Hairy snake in La Pampa

 

Detail of the map by Alvaro Barros of 1872. From [1] pp 14.

A second hand book I bought recently La Pampa, Grafías y etimologías toponímicas aborígenes by Alberto Vuletín (1972) [1], has an interesting reference regarding hairy snakes.

The book's cover.

The book explains the origin of the name places in the Province of La Pampa and focuses on those of native origin. Though La Pampa is officially part of the Patagonia region, (having joined the Patagonian Provinces) the historical northern boundary of that region has been set along the Colorado River, which also marks La Pampa's southern frontier. So, if I were a purist, I would not mention this as a Patagonian creature, but as the natives that peopled the area also lived in Patagonia, I will included in the blog.

Its author includes a map by Alvaro Barros, drawn in 1872, a few years before the Argentine government undertook a military campaign (1878-1884) to occupy the region and snatch it from the native's hands. Interestingly, it mentions a Calchochá or "Snake with hairs" ("Víbora con pelo" in the Spanish original), close to the border between the provinces of La Pampa and Buenos Aires.

It is just north of a place named "Agua fria dulce" (cold freshwater) which, in the native language was known as "Atreucó" (from Athé = cold, có = water or uúvco = spring) which is set close to the provincial highway number 18 (37°07'S, 63°48'W).

There are several lakes in that region, but none of them bear nowadays the name of "hairy snake".

In a post nearly one year ago, on the "Patagonian" Hairy Snake, I included a comment by a military commander along the Pampa frontier Federico Barbará, who mentioned a lake named precisely "hairy snake", perhaps it was the same lake mentioned above.

The book has some other interesting things, I will mention them in my next post (the Chueiquehuecu monster).

By the way, Alvaro Barros was the first Governor of Patagonia Territory (1878-1882), so it may be correct to include the Pampean hairy snake as part of Patagonia's mythical fauna.

Sources.
[1] Alberto Vuletín, (1972). La Pampa, Grafías y etimologías toponímicas aborígenes. B. Aires, Eudeba.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Cryptid Snakes, an Andean myth imported into Patagonia

 

My last few entries have focused on the “Culebrón” (big snake) and the “guruvilu” (fox snake) and the "Piwichén" (flying snake). Today I will post about the importance of snakes in the South American Andean cultures (pre-inca, Inca and pre-hispanic Chilean natives).

This “snake-cult” could explain the “Culebrón” , the Piwichén , the “guruvilu” and perhaps the Water Tiger.

Snakes and their relationship with the Inca God-kings

Felipe Huamán Poma de Ayala ca. 1585 compiled the "Legend of Manco Capac", the first Inca king (Inca besides being the name of these people, was also the name of the Monarch, thus Manco Capac was the Inca’s Inca).

Inca kings, like the absolutist monarchs of Modern Age Europe, were born kings by divine intervention, better still, they were gods themselves.

This legend tells how the first Inca (king) was an "amaro serpent" where Amaro is the Quechua language word for dragon or, serpent.[1]

There is another story in which this king, who was known as Manco Capac Amaro slayed a horrible beast and then added the word Amaro (or Amaru) to his name to commemorate the event:

he killed in a mountain a serpent so fierce and terrible (…) so big as the biggest animal on Earth, it had wings like those of a bat, the arms short and very thick, with great claws (...) it gave tempestive hisses (…) its body was covered with hard scales. [2]

In Quechua, a boa or an anaconda are known as Amarun, a similar sounding name to Amaro or Amaru the monster snake.

Notice that this snake has legs, claws, bat wings and hisses exactly like the Piwichén. Coincidence? or cultural flow (i.e. myth adoption) between two different people, the Patagonian Mapuche and the Peruvian Inca.

The king later placed the snake in his royal arms and shield.

After the Spanish conquest, the "Inca Garcilaso de la Vega", who had royal Inca blood [*] included the Amaru in his own coat of arms. It was published in his Comentarios Reales (1609). He designed it himself and included the arms of his Spanish family (Pérez de Vargas, Figueroa, Sotomayor and Mendoza da la Vega) on the left, and on the right, the Inca symbols: sun, moon, and on the lower part, two interwined Amaros

[*] He was the illegitimate son of Spanish conquistador Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega y Vargas and an Inca princess Palla Chimpu Ocllo.

Coat of Arms of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. The Amaru snakes are on the lower right side.

The inca and pre-incaic cultures

Snakes were important in Peru long before the Inca became the predominant regional power.

I have found an image on the internet which is said to show a Chavin culture snake temple dated ca. 1000 BC. it depicts four snakes carved in stone:

Chavin snake temple ca. 1000 BC. From [3].

I also found a piece of pottery from the Mochica culture dated between 0 and 700 AD. It shows a “dragon” with a snake tail holding a human head. It is mounted on a base decorated with snakes. Notice that the snakes have ears a combination of mammal and reptile features in one creature. This is reminiscent of the Mapuche's Hairy snake

Ceramic Dragon (Mochica culture Peru) ca. 0 - 700 AD.
Amaru snakes are on the lower right side. From [6].

Another Mochica fresco (below) shows a jaguar (?) headed snake.

Mochica fresco "jaguar headed snake".

Moche or Mochica ceramics often had a two-headed snake.[1] The later Chimu people had a similar motif on their pottery and adobe friezes at the “Dragon Huaca (Castle)”: a double-headed “rainbow” snake (curved like an arch).[7]

Rainbow double headed snake motif. Dragon Huaca.From [8] .

The anaconda and the boa were demanded as tribute by the Inca kings from their Amazonian subjects. They were kept at the imperial capital of Cuzco where they were fed prisioners (those who survived in the cage with them for three days earned their freedom).[9]

The rainbow serpent was also employed in colonial period (after the Spanish conquest) representations of the ancient Inca.[10]

The snake had “aquatic” connotations. Being two-headed it took water from one place and passing it through its body it placed it somewhere else. [10]

Snakes therefore were associated with springs, rivers and lakes. Lake Titicaca (shared by Peru and Bolivia) was said to have been guarded by a big snake.
More recently there is a moder story (Jauja and Huamanga, Peru) about a snake with two llama heads, it lived in a lake.[10]

The Water Tiger connection

The interesting thing is that jaguars or pumas, mythical magical felines for the Andean cultures which are grouped under the term Leones (lions), were closely associated with the Amaru and “contemporary Quechua speakers often refer to a composite being León-Amaru”.[10]

This could account for the Mapuche myths regarding the "water tiger" which was aquatic (a snake -Amaru- feature) and jaguar (tiger) and therefore magic or supernatural. It was a creature that was not found in Chile, which means that the myth was imported there (though in Patagonia there may have been jaguars, so I am not sure about it being a foreign myth within that area)

The Inca Empire and Chile.

