange noises were heard intimidate the locals. Perhaps the oldest known about this lizard, which is more like a golden crocodile species is the one that goes back to the early years of the conquest, when Spanish soldiers came up to the present municipality of El Corpus and found huge underground amounts of gold. To facilitate the exploitation of precious ore dug a tunnel with a length of approximately 3 miles.
The legend goes that a Holy Thursday, the holes reached the exact spot where now stands the high altar of the church, discovering a green lagoon. At the bottom is moving a huge gold lizard showing its powerful jaws menacingly intruders. [Dragon Myth-probably the same Big Iguana "Cipactli"]

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The Cyclops
Among the Indians of the Mosquito yet unexplored jungle there is a belief in a being that resembles the one-eyed Cyclops. The anthropologist Anne Chapman picked up in the 70 stories that had for this child protagonist and published in his book The Children of the death of the mythical universe Tolupanes-Jicaque of Honduras. One such story goes back to the middle of last century and speaks of an Indian, Julian Velasquez, who declined to be named. He lived near the Laguna Seca (Department of Santa Marta), but traveled to the Atlantic coast in the company of a sorcerer. There he found a tribe of cannibals who had one eye. Julian was captured and was imprisoned along with three ladinos (the name given to whites and mestizos) to be fattened. "They kill with a knife, slaughtered, the meat is eaten fried with butter and throw in a bottle," says one informant Chapman. Julian Velasquez escaped the infamous tribe. Has never heard of such Cyclops.
[The Cyclops story in this case should be regarded as the same as the Mapinguari of Brazil and it is likewise probably a sort of New World Orangutan. The details of how they cook people are not meant to be taken seriously, especially when they throw in a bottle of wine Incidentally, the illustration is very good for my interpretation, it LOOKS like an Orangutan-DD]
 
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ELVES (Dwendis) The elves are the most recurrent fantasy characters in rural Honduras. For farmers it is not no legend, but flesh and bones have been seen rarely. It is believed that this kind of dwarfs happy lives, with their beautiful wives, underground palaces full of treasures. Naughty like most European elves, the Honduran falls easily from the young farmers often blatantly fondling the breasts of pubescent girls.
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http://www.lasegui.com/honduras/comelenguas.html

The Tongue-Remover ​​or Chupacabras

For Pompilio Ortega
Honduran history occurred in 1947.

Cases have been seen in more than a dozen men armed to the nails, were watching in herds of cattle, in perpetual ambush, and after all found the animal dead, without tongues, without blood and without them give account of how it all happened"  Read the first edition of Patriotic Lore, we became aware of new material as interesting as before, but has fascinated us as much as the description of the famous "Tongue-remover" (or "chupacabras") have given us the gift of Messrs. Federico Castillo and Don Miguel Anar, hunted down the first product of this dark Mountain Nature Tascalapa, jurisdiction of Trinidad, in the department of Santa Barbara, and the second here in Comayagua.
Whenever we noticed that in the case where the damage was Tongue-remover  ​​(or chupacabras) never leave visible traces, never heard of the fierce struggle and the victim, not the slightest noise. Cases have been seen in more than a dozen men armed to the nails, were watching in herds of cattle, in perpetual ambush, and after all found the animal dead, without language, without blood and without them noticing how it had all happened. But it is assumed that the fantastic legends have been woven around Tongue-remover ​​(or chupacabras) have made ​​that managers have to hunt more fear than desire to meet him. The evil spirit has been in operation in this matter, which has carried out a horrifying vampire that only occur in the gloomy caverns of the African continent, and possibly in the rugged Amazon. Fortunately there were who said that only three of a huge flock of bats, which disbanded the black continent to come to the lands of Central America, where there is no constrictors, tarantulas or large, or the voracious ants, with the Tongue-remover famous vampire (or chupacabras) and nine-inch scorpion, is the terror for the species