The Inca Tupac Yupanqui in the 1440s invaded Chile from its territories in what is now Argentina, through Copiapo. They advanced southwards and over a period of about six years occupied the Central regions.

They face the constant opposition of the local natives and finally established their southern border along the Bio-Bio river, Patagonia's northern border.
However, increased hostilities forced them around 1520 to retreat and move the border northwards to the Maule River. [4]

During the period that they dominated Chile, they built roads connecting it to the empire, through Atacama to Cuzco and across the Andes into Argentina's western region, and from there through Bolivia into Peru.

They relocated Inca settlers from Peru and thus their culture, traditions and lore was brought into Chile and from there, it permeated into the local natives.

Northern and Central Chile (from Atacama to Santiago) was the area where the inca influnce was felt most.[5]

The inca called the non-conquered native Chileans "purum aucca" which in Quechua meant "non subdued enemies". The Spaniards, after the conquest, adopted the name without knowing its meaning, and called all natives south of Santiago "promaucaes". These were the non-subdued Mapuche people.

On the Argentine side of the Andes, just across from Coquimbo and northern central Chile, were several Andean farming cultures, such as the Diaguita. They too were conquered by the Inca: and, unsurprisingly, they also had "two-headed snakes" in their culture.

I suggest that you read this very interesting article (in Spanish) and take a look at the images depicting the snake-like inscriptions that can be found in the Aguada Culture's (Diaguita people) pottery from Argentina.

Getting back to Chile, between 1535 and 1537 Diego de Almagro explored the central parts of Chile from Copiapo to the Itata River but after a battle there with the Mapuche, he retreated to Peru. It would not be until 1541 that the Spaniards under Valdivia would enter Chile again.

This time they would conquer most of it. But the area south of the Bio Bio River would be contested during centuries in a long war that began in 1546 and finally ended with the defeat of the Mapuche people in 1881.

Discussion.

Doesn't it make sense that in the area where the Inca had a strong foot-hold, their myths were stronger? Such as in Coquimbo, Ovalle, La Serena, Santiago and other northern and central Chilean districts. Wouldn't their "snake" Amaru myths have been absorbed by the locals? If so, Culebrón and the other snake related myths (i.e. the "flying snake" or Piwichen) can be traced back to Peru (Inca, Mochica, Chavin cultures).

They would also tend to be weaker or diluted to the south of the Bio-Bio border, where the Inca had less time to interact with the Mapuche before withdrawing to the safer central Chilean valleys. Here they would have originated the filu myths among the Mapuche.

This would mean that flying snakes and Culebrones are a second hand memory of the Amazonian Anacondas and Boas, taken to Chile by the Inca conquerors.

So we can't expect to find evidence of Patagonian cryptids in these mythical beings.

Bibliography.

[1] Guaman Poma. (1615). Nueva corónica y buen gobierno. pp. 82
[2] Anello Oliva, (1895). [1598] Historia del Reino y Provincias del Peru. pp. 42,43.
[3] Hugh Fox. Gods of the Cataclysm
[4] Diego Barros Arana. (1999) Historia general de Chile. vol 1. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria. pp. 56+.
[5] Ibid. pp. 63.
[6] ArteHistoria
[7] Li Ning Anticona, J., (2000). El gollete estribo de la cerámica precolombina peruana: interpretación estética UNMSM. pp. 33 and 81.
[8] Avent Peru http://www.aventperu.com/trujillo2.html
[9] Betanzos, Juan de, (ca. 1551). Suma y narración de los Incas.
[10] Paul Richard Steele. (2004). Handbook of Inca mythology. ABC-CLIO. pp. 95-97.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity

Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall ©

The Flying snake of the Mapuche "Piwichen"

 

Today's "everything you ever wanted to know about..." is dedicated to the flying snake, a strange creature that has many different appearances, and whose myth is spread all over Chile.

First references to a Flying Snake

Luis de Valdivia, wrote the first Mapuche Language Grammar book and dictionary in 1684, though he does not mention the piwichen [*], he has an entry for “culebra” or non-venomous snake under “bilu” and another for “serpent” as “yhuai”.[1]

[*] Like most words of a non-written language, each author chose his own phonetic system to write them. As we can see below, the name is spelt in a similar, but at the same time different manner by each of the sources that I have used in this post:

Pihuichen (Havestadt)
Pihuchen (Hernández)
Pimuychen (Febrés)
Piguchén (Molina)
Piwichen (Augusta)
Pinuychén (Barbará)
piguchén (Latcham)
Piuchén (Guevara)

Pihuichen. From [7].

In 1765, Father Andrés Febrés, wrote another “Grammar” in which we can find the first printed references to the flying snake, the 1846 edition that I have read, has the following entries:

SERPENT: Vilú: another they say it flies, pihuchen.

[Non-poisonous] SNAKE: Vilu: that they say flies and hisses, pihuchen. [2]

Rodolfo Lenz, in his Estudios Araucanos[3], states that Febrés original edition (1765) called the creature pimuychen and wrote that it was “a snake that they say flies when it hisses, and he who sees it, dies”.
In the later edition, quoted above, Hernández corrected the entry and changed the name to pihuchen.

Another missionary, Havestadt, is cited by Lenz [3] ; he wrote a Grammar dated 1777, in Latin, and repeated Febrés entry but called the animal pihuichen:

pihuichen, coluber, angujs, serpens volatilis, quem quie videt, vel audit sibilare, moritur: addo et qui non videt; uti visus est nemini

Snake or mammal?

In the early 1800s the first Chilean naturalist, father Molina in his treaty on the Natural history of Chile, mentioned it in a biological context as follows:

Piguchén, four footed winged or species of great bat, which -if its existence were real- would form one of the links that join birds and mammals. This animal, according to what they say, has the body and size of a domestic rabbit and is covered with a fine cinnamon colored fur: it has a pointed muzzle, large eyes round and shiny, ears barely visible, membranous wings, short five toed legs, a tail that starts round and is then long, similar to that of fish; it hisses like the snakes and flies like a partridge; it lives in the hollows of the trees, which it only leaves at night; it does no harm, only to insects, which it eats. [4]

Molina’s description is quite unlike the previous ones: this is not a flying snake, it is a hairy, four footed beast. Some kind of long tailed bat. A harmless night creature.

The myth, like most Mapuche traditions extended with their language across the Andes into northern Patagonia, where the Puelche people spread it across the Pampas.

The Puelche were a group of Northern Tehuelche natives (also known as “Pampas”) that adopted the Mapuche language and became “Araucanized” in the mid 1700s.

At the military frontier with the Puelche, Argentine commander, Federico Barbará recorded a Puelche vocabulary, and published it in his 1879 dictionary. He mentions the beast as a Flying snake: Pinuychen and included a footnote that echoes Febrés comment:

The Indians say that he who sees this snake when it flies, falls dead: that is why, when they see it coming, they take off or throw themselves on the ground face down. Despite their explanation, it does not exist. It is a legend of the machis (witches). [5]

XX^th century

Father Augusta: a Vampire

In 1916, Father Félix de Augusta included the following entry in his Spanish-Mapuche dictionary:

piwichen. Probabl[y] comp[osed] of piwn and ché imaginary animal which is described as follows “Its body has the shape of a elongated cylinder, like a snake. As time goes by, it grows wings and flies, but it lacks feathers. It sucks the blood of people and animals drying the body of its victims. Its hissing, that sounds ‘piurüt piurüt’ announces a sure death if the person that is being approached by the perverse creature does not have a chance to see it before being seen by it. When it infests a house, all of its residents will have to die, their only means of escape is to move to the other side of a stream. There are some who pretend to have caught it in a bowl with wine. It also has an important role in the visions and superstitions of the macis”. It is believed that the vampire bat, that exists in Chile may have originated the myth. – Death of cattle is attributed to it. [6]

To clarify the origin of the name, his entry for piwun is to dry, to parch. While ché is person. So this creature’s name means: “to dry, to parch a person”, surely from its habit of sucking its victims dry.[2]

According to Augusta it is a vampire-like winged snake.

The real vampire (Desmodus rotundus) a bat which feeds on the blood it sucks from cattle, is found all over South America, including Chile but this creature is too small to be the rabbit-sized Piguchén as it is barely 10 cm (4 in.) long and weighs not more than 50 g (1.8 ounces); it also lacks a tail.

Latcham. Also a vampire.

Latcham (1924) mentions the myth [99] as the “most common [myth] among the Chilean peasants, it is a fabulous animal, whose shape changes from region to region. This myth is known all across Chile, it is very ancient and of undoubted Indian origin”.

But is it a Mapuche myth? I does not seem so. Mapuche people did not live in northern Chile.

He adds that the piguchén is depicted as a “ feathered culebrón [big snake], sometimes with wings, mostly without. Frequently it lacks feathers and in those cases it carries a row of bristles along its back”.

But most frequently it is depicted as a winged snake (with or without feathers). A blood sucking vampire.

Vicuña Cifuentes. Bird features

Vicuña Cifuentes, in his 1915 book on Chilean myths recorded this creature as being spread throughout Chile: [8]

At Talagante (in the metropolitan area of Santiago, Chile's capital city) “it is a snake that after a certain period of time, transformed itself into a kind of big sized frog, covered with very fine and short hair with short and wide wings that let it take short flights”.

At Melipilla (also by Santiago) it is a snake that when it grows old turns into a bird the size of a young turkey. It hides in the trees during the day and its red excrement can be seen on the tree trunks.

At Coinco (34°16’S, 70°57’W) it is a “bird the size of a hen whose head ends in a long and thin beak, its eyes are big and of a very pale grey color, it has very small wings, almost rudimentary and rough and strong bristles along its spine” it sucks the blood of mules.

At Vichuquén (112 km - 70 mi. west of Coinco) it is a snake with wings “perfectly covered with feathers”.

In my opinion, a feathered flying creature is a bird. Feathers spell bird. Flying if feathered is a bird. So the myth points at a bird.

Guevara. Vampire but bird-like.

Tomás Guevara, [7] noted in 1908 its blood thirsty qualities:

on the days of great heat it sticks to the tree’s bark and leaves there a track of blood.

After repeating the see it and die myth and its vampire features, he mentions that “ in its old age it turns into a bird the size of a cock, that causes the same damages as it did in its original shape”.

He also mentions it in the region of Ovalle (1904) close to the cities of Coquimbo and –La Serena: “ Piuchén has the wings and beak of a parrot, the body like a toad and the tail of a big snake.”

Vicuña Cifuentes quotes Guevara (History, I, 231): “Pihuichen was also recognized by the ancient indians , it represents another shady and fearful monster, shaped like a winged snake .”

So it seems to be an old pre-hispanic myth.

Ricardo Latcham in 1923 wrote that “it is a hybrid […] frequently a bird the size of a chickenbut always with some particularity that distinguishes it from the other birds, like bat wings, bristles along it spine, etc.”. [9]

He adds that at Coquimbo (northern Chile) the farmers make it out as a “winged snake with a head at each tip” motif which he notes is found in the ancient pottery found in the area. [10]

See my entry on the Culebrón which also mentions a big (though non-flying) snake that was found in the Diaguita native’s culture.

Latcham noted that despite the different representations of the beast, all agreed on the fact that it feeds by sucking human or animal blood.

Latcham and a merging of the Culebrón and Piwichén myths

Latcham wrote that despite the fact that its most common name is piguchén, which is written in many different ways,

it is nevertheless known in some places with another name. That is why in the northern provinces it is known as culebrón; in Chiloé it is called chiued or raiquén.[9]

Cavada, [11] calls it Puchén or Piguchén. mentions it in Chiloé as follows:

The meaning of that word [Piuchén] in Chiloé is that of a metamorphosis or phisical degeneration of a being […] that is why when a red cock lays a small egg from which the Basilisk is born, it remains Piguchén , a new and strange being […] all Piguchén reach an extraordinary longevity and some never die like a phoenix.

Discussion. Piwichen is not a Patagonian myth.

However, I tend to disagree with Latcham, because, as Cavada notes, the meaning of the word Piguchén in Chiloé is different. It does not refer to a flying snake but to a bizarre or odd event. Furthermore, the raiquén is a bird (most likely an owl) not a bat or a flying snake.

Perhaps the Flying snake myth originated in the northern Andean cultures (i.e. Inca, or even in the Western Argentine natives such as the Diaguita) and was adopted in Northern and Central Chile before (or after) the Inca occupation of Chile (1450-1540). The Mapuche at their northernmost reaches may have been in contact with this myth, and took it south into the Arauco region during the Spanish conquest, while they retreated and entrenched there.