The Cattle-Mutilator ​​or Chupacabras

The vampire as cattle-mutilator (or chupacabras) is a giant bat, the body varies in size, before and after sucking the blood of the animal, being more or less the size of a turkey or jolote, the wings are like a stroke man, has two stomachs, like giving it to ruminants, has a huge vesicle, more than five centimeters in the form of egg secretes a viscous liquid of pungent odor of sulfur and high-powered narcotic. You have full dentures, four large teeth, two above and two below wide, razor sharp, the fanged teeth are thick and long as those in the barracks or as wild pig, which are crossed out on the sides of the jaws . The skin is covered with hair. The legs, which resemble the shape and position to those of the duck nails are so subtle that, as if they were equipped with pumps, hair still cling cattle. At the end of the upper jaw has a way to end a knife, which cuts the artery under the tongue of the cow, and a rosette on the head without hair, with a few ridges, possibly the RADAR, that mentioned above, are provided bats.
[The description strangely mixes features of two different creatures: one is a snakeneckedbird with feathered wings, body about the size of a turkey and with duck feet. This is obviously an anhinga or water-turkey. the other is the standard giant Vampyrum-Chupacabras which we have come to recognise so well-DD]

By a strange coincidence and to the delight of my readers, the two specimens of Cattle-Mutilators (Tongue-Removers or Chupacabras), who stopped sucking blood on our farms, were hunted by two men who the day gathered in my Coyocutena School in November, AD 1947. I know that these two friends are hairy-chested men, and yet Mr. Federico says that what he felt when he killed one of these macabre animals, no longer wants to feel. And my friend Michael, who instead of firearm used his dagger cruise, took good care to make a cross in the air to deliver the first machete, and when his wife was screaming at him not to touch what seemed the very Satan , as the huge vampire was caught with all the extended volume along the corridor of his house, he replied: "If this is the Devil, to confession, because he got his last hour." But that's why engrifársele stop hair when the dagger instead of cutting, with iron winced as when there is blunt on a water bladder. This happened in the village of Montañuelas, Department of Comayagua, near the hacienda of Don Cesar Zavala, Come where the Vampire (or Chupacabras) had just sucking the blood of his latest victim.

Such as that there were only three vampires and the third is possible to migrate when viewed alone, is not something that can be checked, for as you may have come from Africa, may also have left the jungles of unknown and frightening the Amazon basin, where they may keep coming, it is necessary to know how they can hunt, something that can be quite the taste for adventure seekers. The hunter must come between the cattle which is hurting, so that neither the cows feel, when the cattle are in perfect stillness, and the dark night, comes down to reach the head of the cow, while hearing the slightest noise, even the most law wind. At this place empty vampire letting out fine jets gland near the nose, the animal absorbed inadvertently. This fluid out of the gland becomes steam, numbs the victim, and as if this were not enough, the shadow moves three or four times about it, which gives an idea of ​​the vampire has used magnetic force will , with this the animal almost cataleptic state sticks out his tongue, to lick his lips, and this is when the peak-shaped knife is inserted below it and cut the artery, the blood sucking vampire and finally swallowing his tongue cut slowly for a long time since the end remains visible, like a bottle cap. Bats are so subtle in their efforts to draw blood, which passes all weights. In our neighborhood, the family of a peasant was besieged by one of these animals, the desperate father for not being able to hunt, one day he proposed his own hand squeeze. At night covered well each member of the family, leaving him openly, but with the hand ready to grab when approached.Felt when a bat entered the house through the wall, and soon heard the noise indicating he came out and was only then that he felt that the ear was bleeding. The animal was removed from his blood the dose needed and the angry hunter had been sadly deceived.

Understandably, therefore, that the hunter Tongue-Remover ​​(or chupacabras), must be placed very close to where the vampire checks for these operations. I only advise you to tie the pants, not to go out for wool and shearing (1).

(1) The press published a telegram Guaimaca last year (¿1947?), Which said that a man had been on the verge of becoming a victim of a huge vampire, who has already achieved a little faded to death. Is the only case we know in this regard.