It permeated in a deformed manner south into Chiloé island and into the Pampas as we can see in the following map:

Pihuichen distribution of the myth. Copyright © 2010 by Austin Whittall.

In the map above, you can see the homeland of the Mapuche (in Chile which is centered around Santiago, Chile) and the area which the "Araucanized" Puelche, Pehuenche, Huilliche groups occupied from Mar del Plata on the Atlantic, to Chiloé Island in southern Chile.

The Inca empire is shown in green.

It can be clearly seen that at the area where Mapuche homeland and Inca empire overlap, is the where the "flying snake" myth is most mentioned.

The only two outstanding "points" on the map (one in the Pampas a myth imported by the Puelche from Chile and the other in Chiloé where it has a completely different meaning) are quite distant from the point of origin of the myth (around Santiago) and from other non-Mapuche areas (Coquimbo and Ovalle) closer to the source of the myth either in the Inca empire or the land of the Diaguita (around Tucumán and Salta).

See my next post on the possible Inca origin of Chile's "snake" myths .

Summary: One thing is for sure it is not an aquatic reptile and therefore cannot be used to explain cryptids like Nahuelito.

In my opinion it does not refer to any Patagonian lake monster or cryptid it is a myth referring to a bird.

Bibliography.

[1] Valdivia, Luis de, (1684). Arte y gramatica general de la lengua que corre en todo el Reyno de Chile. Sevilla : Thomás López de Haro.
[2] Febrés, Andrés (1846). Revised by Antonio Hernández, Santiago Impr. del Progreso, 1846 pp 25 and 93.
[3] Lenz, R. Op. Cit. pp. 436
[4] Molina. Op. Cit. pp. 264
[5] Barbará F., Op. Cit. pp. 56
[6] Augusta, F. Op. Cit. pp.184.
[7] Guevara, T., (1908). Psicolojía del Pueblo Araucano. Impr. Cervantes. pp. 321-322.
[8] Vicuñ Cifuentes, J, (1915) Op. Cit. pp. 80-82 and 339.
[9] Latcham, R., (1923). La Historia Natural en los mitos Araucanos . Revista Chilena de Historia Natural. v.27. pp. 132. Online:

[10] Latcham, R. Op. Cit. (1924). pp. 571-573.
[11] Cavada, F., (1914). Chiloé y los Chilotes. Impr. Universitaria. pp. 102-103.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity
 
Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall ©
 

Culebron the Full dossier

 

The Culebrón

Though I have posted about this being before, today I am going to avoid the piecemeal approach and put the whole story down:

The name

Culebrón is not a native word, it is Spanish. It is the aumentative of Culebra, the Spanish word that means “Non venomous snake” (“víbora” is the Spanish word for poisonous snake).

It is a myth found in Chile (we will see that it is predominant in the central area of that country, beyond Patagonia). Further south, there are “snake” myths that through the influence of the Mapuche culture, crossed the Andes into Argentina, where they are found mainly in the province of Neuquén.

The Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche, non venomous snakes are known as filu. And, the Mapuche – Spanish dictionary has an entry for “iwai filu” which is “a big serpent.

I will call these Mapuche snake myths, the filu myths.

Culebrón eating a girl. From [5].

The snake myth among the Tehuelche.

Besides the Mapuche, there were other native groups in Patagonia:

  - the Fuegian natives and the “boat people” of Southern Chile have no myths regarding snakes (there are no snakes in Tierra del Fuego or the harsh insular habitat of these natives).
  - In continental Patagonia, the Tehuelche Group have left us no myths regarding snakes.

The filu snake myths are exclusively Mapuche.

Yet, in their territory, in the Province of Santa Cruz, close to Puerto Deseado, a strange stone carved in the shape of a snake was found in 1937 by Indalecio Alvarez at a salt flat close to the estancia (ranch) “25 de Marzo”.

It was a piece of pink sandstone 32 cm (12.6 in.) long, and roughly 40 mm (1.6 in.) wide and 35 mm (1.4 in.) thick. It resembles a snake. This is on the Rio Deseado River, south of Antonio de Biedma. He believed it was a representation of a Yarará ñata (Bothrops ammodytoides) which is found in Patagonia.[13]

Check the article Online, it has some photographs of the stone snake.

Chile and its benign snakes

The first naturalist to study Chile, Juan Ignacio Molina (1810) noted that it lacked poisonous snakes and that the few that could be found were harmless. He added that “the boys, grab them by their tail and spin them around their heads to “make them drunk” […] The vipers are totally absent.” [1]

So, Chile, home of the Mapuche lacks poisonous snakes; why do they have myths involving dangerous snakes?
We can offer three explanations:

1. There were large snakes in Chile and they became extinct before science became aware of them; but Mapuche folklore retained their memory.
2. The Mapuche imported the myth from other parts of South America where snakes (big and poisonous ones) are common.
3. They mistook another animal for a snake.

Mapuche myths involving snakes (the Filu myths).

1. Cai-Cai and Ten-Ten

Chilean foklorist Latcham transcribed a version of the Mapuche myth about a Noah-like flood or deluge at the dawn of time. [2]

He believed that it may have been their way of explaining a tsunami along the coast (quite normal in earthquake prone Chile) or the sudden catastrophic breakage of an ice dam or a weak rubble closure of some Andean lake. These catastrophic outbursts have happened in the past (for instance in the Colorado River in Argentina in 1914 when a natural dam burst emptying 1.55 km³ (roughly one cubic mile) of water into the valley. In either case the natives would have sought for an explanation. The fighting snakes gave tham a plausible cause for the catastrophe.

The myth involves two gigantic “culebras, one of them good, Ten-Ten lord of the land and protector of mankind; the other evil, Cay-Cay who was lord of the waters.

Cay-Cay unleashed the flood to drown his rival and his human subjects. Ten-Ten raised the mountains higher and higher beyond the reach of the flood to protect them; he also turned some of them into fish, sea mammals and stones so that they would not drown.

The helpless humans looked on while both snakes fought a terrible battle. But finally, exhausted and with no more water to flood the world with, Cay-Cay gave up and retreated to the deep waters where he still lives and keeps on fighting with Ten. The constant earthquakes that shake Chile are due to this unending battle: Cay-Cay gets covered with rocks and to shake them off trembles causing the Earth to quake.

Humans, to remember their saviour have named several mountains named after the heroic Ten-Ten (some are spelled differently: theng-theng).[2]

Father Félix José de Augusta in his Mapuche-Spanish dictionary printed in 1916 described the evil culebrón as follows:

Kai-kai or Kai-kaifilu […] the snake kaikai, a mythological animal, half serpent, half horse, that they believe is under the sea and whose voice sounds like a horse neighing.[3]

It’s “mane is so grown that it drags it along the ground”

Yet another version cited by Latcham is that of Robles Rodríguez: “an enormous lizard came out of the center of the earth and shouted Cai-cai” [2].

Tomás Guevara describes it according to his Mapuche informant Manuel Lonquitué “Caicai is an animal that has the shape of a new born horse it lives, like Llul-llul [*] in the water”[4]

[*] Llul-llul is another myth, about a long-tailed cat like creature that lives in the sea.

Based on the above, it seems that there are two kinds of Cai-Cai. The original myth making being and the “later versions”. The former is a giant, that creates earthquakes and floods the world, a supernatural force of gigantic strength and size. The latter seems to be a normal sized animal.

We should leave the titanic snake and focus on the smaller one. The animal that is an aquatic foal shaped being (Guevara) or lizard-like (Rodríguez) or half serpent, half horse that neights (Augusta) and has a mane.

There is also a humanoid snake, which lacks a Mapuche name, and is found in the Argentine province of Neuquén, among the Pehuenche people, who live by the eastern Andean foothills.

2. Snake man and snake woman.

These are not animal-snakes but human-snakes. This is a different king of snake creature which is not aquatic: in both myths, there is no clear indication that they are “lake creatures”.

Bertha Ilg-Koessler, [6] transcribed the story told to her by Chief Kurruhuinka, at San Martín de los Andes in the mid XX^th century.

This tale was about a Snake man: “The Monster of the golden boot or the ‘well combed’”. This creature was:

A black man like a piece of charred wood […] the black man sitting there was half a man because the other half was the body of a very big serpent coiled up below the other [half]. [6]

This monster excreted golden nuggets which later turned into excrement. But, once he disappeared, lovely yellow floweres, boot-shaped (hence the name of the tale i.e. “golden boot”) known as kuram filu or snake eggs (Calecedonia Speculata) began to grow there.

The creature was found at Lake Nonthué (I posted on him before) but she does not call him a “Culebrón.

Koessler-Ilg also wrote down another native tale, about a snake woman: a native known as “The Serpent Killer”relentlessly destroyed all snakes that came his way “even though [his tribe] considered those reptiles as sacred”. One day a lovely maiden appeared out of the waters of Lake Meliquina [*], she was blond and human but later she altered her shape and turned into a “gigantic snake” that coiled around the man, killing him. This spot is known until this day as Arroyo Culebra (Snake Stream) and lovely kuram filu flowers grow there (notice the similarity between both stories in the flower finale).

[*] Lake Meliquina. (40°21’S, 71°18’W). Surface area 9 km² 3.5 sq. mi. Neuquén, Argentina.

Culebra Stream is a unique geographical phenomenon. Its headwaters is the Arroyo Partido (Split Stream), which splits into two separate streams, the Culebra, which flowing into lake Meliquina ends up in the Atlantic Ocean and Pil Pil Stream, which flows north, into Lake Lacar and from there into the Pacific Ocean. This is the real Continental Divide.

These humanoid snakes share human and reptilian features, like mermaids or centaurs they embody an animal and a person.

These humanoid snakes share human and reptilian features, like mermaids or centaurs they combine an animal and a person in one being.

3. Animal varieties of mysterious snakes.

Culebrón

Is it a Mapuche myth or a “Spanish-Native” myth?

I will quote exclusively from Vicuña Cifuentes’ excellent book on Chilean oral myths [10]

Vicuña Cifuentes on the “Culebrón". From [10].

I will copy the relevant parts of this text below:

The Culebrón according to what I was told at el Palqui, village in the interior of Ovalle, is a big and snub tailed snake, that is, whith a truncated tail. On its back it has a mane that measures up to two spans in length and that extended on both sides it uses as wings to fly. The Culebrón’s size is variable, some specimens have been seen with a length of eight spans (1,60 m) [5 ft. 2 in.]. It lives close to the pens where goats and sheep are enclosed because […] it suckles their milk […] sometimes it sucks the blood of newborn kids but only if it can’t whet its apetite with milk.

[...] At Elqui [...] it is not described as snub tailed, instead its truncated tail is replaced by another head. Nor is it given a mane, but wings with which it flies, though only at night [during the day] it moves very slowly […] it measuers up to 2 meters long [6 ft. 6 in.] which is thick as a man’s leg and its color is spotted.

[...] South of Choapa the myth […] is found only sporadically […] at Angostura de Paine […] it had the following description: - The Culebrón is a fat snake, with a head and snout at each end. Sometimes it has small heads on its sides and bristles along its back. It sucks the blood of tiny lambs. Further south this description is applied to the Piuchén [*][10]

He goes on to mention the great antiquity of the myth, but that we will look into later.

[*] Piuchen. Is another creature which in Southern Chile is described in a similar manner. Perhaps because Febrés says it is like a flying snake mistaking it for the northern Culebrón.

I have posted on it Here: The flying snake of the Mapuche "piwichen"

Note however that Elqui is about 90 km (56 mi.) east of the city of La Serena in central Chile, (29º 54’ S, 71º 20’ W) and Ovalle is about the same distance south of La Serena. Angostura de Paine is very close to Santiago. All these locations are very far from Patagonia. The myth is not a Patagonian myth.

Not Patagonian and, well beyond the Mapuche homeland. The name itself is not Mapuche but Spanish (unlike all other Mapuche myths) this is a clear indication of a “mestizo” tradition, a mixture of Spanish and native. Furthermore, the creature’s habitat in the relatively arid central valleys of Chile is very far away from the Patagonian lakes and forests. This is a terrestrial creature and it seems, more at home in the air, flying, than in a cold mountain lake.

A Spanish myth. Imported during the Conquista

I have found several references to the Culebrón myth in Spain. We must not forget that the Spanish Conquistadors brought to the New World their religion, language, traditions and, of course, their myths. These were absorbed by the growing Creole population (mixture of natives and Spainards).