More information about the Chupacabra:

• Chupacabra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .
  "Chupacabras" is the name of a mythological creature that attacks contemporary animals of different species in pastoral areas, agricultural or rural
• Chupacabra - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  The chupacabra (or chupacabras) is a cryptid said to inhabit parts of the Americas. The name translates literally from the Spanish as "goat-sucker". It comes from the creature's habit of attacking and Reported drinking the blood of livestock.
• El Chupacabra, a monster unexplained .
  A mystery travels the countryside, terrorizing the locals, something is killing farm animals by the dozen.
• The Chupacabras in Chile.
  "There are more things in heaven and on earth than those with dreams of your philosophy." W. Shakspeare
• Chupacabras - Misterylink .
  The legend of the chupacabra is not modern, having origins immemorial in the history of peoples.
• Chupacabras: myth or reality
  may seem ridiculous to me to address this issue, but if you look at the issue seriously see a funny phenomenon perhaps not have much.
• The Chupacabra, biting Intelligent Entity .
  The fact that hundreds of animals in the Americas have bled to death under mysterious circumstances is a mystery, until now, has not been resolved.
• Chupacabra - Goat Sucker (Español spoken site).
  Chupacabra Goat Sucker Means. The Chupacabra or Chupacabras is a creature said to inhabit parts of the Americas. The name eating habit of Reported STI from attacking and drinking the blood of livestock.
• The Chupacabras - Mystery solved .
  rational explanation of the mystery of the Chupacabra.
• Chupacabras - Crypt, the world of cryptozoology .
  Named for its predilection for the blood of goats' feeding time.
• Chupacabras - Criptozoología.net .
  In recent years, many countries (especially America) have been visited by a strange phenomenon called "Chupacabras", is said to be a be able to extract all the blood of an animal, making a few small holes in his body.
• How Chupacabras Work .
  bloodsucking creatures of Legends Have Been present in many cultures THROUGHOUT history. One vampire-like creature That Has Been Gaining a considerable amount of notoriety is the Chupacabra.
• The Comelenguas (Tongue-Eater) - The Mysteries of Honduras .
  "It's an animal That pulls out, cuts and eats the tongues of cows. It looks like a large dog, But is bell-shaped (?) and have a long tail. .. "

Chupacabras SOLVED

For some odd reason I announced my findings on this blog months ago and very few people took any sort of notice at all.

My initial reaction was that Benjamin Radford wanted a description of a creature CALLED A Chupacabras matched to a typical Chupacabras description from earlier than 1995. My reply was that the descriptions were there, the descriptions were traditional (and can be traced back into the 1500s and 1600s) but that the NAMES they were being called did not include "Chupacabras"

I have amended that stance: there is good proof that the iguana lizards were being called "Goatsuckers" in Spanish  even as the equivalent monitor lizards were being blamed for sucking the milk of goats in the 1960s and back to the 1920s, and this from an article published on the internet by 2000. Furthermore, several of the native terms SOUND like "Chupas" up to including this most recent posting about "Zupays" using the Peruvian Quechua word for "Devils". And so I take back that qualification I had made in the first place: The NAME is in there, too. And from PreColumbian times.

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/search/label/Chupacabras

July 15, 2011
CHUPAS and "ZUPAYS" of South America:
The recently discovered South American dinosaur "Zupaysaurus" has the first part of its name the Quechua word for "Devil" and it was named that because it was said to resemble "Devil (Dragon) Lizards" reported in the Northern-Argentina area. These were the local equivalent to "Chupacabras" reports and they were said to resemble the agressive small dinosaurs called "Raptors" by the fans (After Velociraptor, the word "Raptor" alone only means "Hunter" and conventionally refers more properly to Birds-of-Prey.) "Living Dinosaur" proponents have heard reports of such creatures and I recall at least one recent posting about the creatures on the CFZ Blog. It should be noted that the Marpilli was suppsed to be a sawbacked lizardlike creature blamed for cattle mutilations as far back as the 1920s going by Whittall's sources.



http://www.wikidino.com/?page_id=1462


Zupaysaurus the "Devil Lizard" much like tradtional "Devil Lizards" of South American mythology. The mythological creatures are very like the "Mini-Rex" or River Liz[ards] reported in the SW USA, and to the biped-lizardlike Chupacabras. Like those reports, the South American original is likely to be a large spinybacked Iguana lizard that is capable of running on its hind legs: Likely the males have red eyes. It is possibly a species of the genus Iguana if it is anything like the similar reports from Mexico. It is probably fair to refer to the original mythical creatures as Zupays (Devils)Best Wishes, Dale D.

May 17, 2011
Tatzelwurm Follw-up Article Last Dragons of Europe Addendum:


While we are on the subject of "Chupacabras", I find that the Aztec conventionalized design for a lizard, Cuetzpalin, also corresponds to the "Reptile" Chupacabras from Central America and to the depictions I cited earlier as its folkloric fore-runner before the more recent worldwide "Chupacabras" flap. And I reiterate that "Chupacabras" was originally one form of the "Milk Snake" myth, which is also known to attach to lizards as well as snakes, and that the "Goat suckers" were originally thought to suck the milk out of goats, not blood: the vampyric aspects of the myth come from other sources and attached on to an originally less sensational story.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/05/last-dragons-of-europe-addendum.html#comments

[I particularly wanted to make this latest comment added on my blog to be better known:]

From a 2000 posting about Chupacabras on the web:
"There's a goat-sucker which is living and real; like the mardkhora, it lives in Persia, near Baghdad in fact. It is the varanus lizard, a living species. It has the appearance of a Rhinegold dragon, being about three feet long with the body and tail of a lizard, a flattish head, a thin forked tongue and a loud hiss. The local name for it was buz majjeh, or 'goat-sucker'. Freya Stark, who lived in Iraq in the 1920's, writes of traveling near Baghdad, in a derelict local taxi; in the desert, she writes, there were dozens of huge and clumsy lizards whom her taxi-driver enjoyed running over. When she tried to discourage him, he said the lizards crept up on flocks of sheep from behind, and sucked the udders of the ewes without their noticing. Nor was this a joke played on Freya, because British students collecting field specimens in Iraq in the nineteen-sixties described the very same lizard and heard the very same story...
"The idea of the goat-sucker is now in Iraqi folklore; it is in American Indian folklore; it is in modern American mythology. I think it went from Persia to Arabia via the Muslims, and from Arabia to southern Spain. The island of Puerto Rica was settled by immigrants from southern Spain. The Iraqi legend of the monster that crept up on goats and sucked their milk, appeared in new clothes in the New World; it may have collided with the idea of the mantequero, the monster which sprang on travelers and sucked their blood or fat; it may have collided with the idea of the goat-sucker bird. Or perhaps the goat-sucker bird is descended from the goat-sucker lizard; who knows?"

http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/goatsucker.htm

-This is a variation on the "Milksnake" story which goes back to Roman times. And the Varanus lizard is measured snout-to-vent: three feet does not count the tail. And not only monitor lizards are blamed for sucking the milk from goats: skinks, geckoes, iguanas and Lacerta lizards are libelled with the same myth in other places. In this case we can say that the documentary evidence shows that "Chupacabras" was a dragon lizard living near Baghdad in the 1920s and the 1960s, and an iguana lizard living in the US Southwest and Mexico in the 1970s and 1980s as an "Animal mutilations scapegoat" immediately prior to its transmogrification into a modern mythical monster. [And yes, the story about the bird follows after the story involving the snake or lizard, and is derived from it]

Sunday, 27 March 2011

'Chupacabras' Continued

First and second photos posted here are some of the more reptilian sorts of chupacabras sightings cited on Spanish-language Mexican cryptozoology sites. Below, Chupacabras 'Aliens' closely resembling depictions of the folkloric grave-robber creature sometimes also called Timbo and referenced in the prior posting. This creature also just so happens to have been incorporated into TSR's Dungeons and Dragons game under the name 'Bonesnapper' (originally sent in by a player as an optional monster additional to the original Monster Manual.)