Among these myths was the “Culebrón”. Below are some examples:

   -   “a Culebrón” that devastated the countryside devouring domestic animals and helpless people who tended their cattle in the fields close to the cave which was the beast’s lair. ”. Leon. By the villages of La Vid and Villasimpliz. XII^th Century. (Online)

   -   The Cuélebre was a “winged serpent […] that lives in caves and springs […] its whistling can be heard at a great distance [*] […] it attacks and devours people and animals”. It can be found in place names in Asturias “Cave of the Cuélebre” at Noriega, Mestas de Con. The “Fountain of the Cuélebre” at Cuerres, Intriago, etc. (Online)

[*] This creature whistles like the Piuchén.

   -   The “Lagarto de Jaén. Described as a “great serpent” or “serpe”. (Online)

   -   Also see: Aurelio de Llano Roza de Ampudia´s bok “Del folklore asturiano: mitos, supersticiones, costumbres (1922) and “Leyendas españolas de todos los tiempos: una memoria soñada” (vol 9, 2000) by José María Merino. Both of which mention the creature.

Any similarity between the Chilean and the Spanish Culebrón is not a coincidence.

4. Cagua-Cagua the Culebrón.

In Neuquén, at Pichi-ruca, a Pehuenche couple was in the forest, when they:

Heard some strong snorting; it seemed that someone was being hanged […] they saw a gigantic culebrón that was dangling between two trees, its tail and head dragging on the ground […] it was a very powerful Cagua-Cagua [7]

This creature also known as Putrahilu was terrible, it could eat an animal or humans in one gulp, whole. It had the ability of creating a whirlwind to drag the victim closer. Its tail was hairy. [7]

This story is interesting because it makes the reptile a hairy one (like Guevara’s snake-horse with a long mane). An incredible oddity. We have another report on this creature by Argentine military Commander Barbará who in the late 1800s mentioned, on the western Pampas a lake named “Calchí-filu” or “hairy snake”. This was the land of the Puelche people, who had acquired the language of the Mapuche and also used it to name places.

But what kind of creature can be assimilated to a gigantic hairy snake? Snakes are reptiles and as such, lack hairs. The mere existence of hairs means mammal; Culebrón , if hairy is some kind of mammal. Notice how in Cifuentes’ version, it also likes milk.

This is a Filu myth, it involves Patagonia, a Mapuche group (Pehuenches) and is located in the Andean forests. Notice however that the creature is not aquatic but arboreal.

Other myths.

Before looking into the “mammal-snake”, lets take a look at the other myths involving snakes:

Large sized serpent with an enormous head that sometimes looks like that of a horse

This creature lives in the pools of rivers and can sometimes cause floods. It kills by constriction like a boa.[9]

This monster which shares Cai-Cai’s ability to flood and is also a horse-like snake, is not Chilean, it is not even Mapuche, it is a Guaraní myth, the Mboi-Guasu.

There are other Guaraní legends involving gigantic snakes: Mboi-Tunpa, Boywazú-Tunpa, Mboi-Moné, Mboi-Tatá and the dog-headed Mboi-Yaguá. Their close relatives, the Chané or Chiriguano people, also had their monster snakes: Mboimbéu, Mboirusú and Mboi wuju. The Mocoví had Nanayk Kaló, a giant snake.

All these native Americans (Guaraní, Chané and Mocoví) lived in the tropical and subtropical area of Northern Argentina. A land with plenty of snakes of the poisonous and constricting kind. I have posted before on the possible ties between Guaraní and Mapuche people. A theory which the Mapuche people don’t favor because they fear that if they are “late arrivals” in Chile, they may loose their status as “original people”. They root for the theory that states that they originated on what is now Chilean soil, from Paleo-Indian stock.

Nevertheless, the Mapuche myths involving tropical beasts such as giant otters and jaguars as well as shared myths (water-blacks, water-tigers, lewd dwarves and elves with their feet turned around, among others) clearly point at some kind of ancient relationship between both groups.

This may support the notion of an “imported” myth, either by the Mapuche lifting camp and moving from the Amazon rainforests to the Chilean valleys and bringing their folk tales with them. Or by cultural flow, by which the Mapuche people incorporated foreign myths and made them their own.

Vicuña Cifuentes mentioned that he had seen an ancient native vase from a burial at Elqui, which depicts a Culebrón, he added that it was very similar to the “plumed snake” of the Andean natives and thought that it had been introduced into Chile trough contact with the Diaguita natives of northwestern Argentina.[10]

Regarding the Andean Natives, I have posted on the possible Inca origin of the Mapuche "snake" myths. Which explains how these "snakes" which do not exist in Chile, could have entered its mythology; furthermore, the Diaguita may have also absorbed their "snake" beliefs from the Incas.

I suggest that you read this very interesting article (in Spanish) and take a look at the images depicting the snake like inscriptions that can be found on the Aguada Culture pottery from Argentina,[14] just across the Andes from the Culebrón homeland in La Serena, Chile.

Reptile mammal or hairy snake in Patagonia.

Bio Bio “reptile”

In 1914, there was a sighting at this Chilean River by the town of Santa Bárbara (37°39’ S, 72°01’ W). The creature was described as a “reptile or similar animal”. Its lair was on an inaccessible cliff by the river. This “kind of lizard, enormously thick, three or more meters long, of a light gray color” left a track “close to a meter wide and similar to that of a snake dragging itself”.[11]

Snake at Lake Ranco
In March 2003, people living in different towns around the lake reported to the police that there was a “strange creature moving along the river, hiding in the rushes and scaring the animals that came to the shore to drink water”. They described it as a “giant snake about eight meters long [26 ft.], […] an aquatic monster”.[12]

Both creatures seem to be reptilian, snake-like and at home in the water.

In today’s post on Lake Ranco I mention that at Caman inlet, at a deep pool, a fisherman caught a “very strange fish that had a crest like that of a cock with a mane down half its back” frightened, he threw it back into the lake, and this place is known as the “Culebrón Pool”.

This could either be a perch, a native fish (Percichthys trucha) that has a spiny dorsal fin and another softer one. It could be mistaken for a “mane” or a cock-like crest. Perhaps the angler had never seen a perch. Below is an image of a perch (European, which is similar to its Patagonian relative):

Perch, notice size and shape of dorsal fins..

Comments and Discussion.

Culebrón and Filu myths. Map showing places mentioned in the text. © Copyright 2010 by Austin Whittall.