This illustration comes from the website: http://usuarios.multimania.es/planetaet/seres_et.htm

With the caption (as translated by Babel fish) Type 1: Chupacabras Chupacabras came to be to known in 1995 after a series of attacks to heads of cattle in Puerto Rico. Later it was seen in Miami and on into Central America, coming to a wider notice especially in Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala. Between 1996 and 1997 its activity extended to Brazil and even execeptionally with its presence reported in Spain and Italy. The few witnesses who have seen it usually agree that one is a species of saurian of great red eyes, sharpened nails, and a species of spine formed by thorns. Its behaviour is essentially animal.

And following it is a depiction of a chupacabras from an 'orphan' site on the internet. (The site itself is gone but the photo still shows up on a photo search with the attributrion to The Unicorn Garden. A visit to the site The Unicorn Garden does not show this illustration in obvious view on any of the pages. Still, I leave the credit as it was listed.)

For the most part, the traditional creatures later being CALLED chupacabras in Mexico are referred to under the blanket terms of 'Nahual' or 'Nagual.' This was originally the name of an Aztec magical practitioner and healer but more usually means the same thing as witch or demon any more. The term 'Brujo' is also used. The idea behind Naguals originally was that they had certain animal totems, which granted them powers and allowed the practitioners to assume animal form - any of a number of different forms. I suppose even hairless coyote would count. So more recently the term includes shapeshifters in general AND the totem power animals as well. The name also has a more positive meaning of protective spirits in animal form. In the case of the reptilian chupacabras, I am not certain as to what the native name of the totem power animal supernatural lizard originally was, but different recent references call it the King Lizard or King Iguana, Dragon or Dragon Lizard, Cipactli and possibly Chan. There is sometimes a confusion with other creatures such as crocodiles: 'Cipactli' originally meant a crocodile and yet there are Mayan depictions of Cipactlis that are more like iguanas. A whole series of pottery design motifs from the Cocle culture of Panama seems to include crocodile designs, iguana designs, intermediate designs and some more unregognisable abstract designs derived from them. In folk art of the modern day, the reptilian sort of chupacabras (originally a 'grave-robber') is often shown as a conventional demon with a long tail tipped by an arrowhead, large claws on all four feet, standing upright, and with fangs and horns on its head.

This is a chart of Cipactli designs showing a variety of crocodilian and iguanid features, public domain. Below is another illustration from the same series, of a Mayan Cipactli. Cipactli is still sometimes used as a reference to some reptillian lake monsters reported from sinkholes, wells and sometimes volcanic crater lakes. Some of the distinctive pre-Columbian sculptures around Lake Nicaragua apparently show similar creatures as human-sized iguana lizards, and there are reports of "monsters" in the lake with a spiny ridge like that on an iguana's back, which sometimes shows above the waterline.

The following is a carcass of a supposed Mexican chupacabras, which is presumably actually some kind of an iguana lizard (specifically genus Iguana, scale unknown. Provenance unknown, photographer unknown and from one of the cryptozoology discussion boards)

 

A modern sculpture intended to show an outsized iguana lizard and the photo following it to show the corresponding live lizard. The carving is from Mexico and done as a party decoration, the photograph is from Costa Rica and from a travel brochure.

Costa Rican "Cipactli" -iguana design on a pot, and below, a replica of a precolumbian iguana-effigy pot.

Best Wishes, Dale D. No infringement of any copyrights is intended and and ownership marks on the photographs chose for reference have been left as they were when the photos were found.

Saturday, 26 March 2011

'Chupacabras' before Chupacabras

Up until recently the name 'Chupacabras' did not refer to the bizarre cryptid it is defined as any more. Recently, Benjamin Radford explained what he took to be the 'Origin of the Chupacabras' in a Puerto Rican woman's recollection of a recent horror film at the time. Because of the H. R. Giger-inspired monster in the movie, that woman produced a sketch Radford claims became the template for all the other 'Chupacabras' sightings from then on.


The Radford Explanation: witness's sketch above and the monster "sil" from the movie SPECIES.


Only there is more than one thing being called a chupacabras, as I have explained before on earlier CFZ blog entries. And because of that we have more than one origin story.












Chupacabras-dog such as is the common type in Texas: and Mexican Hairless Dogs

Here is the passage I posted in the group when I first found out about the reptilian-chupacabras being folkloric in Mexico, posted in October of 2009 (before I found it I thought it had been 2008) I later reprinted the entire text from the site and I am still looking for that message. One of the names as I recall was Timbo. There is also an exactly equivalent tradition in Northern Argentina.

I always regretted NOT posting the illustration from the originating site, but it was very small and attempts to blow it up did nothing for the quality of the photo.

... I saw a Mexican Folklore page (in Spanish) where the Reptile-Chupacabras was called by the name of a traditional "Grave robber". That would have been the first version I had heard of in connection to animal mutilation[sheep, in Navajo country] cases in the SW in the 1970s, and in fact it has separately become a standard monster in the Dungeons and Dragons FRPG game, as the "Bonesnapper", another small-dinosaur representation. Until I saw the Mexican Folklore page I had no inkling that the creature was actually out of documented Folklore.

And then last night I had an important additional piece of information, which I added to the original message:

I did a little more research and I found out that the name does not originate in Mexico but in Texas, and it is a Comanche word meaning "Hairless." Hence it was an appropriate name for a hairless dog as well as a reptile. I am not certain how widely circulated the name was in earlier days, but I assume it was once synonymous with the creature sometimes called "Mountain Boomer" (The first proper name I knew for the creature, but actually a mis-applied name for the collared lizard, which likewise runs on its hind legs)

So anyway that nails down that particular loose end.
Best Wishes, Dale D.

(Common mountain boomer or collared lizard. The cryptid version is said to stand up 2-4 feet high on its hind legs and to have exaggerated crests down its back. The cryptid version was being blamed for cattle mutilations in the Southwest back in the mid-1970s, Personal Information.)

[The Cryptid version is also called Mini-Rex and River Liz]

Re: [chupacabra] Need $250? Take Ben's Chupa Challenge!

Just so happens that my blog posting for today (See earlier notice sent in by Jon Downes) discusses an independant tradition which corresponds to the Chupacabras reports from Texas. It just so happens that the creature was NOT being called Chupacabras and so I shall not be collecting any rewards, just because these things are seldom as neat and clean as certain researchers may like. The name of the blog posting is "Cupacabras" Before Chupacabras

and it is about a creature that was being blamed for cattle mutilations before the Chupacabras reports broke out, but did correspond to certain reports of creatures later called "Chupacabras", particularly around Texas. The name of this creature turns out to be a Comanche name meaning "Hairless" and thus applicable to a hairless canine or even a Reptillian creature.

And the reason for the connection is that the "Cattle mutilation" victims were supposedly found bloodless. The legendary creature was however supposed to be more of a ghoul than a vampire, and otherwise supposedly robbed graves.

So unfortunately in this case the soution is a pretty sound connection but falls completely OUTSIDE of Ben Radford's definition. Sorry about that unforseen complication, Ben!

Best Wishes, Dale D.

CFZ BLOG: November 19, 2009

This paste-up is also from the files of the Frontiers of Zoology group and features the CFZ's own chupacabras representation.

I had remarked before that I first heard of a chupacabras creature in the mid 1970s as a FOAF report originating in the American SW: and it was described basically as being like a small spiky-backed dinosaur or a big iguana lizard, said to be raiding livestock. It was actually a story meant as an explanation of 'cattle mutilations', then a big news item. so the first example I heard of was a cattle-mutilations creature that was a spiky-backed lizard, and the name chupacabras not invented for such a creature yet.

I have since learned that there is a traditional Mexican version of this small dinosaur creature, usually said to raid graves and eat the bodies. A version of the legend has made its way into standard D&D lore as the fantasy creature known as the bone-snapper.

At any rate, when chupacabras reports proper started to emerge later on, several of the reports specified a small dinosaur or large spiky-backed lizard creature, sometimes said to run or jump away on its hind legs. The montage cuts together several representations of these.
Eberhart's Mysterious Creatures has an entry on such creatures under the heading 'Giant North American Lizard' but the first name I heard in common usage for them was Mountain Boomer. Other sources call them 'Mini-Rex.' And Ivan Sanderson's archives included separate letters from two unrelated sources writing about such a 'Small dinosaur' from the Arkansas-Oklahoma area, neither one of which was ever published. Some iguanid lizards do get up and run away on their hind legs, including the collared lizard (the more usual 'Mountain Boomer').

When the spiky-backed 'Chupacabras' reports started coming out of Puerto Rico, some sort of large iguanid lizard might have been involved. It probably would not be the same species as reported in Texas, Arkansas-Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona and Mexico but it could have been something similar. The depiction does look like the front end of an iguana. And male iguanid lizards are known to have red eyes.

If it is necessary to be said, I don't think the lizards actually do any cattle mutilations or goat-sucking, or even digging up graves and breaking the bones. They only get blamed for that. What does that most often (and in just about the whole world over) is feral dogs, and they leave regular dog tracks (Ref. photos also on file in the group)

'Chupacabras' before Chupacabras

Up until recently the name 'Chupacabras' did not refer to the bizarre cryptid it is defined as any more. Recently, Benjamin Radford explained what he took to be the 'Origin of the Chupacabras' in a Puerto Rican woman's recollection of a recent horror film at the time. Because of the H. R. Giger-inspired monster in the movie, that woman produced a sketch Radford claims became the template for all the other 'Chupacabras' sightings from then on.


The Radford Explanation: witness's sketch above and the monster "sil" from the movie SPECIES.


Only there is more than one thing being called a chupacabras, as I have explained before on earlier CFZ blog entries. And because of that we have more than one origin story.















Chupacabras-dog such as is the common type in Texas: and Mexican Hairless Dogs



Here is the passage I posted in the group when I first found out about the reptilian-chupacabras being folkloric in Mexico, posted in October of 2009 (before I found it I thought it had been 2008) I later reprinted the entire text from the site and I am still looking for that message. One of the names as I recall was Timbo. There is also an exactly equivalent tradition in Northern Argentina.

I always regretted NOT posting the illustration from the originating site, but it was very small and attempts to blow it up did nothing for the quality of the photo.

... I saw a Mexican Folklore page (in Spanish) where the Reptile-Chupacabras was called by the name of a traditional "Grave robber". That would have been the first version I had heard of in connection to animal mutilation[sheep, in Navajo country] cases in the SW in the 1970s, and in fact it has separately become a standard monster in the Dungeons and Dragons FRPG game, as the "Bonesnapper", another small-dinosaur representation. Until I saw the Mexican Folklore page I had no inkling that the creature was actually out of documented Folklore.

And then last night I had an important additional piece of information, which I added to the original message:

I did a little more research and I found out that the name does not originate in Mexico but in Texas, and it is a Comanche word meaning "Hairless." Hence it was an appropriate name for a hairless dog as well as a reptile. I am not certain how widely circulated the name was in earlier days, but I assume it was once synonymous with the creature sometimes called "Mountain Boomer" (The first proper name I knew for the creature, but actually a mis-applied name for the collared lizard, which likewise runs on its hind legs)

So anyway that nails down that particular loose end.
Best Wishes, Dale D.

(Common mountain boomer or collared lizard. The cryptid version is said to stand up 2-4 feet high on its hind legs and to have exaggerated crests down its back. The cryptid version was being blamed for cattle mutilations back in the mid-1970s, Personal Information.)

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