The above map shows the area where the Culebrón myth is found in Chile (red), to the east, in northern Argentina is the area where the Diaguita people lived until their culture was destroyed during the Spanish Conquest (pale blue). In blue is the region where the Mapuche snake myths Filu, Cai-Cai, cagua-cagua, myths are found. The pink area shows the region occupied by the Mapuche or "Araucanized" natives (Tehuelche, Pehuenche, Ranquel, etc.) between the mid 1600s and 1880. Here you would expect to find references to the Filu snake myths. And you do, the blue dot in the region shows the location of “Calchí-filu”. In Yellow is the homeland of the different Guaraní groups, and a possible original homeland for the Mapuche people (tropical area with plenty of snakes). In bright green is territory of the Tehulche groups, which did not have snake myths. However (blue dot) a strange snake shaped stone was found there, close to Puerto Deseado.


I will add to this post over the next few days, but it seems to me that the Culebrón myth can be summarized as follows:

- Chile lacks big and venomous snakes.
- Imported into Chile from Western Argentina and Northern Andean Cultures (such as the Inca) or introduced from Spain during the Conquest.
- The big snake that flies and has two heads is an “exotic” (i.e. non-Chilean) component of the myth. Found elsewhere.
- It is widespread in central Chile, beyond Patagonia and the home of the Mapuche people. Not a local myth.
- Not found in the other Patagonian native cultures (Fuegians and Tehuelche).
- The Mapuche people have their own “filu” (snake) myths. These may be foreign if the Mapuche are linked to other native cultures from the tropical areas of America, specifically the Amazon. In that case snake myths originated outside of Chile.
- Hairy snakes may indicate a mammal.
- Foal like appearance and neighing point at a mammal.
- Long slender body (otter? Extant South American platypus? unkown water creature? Nguruvilú the Mapuche's aquatic "fox - snake").

I tend to believe that it is a monster and not a snake; a mammal and not a reptile.

Bibliography.

[1] Molina, J. Op. Cit. pp. 226
[2] Latcham Organizacion social 1924 pp. 403+
[3] De Augusta, F., J., (1916). Diccionario Araucano-Español, Español-Araucano. pp. 73. Online:



[4] Guevara, T. Op. Cit. pp. 324.
[5] Casas Cordero, El culebrón que se comió a la niña en las minas del Volcán.
[6] Koessler-Ilg, B., (2000). Cuentan los Araucanos: Mitos, leyendas y tradiciones. B. Aires: Del Nuevo Extremo. pp. 297 and 73.
[7] Relatos del Hombre y la Naturaleza Lo que contó la Abuela Tranamaiñ Fundación Pehuén. Endesa.
[8] Barbará F. Op. Cit. pp. 124.
[9] Colombres, A., Op. Cit. pp. 167.
[10] Vicuña Cifuentes, J., (1915). Estudios de Folklore chileno. Mitos y supersticiones recogidos de la tradicion oral chilena, con referencias comparativas a los de otros paises latinos. Santiago: Imp. Universitaria. pp. 326-327.
[11] Gröthe, S., (2008). Reptil en el Rio Bio Bio – 1914.
[12] Picasso, F. and Núñez O., L., (2004). Gigantescos Ofidios Sudamericanos.
[13] Deodat, Leoncio, S. M., (1942) Un bastón mágico herpetiforme descubierto en Patagonia austral. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología, III, pp. 99-118.
[14] Debora M. Kligmann and Elena Diaz Pais. Una primera aproximación a los motivos serpentiformes de la iconografía Aguada del NOA Intersecciones en antropología versión On-line ISSN 1850-373X Intersecciones antropol. n.8 Olavarría ene./dic. 2007

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity
 
Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall ©
 

Hairy Snake

 

In a previous post on we mentioned hairy snakes, today I will give more details.

calchá filu, the hairy snake

Argentine military Commander Federico Barbará (1828-1893) who lived many years in the mid 1800s on Patagonia’s northern frontier, fighting against the Puelche natives (a Mapuche/Tehuelche group), recorded their vocabulary and wrote a Puelche-Spanish dictionary. In it he included the name of a lake which the Puelche called “Calchá-filu”. The Spanish meaning of these two words is “hairy snake”,[1]

Gradually, during the XVII^th century the northernmost Tehuelche natives expanded out of Patagonia, across the Negro and Colorado rivers and into the Pampas where they replaced the original natives of Buenos Aires province and became known as the “Pampas” or “Puelche” (the latter, in Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche, means “Eastern people”).

The Puelche quickly came into contact with the Mapuche tribes living on the eastern foot-hills of the Andes in what is now Neuquén, and they became “Araucanized”, adopting their very convenient language (Mapudungun). The Puelche and Mapuche interacted through war, trade and cattle rustling until they were overtaken by “Western” civilization in the wars of 1879-1883 during which the Argentine government took control of eastern Patagonia (a similar process happened in Chile at the same time).

This explains why the Puelche used a Mapuche word to name a lake in their territory. Perhaps, just like the Mapuche, they also believed that “hairy snakes” were evil creatures.

Mapuche hairy snake

Mapuche oral tradition also mentions these creatures. “Kalfulemu, El Mapuche sin Sombra” was a story told by Abel Kuruuinca to Argentine folklorist Mrs. Bertha Koessler in 1962. In this tale, a native details his experience at the cave of the “salamanqueros” or witches cave, where orgies and debauchery take place.

In the tale, the native says that they lay him down and a “hairy snake coiled up on my chest and did not want to be removed” it kept an eye on him so that he did not escape.[2]

In another story about “Renpulli, la salamanca del lago Lacar”, Kuruuinca gave more details:

“Then a snake, fat as an arm and full of scales and hairy, pounced on his chest trying to suffocate him […] the creature coiled around his neck and hissed and put its toung in his mouth…”[2]

Chiñi filu

The hairy snake is also named “chiñi filu”, which is the “hairy snake of the seas, lakes and rivers”.[3]

Interestingly, this word chiñi is the common Chilean name for skunk (Mephitis chilensis), also spelt "chingue".

Chingue, stamp. Chile (1948). From [4].

We find the same word, (chiñi) in Quechua language. Quechua is a Native American language which is spoken in the Andean region of South America (Perú, Bolivia, Northern Argentina, Chile and Ecuador). It may have found its way into the Mapuche myths because the Inca invaded their territory in the mid 1400s.

The meaning of chiñi in Quechua is “Bat”.

So wether a bat-snake or a skunk-snake, we have a hairy reptile myth spanning the Puelche and Mapuche cultures. What can it be?

Note: there is a widespread myth in Chile about a Flying snake it is described mostly like a snake - bird, with or without feathers, but sometimes it is described as having tough bristles running along its back and no feathers. Is this Piwichén another representation of the hairy snake? or is the flying snake just a myth about strange birds?

Are hairy snakes real?

A hairy reptile is not as improbable as one may expect.

Hair is made from a protein called keratin. Researches checked reptiles and birds trying to see if they had genes that code this protein. And they found that these genes “are not restricted to mammals” because they also code proteins used to form the skin and claws. These keratin genes appeared in a common ancestor to amniotes about 300 million years ago. Amniotes are four legged vertebrates that include mammals, birds and reptiles.[5]

However only mammals have hair follicles and are able to grow hairs. If a reptile acquired that capability, it would be a hairy reptile. But that would require complex mutations. It is quite improbable.

So, my best guess is that the Patagonian hairy snake is not a reptile but a long, slim, svelte mammal such as a Huillín (Lontra provocax), the Patagonian otter. The following image shows one swimming; notice its snake-like appearance which is enhanced by its long tail.

Huillín (Patagonian River Otter). By Fabián Bugnest. From [6].

Endangered Patagonian otters

Huillín is an endangered species and both Argentina and Chile are taking action to prevent its extinction.

For a summary on the current status of Argentine huillín, click Here (in English).

For similar information regarding Chile, click Here, it is the blog (in Spanish) of CODEFF (Comite Nacional Pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora), a Chilean NGO who is fighting to save the Patagonian Otter.

Lakes and Rivers are not only water, lets save the Huillín (Logo). © CODEFF.

Bibliography.

[1] Barbará, F., (2000). Manual de la lengua pampa. B. Aires: Emece. pp. 124.
[3] Fernández, C.,(1995). Cuentan Los Mapuches. B. Aires: Ed.Nuevo Siglo. pp. 53 and 38
[3] Bárcena, R., [Ed]. (1990). Culturas indígenas de la Patagonia. Turner. pp.236
[4] Chilean stamp (1948) - Sociedad Filatélica de Chile.
[5] The Evolutionary Origin of Mammals’ Hair Is Found in Reptile Claws. Discover.
[6] Huillín (Patagonian River Otter). SIB.


Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Giant snakes. Patagonia’s mythical reptiles

 

In our previous post we mentioned Maripill and the Llaima volcano monster, both seem reptilian in their appearance. Today we will look into some more mythical reptiles:

Culebrón.

Read the full long version on Culebrón with all the information Here
Click for the full report on the "flying snake"

The “Culebrón” (from the Spanish word for “big snake” or “dragon”), which the native Mapuche called “Futa Filu” (big snake) had differing appearances depending on the tribe and region.

However most agreed that it was a fat stout snake with a mane of stiff hairs along its back –notice how the rigid spiky hairs are a repeating motif among the Mapuche mythical animals. It had large cat-like eyes and a short stunted tail. Its appearance changed as it grew older, it evolved humps on its front and rear extremity, which mutated into clawed legs. Wings may or may not sprout on its head. It is a night animal and lives in caves.

In some Mapuche areas the elders told girls not to get close to certain ponds because an ugly and large Culebrón that owned it would turn into a gigantic, horrible and hairy man and trap them if they stayed to long close to the water.[1] Hairy man-like creatures are reminiscent of “wild men” and may be hominids not lake monsters.

XIX^th Argentine military Commander Barbará mentioned a lake named by the Puelche “Calchá-filu” or “hairy snake”, a clear indication that the Culebrón myth extended across Patagonia.[2] More on hairy snakes Here.

But what kind of creature can be assimilated to a gigantic hairy snake? Snakes are reptiles and as such, lack hairs. The mere existence of hairs means mammal; Culebrón , if hairy is some kind of mammal.

Lampalagua

Culebrón in its reptilian facet is similar to another mythical reptile, “Lampalagua”; described as a formidable reptile with strong claws that devours all that it finds in its path. It drinks up streams and rivers and crawls across their dry beds. It eats children, men, animals and anything that it comes across. It destroys the crops and trees that lie in its path.[3]

It digs shallow underground tunnels where it lies concealed. It can also be found in lakes and streams.

Chilean folklorist, Mrs. Sperata de Saunière transcribed a tale told to her by a native woman; Eudocia Catricheo de Loncoche in the early 1900s about a mysterious animal that was eating a rich man’s sheep.

He hired an Indian to kill it and it turned out to be a “very big serpent with the head of a cat and a very sharp tongue that had a nail on its tip”. This and not the fangs held the snake’s venom.[4]

The brave Indian ambushed it cloaked in a sheep skin and grabbing it by its neck, pulled the nail out; “the snake writhed and jumped but the little Indian held its tongue and the serpent died”.[4]

The myth may be based on the real lampalagua, which though not found in Chile or in Patagonia, inhabits central and northern Argentina. It is also known as “boa de las vizcacheras” (Boa constrictor occidentalis) and can measure up to 3 m (9 ft.) in length and weigh 15 kg (33 lbs).

It feeds by seizing its prey (mice and vizcacha) in its jaws and wrapping several coils around the victim, constricting it until it has suffocated to death. This boa however is not aquatic so it cannot be the same animal as the Patagonian Lampalagua, which is more similar to South America’s anaconda –a very large aquatic constrictor snake.

Furthermore snakes lack a “clawed tongue” and Lampalagua with clawed paws is more like a reptile than a snake.

Dragon-like appearance of “Epunamun”

“Epunamun” was represented by some Mapuche. groups as an evil hairy elf, yet others depicted it differently: Father Ovalle mentions it in his Histórica Relación: “their Epunamon [sic] appeared to them in the form of a terrible dragon, casting fire out of his mouth, and his tail curled up”.[5]

Its tail evokes that of the Culebrón and is similar to the Llaima volcano monster and Maripill that we have mentioned in our previous post.

In our next post we will look into the Culebrón at Lake Nonthue.

For some hard science facts on fossil remains of giant Patagonian snakes, see our post Here.

Bibliography.

[1] Picasso, F., and Núñez O., L., (2004). Gigantescos Ofidios Sudamericanos. Online.
[2] Barbará, F. Op. Cit. pp. 124.
[3] Vicuña Cifuentes, J., (1915). Op. Cit. pp. 75+
[4] de Sauniere, S., (1975). Cuentos populares araucanos y chilenos: recogidos de la tradición oral. Santiago: Ed. Nascimento. pp. 163+
[5] de Ovalle, A. Op. Cit. pp. 200.




Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters