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Somewhere in Trinidad tonight, there is an old woman who's about to peel off her own skin like taking off a jacket.
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Somewhere else on a dark country road, a man is following a smell he can't quite place toward a woman he really shouldn't be following.
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And somewhere near a quiet river, something is singing and deciding right now whether you deserve to make it home or not.
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Welcome to Decoffinated.
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I'm your host Misha Harper, and every week I get into ghost stories, unsolved mysteries, paranormal encounters, folklore, basically whatever's got people looking over their shoulder before bed.
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This whole episode happened because of a phone call I had with my mom.
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She is of Trinidadian descent, born and raised, and I have heard countless stories from her and even more phrases than I can count my whole life, but I hadn't really stopped to take in the origins of where it comes from outside of it coming from my mother's mouth.
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So here we are, about to dive into three Trinidadian folklore stories.
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So let's set the scene for this one, shall we?
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It's 2 a.m.
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and some man who has spent the night at a party or a bar who's had a few too many drinks decides he's fine enough to walk home alone.
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Now, the path that he has to take is down a long winding country road where there are no streetlights.
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The only light available is the pale glow of the moon slicing through the trees.
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In fact, she only appears when it's just the moonlight that lights the streets.
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So as he's walking, up ahead in the shadows, he notices a figure.
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He gets closer and he sees a breathtakingly beautiful woman standing by the side of the road.
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His heart skips a beat.
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She's dressed in an elegant old school white dress with voluminous layers that rustle softly when she moves.
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On her head, she wears a wide-brimmed straw hat tilted downward just enough to cast a deep shadow over the top of half of her face.
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And as he approaches her, the heavy, humid smell of the forest completely vanishes.
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Instead, the air is filled with the most intoxicating aroma you've ever experienced.
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It smells like the blend of incredibly expensive perfume and fresh night-blooming jasmine flowers.
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This is La Jables.
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Her name literally translates from French crayole to English as the She-Double.
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And let me tell you, she has earned that title.
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Now, La Jables is a predator but doesn't use brute force.
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She plays a psychological game and is incredibly specific about her target.
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She doesn't want just anyone.
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She specifically targets men who are drunk, men who are full of lust, or men who are unfaithful, deceitful, and cruel to their partners back home.
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Basically, if you're a man with a guilty conscience or a wandering eye, you are prime real estate.
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And honestly, sounds like she's about to do the Lord's work here.
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So she looks at him from under the brim of her hat, doesn't speak much, maybe she just lets out a soft, seductive laugh, or whispers a few words in a sweet voice.
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She turns around and begins to walk down the road, looking back over her shoulder to make sure he's following.
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And because he's completely hypnotized by her beauty and that sweet perfume, he follows her.
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He forgets all about his home, family, and his safety.
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He is completely under her spell.
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She leads him off the paved road and guides him down a dirt track, and then deeper still, right into the thick, treacherous bush.
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He is literally bushwhacking through vines in the dark, but he doesn't even care because he just wants to stay close to this mysterious woman in white.
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But if he weren't so blinded by lust, he would have noticed the warning signs.
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He would have noticed that something was deeply wrong with the way she was walking.
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As she glides down the path, she always positions herself very carefully.
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She will walk with her right foot on the clear path, but her left leg will always be intentionally hidden, dragging through the tall grass, the bushes, or the deep mud of the ditch.
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Because beneath the beautiful layers of that dress lies her horrific secret.
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Her right leg is a perfectly normal human foot, but her left leg is a hideous, hairy cow's hoof.
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And it is believed that the way she walks is to cover the sound of her animal foot so it is not to be heard by any man trying to pursue her.
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He keeps walking for miles until they are deep in the heart of the forest, completely isolated.
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Suddenly, she stops and she's standing perfectly still.
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He steps up behind her thinking he's about to get a romantic moment.
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He reaches out to touch her shoulder.
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And then the illusion completely shatters.
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She turns around and lifts her wide-brimmed hat.
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The beautiful, smooth skin he thought he saw melts away.
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He finds himself staring directly into a horrific, decaying, eyeless corpse face.
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Her eyes are black, empty sockets.
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Her skin is rotting off the bone.
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At that exact microsecond, the sweet smell of the jasmine perfume instantly curdles into this overwhelming, sickening stench of a rotting carcass and the stagnant swamp water.
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She opens her mouth and lets out a blood-curdling, mocking laugh that echoes through the trees.
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Before he can even process the horror, she completely vanishes into thin air.
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Now, he's left entirely alone.
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As the hypnotic spell breaks, reality hits him like a freight train.
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He is miles deep in a pitch black tropical rainforest.
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He has no idea where the road is.
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He's completely turned around, disoriented, and paralyzed with fear.
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Historically, men who were targeted by La Jables were rarely ever found alive.
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They would wander blindly through the dark forest in a state of absolute madness, getting bitten by venomous snakes or stepping right off the edge of a steep, hidden cliff or ravine, falling to their deaths in the rocky rivers below.
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If they were found by search parties days later, their faces were frozen in a permanent expression of pure terror.
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So why is she like this?
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Does she just wake up one day and choose violence?
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Well, if you look into her backstory, it's actually a tale of extreme heartbreak.
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Legend says she was originally a regular human woman who was deeply in love.
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But the man she loved broke her heart in the worst way possible.
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Consumed by pure grief and betrayal, she fled into the deep forest, wandered around in a state of madness, and ultimately died out there.
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Her anger was so intense that her spirit refused to cross over.
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Instead, she transformed into a demon.
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Which is crazy to me because I don't think I found a clear answer as to what the heartbreak is.
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But I could never, I don't think anyone I don't I don't know if there's a situation anyone could make me react that way.
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I digress.
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Other versions say she made a contract with the devil, trading her soul for eternal beauty, only to find out the contract turned her into a monster.
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Either way, she has an agenda.
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So how do you survive the She Devil?
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What do you do if you're walking down a dark road, you see the woman in white, and you suddenly notice that weird, uneven hitch in her walk.
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Apparently, there is a way to survive her.
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But why would I give you the chi code?
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Feel free to investigate and research that yourself.
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I am a woman and I don't need to know.
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And since she doesn't target innocent men, the rest of you just need to behave.
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Stay blessed out there.
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So La J Blas has her type.
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Take it even for a demon.
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Our next one doesn't have a type.
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She does not care who you are, where you live, or how good your track record is with women.
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Man, woman, child, if you're breathing, you are on the menu.
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By day, she is described as just a quiet old woman who rarely speaks to anyone, living all alone at the edge of a village in a small house.
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The neighbors whisper about her because she has an incredible deep knowledge of local herbs and traditional remedies, but she's generally grumpy and unapproachable.
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You pass her on the path during the day, you give a polite nod, because you are raised, right?
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And she just grunts and keeps walking.
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You think she's just a lonely grandmother type.
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By day, she plays the role of a frail old lady.
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However, at midnight, everything about her changes and she comes out to play.
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Now, before she can do anything, she needs to find fresh human liver.
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The legends say that during the pitch black nights of a new moon, when there's absolutely no light in the sky, she sneaks out of her hut and goes straight to the local village cemetery.
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She searches the graveyard until she finds a freshly buried corpse.
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Somebody whose body hasn't even begun to fully decompose yet.
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She digs up the grave, breaks open the coffin, and using a specialized spiritual charm, often described in old lore as a black penny or a cursed blade, she cuts open the deceased person's torso and harvests their liver.
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It seems as though you aren't safe from this woman, dead or alive.
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She takes that human liver back to her hut, throws it into a boiling pot, and cooks it down with local herbs and forbidden ingredients until it renders into a thick grease or oil.
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It's only when she takes this oil and rubs it all over her human flesh from head to toe that her skin begins to loosen and detach, allowing her to literally peel off her skin like she's stepping out of a wetsuit.
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She folds the skin up small enough to hide away in a dark corner, specifically placing it inside a heavy wooden mortar.
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I've heard that she hides it there to keep the skin intact and because nobody would honestly look for it there, which is fair because that's where my spices go.
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Now, underneath that skin, she transforms into her true form as a blazing ball of fire.
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Now, if you're a local walking home late at night, navigating a gravel road, and you happen to look up at the sky and see a strange, fast-moving streak of orange and blue fire cutting across the tops of the bamboo trees, you don't stop, you put your head down, and you run as fast as your legs can carry you.
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Because that is a sukunya, and she is hungry.
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Now, what makes her even more scary is that compared to traditional Western vampire stories, locking your doors and bolting your windows does absolutely nothing to protect you.
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She doesn't need an open door to get into your house.
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She can slip through any tiny crack under a frame, a gap in the window, a keyhole.
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It makes absolutely no difference how locked up you think your home is because she was never looking for an entrance in the first place.
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She was only ever looking for a small seam.
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Now, once she's inside, she floats into your bedroom and finds you asleep.
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I've heard she especially targets babies and small children.
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So I mean, at this point, you're in you're in your grave and you're dead.
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Now she's targeting babies and children.
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It just seems like anyone can get it.
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You're no one's safe.
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She hovers over you and she feeds off the arms and the legs, and she may leave a mark behind, this little blue and black bruise.
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When she's full and satisfied, she slips back where she came from, flies to her hut, pulls her wrinkled skin out of the wooden mortar, slips it back on, and goes right back to pretending to be your quiet neighbor.
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And this is why I feel like they say, know thy neighbor.
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At least that's for me after hearing the story.
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You wake up the next morning feeling completely drained of energy, pale and weak.
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And when you look down at your leg, you see a deep, painful black or blue bruise.
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In Trinidadian culture, elders don't just call these random bruises.
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They look at them and say, A sukunya gotcha last night.
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And according to some versions of the legend, if you die from the attack, you don't get peace.
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Your spirit is cursed and you transform into one yourself, doomed to repeat the same cycle for eternity.
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What's interesting is that she doesn't actually keep any of the blood she takes for herself.
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Which maybe you're like, then why go through all that work?
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Well, every single drop she collects, she carries straight to a massive ancient tree known as a silk cotton tree.
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And that tree has its own wild backstory because it's been long feared as a place where spirits live.
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And that's a history lesson for another day.
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So living inside the roots of this tree is a demon known as Bazal, and she trades him every drop of blood she's gathered in exchange for the dark power he gives her to keep doing all of this.
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The shape shifting, the black magic, all of it.
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So, how on earth do you survive and protect yourself from her?
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Which honestly, I feel like this is the most important part of this story.
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I feel like this is the most important part of all the stories we're talking about today.
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Now, there are a couple ways of doing this, and hallelujah.
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We have choices, am I right?
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The first way is rice.
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If you think she's in your neighborhood, you scatter it by your door, your windowsills, around the perimeter of your house, or a nearby crossroads.
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Legend says she's compelled to stop and count every single grain one at a time before she can do anything else.
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If she hasn't finished counting the grains before sunrise, she's caught outside, exposed to the light, and destroyed.
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Now, I know my mom has deeply embedded in me.
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Waste not, want not.
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And I feel like I would be wasting perfectly good rice.
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So if you don't want to waste your food, you could instead use a broom.
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You place it upside down at your doorway with the handle touching the floor.
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Supposedly, the exact same compulsion applies.
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She has to count the bristles just like rice.
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Another version says she simply just will not cross the broom.
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Now, if you want to eliminate the threat permanently, because I feel like I'd rather her gone forever and not just kept at bay, you have to wait until she leaves her hut to go hunting at night.
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While her fireball is out in the sky, you break into her house, search the dark corners until you find that heavy wooden mortar, and inside you should find her shed human skin.
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You go grab a big bag of coarse salt and a handful of local hot peppers, mash them up, rub the salt and the hot pepper all over the inside lining of her skin.
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Then you put it back exactly how you found it and slip away.
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When she comes home and tries to climb back inside her own skin, it burns her from the inside and she can't get it back on before daylight catches her, which means she explodes and dies.
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So that's the sukunya.
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She can literally come for anybody.
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Man, woman, child doesn't matter to her, and there's no dodging her by being a good person.
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Only by being a well-prepared one.
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Now, our final entity doesn't walk the lonely country roads, and she definitely isn't trying to squeeze through your front door's keyhole.
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She rules a completely different domain.
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The deep, freshwater rivers and hidden mountain pools of Trinidad.
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And so the tale goes something like this.
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There's this fisherman walking home along the same river he's fished his whole life.
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It's getting dark out and it's quiet.
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Quiet enough that it actually makes him a little uneasy.
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He's heard the stories about this river before, the same ones every fisherman out here grows up hearing.
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Aboys who follow a sound they shouldn't and never come back quite right.
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Or at all.
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But because nothing's ever actually happened to him, he doesn't really believe in the stories, which is usually how it goes.
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He almost doesn't catch it over his own footsteps, but they're singing, very faint, coming from somewhere up ahead, past the bend in the river.
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He should just keep walking, but the singing is so beautiful that before he even realizes, he's already walking toward it.
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He gets around the bend and there's a woman sitting on a flat rock at the edge of the water with her back turned to him.
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Her hair is dark, really long, and she's slowly combing through it with a gold comb.
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She hasn't turned around yet, so he tells himself she hasn't noticed him, which he already knows is not true.
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She turns around.
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She's stunning.
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Stunning enough that every warning he's ever heard suddenly feels like it was about someone else.
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But her eyes are off.
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They aren't reflecting light the way a human should.
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Instead, they're glowing with this eerie yellow predatory light.
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He looks down past her face, and that's when the real horror clicks.
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Where her legs should start, there's nothing human at all.
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Just this thick, coiled, scaly serpent body disappearing into the emerald water behind her.
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He freezes, paralyzed, with absolutely no idea what to do next.
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This is Mama Delo.
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And what happens to him in the next few seconds doesn't depend on how fast he can run.
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It depends on the life he's lived up until this exact moment.
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There's this heavy, suffocating silence where she's not even looking at his face anymore.
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She's looking right through him, judging his entire history with this river.
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She knows every single fish he's ever caught, whether he's taken more than he needed to to feed his family, whether he's ever dumped trash into the current, or if he's ever wrecked the Just because he could.
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In that silence, she is deciding if he has earned the right to walk away from her water alive.
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If he's been respectful and kept the river safe, she might actually let this go.
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Her tail will break the surface and slam down once, hard, like a whip cracking across the water.
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That crack is his only warning.
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He'll be running before the echo even fades and he'll never fish this stretch of river again.
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But if he's not that kind of guy, if he's a poacher or a polluter, what comes after that silence isn't a warning.
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It's an execution.
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Before he can even inhale to scream, those massive heavy anaconda coils wrap around his chest, crushing the air straight out of his lungs.
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She drags him backward into the water, suffocating him until his lungs finally give out.
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Or, even worse, she doesn't let him die.
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She drowns his human body, but she binds his soul to the riverbed.
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She turns him into this waterlogged, mindless servant forced to rot under the mud and guard her waters for eternity.
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Nobody on land ever sees his face again.
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There's one more thing worth knowing for anybody who thinks they'll see this coming in time.
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If she's not just annoyed, but actually furious, her hair does something first.
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It stops moving like hair and it starts twisting and coiling on its own until it looks less like hair and more like a bunch of small snakes.
00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:03.839
By the time anyone notices that it's happening, she's already past the point of warning them.
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:07.920
And she turns into this 10-foot snake.
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:09.759
That's the final straw.
00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:11.839
But you done lost the game there.
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.759
There is no going back, there is no negotiating, there ain't anything.
00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:22.960
If you were ever standing where that fisherman was standing, there are two ways out, and it depends on your timing.
00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:35.759
If you see her before she's fully turned around, you take off your left shoe, flip it upside down, and walk backward the whole way home without looking back.
00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:37.440
Not even once.
00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:43.119
Nobody's ever explained why it has to be the left shoe or why walking backward matters.
00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:49.599
It's just what got passed down and it stuck around this long, so I don't know, must have worked.
00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:56.240
But if it's too late for that and she's already turned around and has seen you, everything changes.
00:24:56.559 --> 00:24:58.319
You can't run anymore.
00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:02.160
All you've got left is how you talk to her.
00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:12.559
Speak to me nicely, be respectful, agree with whatever she says, don't raise your voice, and don't make a move.
00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:15.200
You don't outrun something like that.
00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:21.359
You get through it by being exactly as careful as she needs you to be.
00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:25.920
So that's the three stories for this episode that I wanted to share.
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:36.640
Let me know what versions you have all heard or if any of this matches what you grew up with, because I know these change depending on who's telling them and where you're from.
00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:50.319
And I know that I might have missed out on some information with some of the stories, like Mama Delo has a man, she has a husband, but I feel like that can be for another episode, and perhaps I'll cover three more stories.
00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:58.559
So if you got another folklore story from Trinidad or anywhere else, send it my way as I will be doing more of these.
00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:07.599
So lock your doors, as if that matters, watch the road, and mind yourself and what you're following at night.
00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:12.240
So if you hear singing, perhaps, perhaps tonight's not the night.
00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:16.400
I will catch you next week for whatever the show turns into next.
00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:18.079
Might even surprise me.
00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:20.079
This has been Decoffinated.
00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:23.359
I'm your host, Misha Harper, and we'll chat soon.
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.360
Somewhere in Trinidad tonight, there is an old woman who's about to peel off her own skin like taking off a jacket.
00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:17.120
Somewhere else on a dark country road, a man is following a smell he can't quite place toward a woman he really shouldn't be following.
00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:27.519
And somewhere near a quiet river, something is singing and deciding right now whether you deserve to make it home or not.
00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:29.440
Welcome to Decoffinated.
00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:41.920
I'm your host Misha Harper, and every week I get into ghost stories, unsolved mysteries, paranormal encounters, folklore, basically whatever's got people looking over their shoulder before bed.
00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:46.000
This whole episode happened because of a phone call I had with my mom.
00:00:46.159 --> 00:01:02.960
She is of Trinidadian descent, born and raised, and I have heard countless stories from her and even more phrases than I can count my whole life, but I hadn't really stopped to take in the origins of where it comes from outside of it coming from my mother's mouth.
00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:08.799
So here we are, about to dive into three Trinidadian folklore stories.
00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:14.000
So let's set the scene for this one, shall we?
00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:16.400
It's 2 a.m.
00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:27.040
and some man who has spent the night at a party or a bar who's had a few too many drinks decides he's fine enough to walk home alone.
00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:34.640
Now, the path that he has to take is down a long winding country road where there are no streetlights.
00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:40.879
The only light available is the pale glow of the moon slicing through the trees.
00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:47.200
In fact, she only appears when it's just the moonlight that lights the streets.
00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:52.640
So as he's walking, up ahead in the shadows, he notices a figure.
00:01:52.879 --> 00:02:00.079
He gets closer and he sees a breathtakingly beautiful woman standing by the side of the road.
00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:02.400
His heart skips a beat.
00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:11.199
She's dressed in an elegant old school white dress with voluminous layers that rustle softly when she moves.
00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:21.439
On her head, she wears a wide-brimmed straw hat tilted downward just enough to cast a deep shadow over the top of half of her face.
00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:28.479
And as he approaches her, the heavy, humid smell of the forest completely vanishes.
00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:36.080
Instead, the air is filled with the most intoxicating aroma you've ever experienced.
00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:44.879
It smells like the blend of incredibly expensive perfume and fresh night-blooming jasmine flowers.
00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:47.599
This is La Jables.
00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:53.919
Her name literally translates from French crayole to English as the She-Double.
00:02:54.879 --> 00:02:58.639
And let me tell you, she has earned that title.
00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:04.240
Now, La Jables is a predator but doesn't use brute force.
00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:10.479
She plays a psychological game and is incredibly specific about her target.
00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:12.800
She doesn't want just anyone.
00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:25.439
She specifically targets men who are drunk, men who are full of lust, or men who are unfaithful, deceitful, and cruel to their partners back home.
00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:32.960
Basically, if you're a man with a guilty conscience or a wandering eye, you are prime real estate.
00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:37.759
And honestly, sounds like she's about to do the Lord's work here.
00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:50.319
So she looks at him from under the brim of her hat, doesn't speak much, maybe she just lets out a soft, seductive laugh, or whispers a few words in a sweet voice.
00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:57.759
She turns around and begins to walk down the road, looking back over her shoulder to make sure he's following.
00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:05.840
And because he's completely hypnotized by her beauty and that sweet perfume, he follows her.
00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:11.599
He forgets all about his home, family, and his safety.
00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:15.120
He is completely under her spell.
00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:26.480
She leads him off the paved road and guides him down a dirt track, and then deeper still, right into the thick, treacherous bush.
00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:37.839
He is literally bushwhacking through vines in the dark, but he doesn't even care because he just wants to stay close to this mysterious woman in white.
00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:44.480
But if he weren't so blinded by lust, he would have noticed the warning signs.
00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:49.839
He would have noticed that something was deeply wrong with the way she was walking.
00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:56.160
As she glides down the path, she always positions herself very carefully.
00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:09.360
She will walk with her right foot on the clear path, but her left leg will always be intentionally hidden, dragging through the tall grass, the bushes, or the deep mud of the ditch.
00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:15.360
Because beneath the beautiful layers of that dress lies her horrific secret.
00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:24.800
Her right leg is a perfectly normal human foot, but her left leg is a hideous, hairy cow's hoof.
00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:36.480
And it is believed that the way she walks is to cover the sound of her animal foot so it is not to be heard by any man trying to pursue her.
00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:44.399
He keeps walking for miles until they are deep in the heart of the forest, completely isolated.
00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:49.839
Suddenly, she stops and she's standing perfectly still.
00:05:50.399 --> 00:05:55.120
He steps up behind her thinking he's about to get a romantic moment.
00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.800
He reaches out to touch her shoulder.
00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:03.439
And then the illusion completely shatters.
00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:07.120
She turns around and lifts her wide-brimmed hat.
00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:12.079
The beautiful, smooth skin he thought he saw melts away.
00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:20.079
He finds himself staring directly into a horrific, decaying, eyeless corpse face.
00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:23.360
Her eyes are black, empty sockets.
00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.720
Her skin is rotting off the bone.
00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:43.920
At that exact microsecond, the sweet smell of the jasmine perfume instantly curdles into this overwhelming, sickening stench of a rotting carcass and the stagnant swamp water.
00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:52.560
She opens her mouth and lets out a blood-curdling, mocking laugh that echoes through the trees.
00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:59.360
Before he can even process the horror, she completely vanishes into thin air.
00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:02.959
Now, he's left entirely alone.
00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:08.560
As the hypnotic spell breaks, reality hits him like a freight train.
00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:13.759
He is miles deep in a pitch black tropical rainforest.
00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:16.560
He has no idea where the road is.
00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:22.399
He's completely turned around, disoriented, and paralyzed with fear.
00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:29.759
Historically, men who were targeted by La Jables were rarely ever found alive.
00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:47.040
They would wander blindly through the dark forest in a state of absolute madness, getting bitten by venomous snakes or stepping right off the edge of a steep, hidden cliff or ravine, falling to their deaths in the rocky rivers below.
00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:56.800
If they were found by search parties days later, their faces were frozen in a permanent expression of pure terror.
00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:00.560
So why is she like this?
00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:03.680
Does she just wake up one day and choose violence?
00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:10.160
Well, if you look into her backstory, it's actually a tale of extreme heartbreak.
00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:16.319
Legend says she was originally a regular human woman who was deeply in love.
00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:21.120
But the man she loved broke her heart in the worst way possible.
00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:30.959
Consumed by pure grief and betrayal, she fled into the deep forest, wandered around in a state of madness, and ultimately died out there.
00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:36.000
Her anger was so intense that her spirit refused to cross over.
00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:39.759
Instead, she transformed into a demon.
00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:46.720
Which is crazy to me because I don't think I found a clear answer as to what the heartbreak is.
00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:57.360
But I could never, I don't think anyone I don't I don't know if there's a situation anyone could make me react that way.
00:08:57.600 --> 00:08:58.480
I digress.
00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:08.879
Other versions say she made a contract with the devil, trading her soul for eternal beauty, only to find out the contract turned her into a monster.
00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:11.919
Either way, she has an agenda.
00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:15.279
So how do you survive the She Devil?
00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:25.200
What do you do if you're walking down a dark road, you see the woman in white, and you suddenly notice that weird, uneven hitch in her walk.
00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:27.840
Apparently, there is a way to survive her.
00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:31.440
But why would I give you the chi code?
00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:34.399
Feel free to investigate and research that yourself.
00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:37.360
I am a woman and I don't need to know.
00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:42.639
And since she doesn't target innocent men, the rest of you just need to behave.
00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:44.639
Stay blessed out there.
00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:47.840
So La J Blas has her type.
00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:49.759
Take it even for a demon.
00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:52.480
Our next one doesn't have a type.
00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:58.879
She does not care who you are, where you live, or how good your track record is with women.
00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:04.000
Man, woman, child, if you're breathing, you are on the menu.
00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:16.480
By day, she is described as just a quiet old woman who rarely speaks to anyone, living all alone at the edge of a village in a small house.
00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:27.759
The neighbors whisper about her because she has an incredible deep knowledge of local herbs and traditional remedies, but she's generally grumpy and unapproachable.
00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:33.919
You pass her on the path during the day, you give a polite nod, because you are raised, right?
00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:36.879
And she just grunts and keeps walking.
00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:40.639
You think she's just a lonely grandmother type.
00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:44.399
By day, she plays the role of a frail old lady.
00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:51.519
However, at midnight, everything about her changes and she comes out to play.
00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:56.879
Now, before she can do anything, she needs to find fresh human liver.
00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:09.600
The legends say that during the pitch black nights of a new moon, when there's absolutely no light in the sky, she sneaks out of her hut and goes straight to the local village cemetery.
00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:14.720
She searches the graveyard until she finds a freshly buried corpse.
00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:19.120
Somebody whose body hasn't even begun to fully decompose yet.
00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:37.360
She digs up the grave, breaks open the coffin, and using a specialized spiritual charm, often described in old lore as a black penny or a cursed blade, she cuts open the deceased person's torso and harvests their liver.
00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:42.720
It seems as though you aren't safe from this woman, dead or alive.
00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:55.600
She takes that human liver back to her hut, throws it into a boiling pot, and cooks it down with local herbs and forbidden ingredients until it renders into a thick grease or oil.
00:11:55.840 --> 00:12:13.600
It's only when she takes this oil and rubs it all over her human flesh from head to toe that her skin begins to loosen and detach, allowing her to literally peel off her skin like she's stepping out of a wetsuit.
00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:22.320
She folds the skin up small enough to hide away in a dark corner, specifically placing it inside a heavy wooden mortar.
00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:32.799
I've heard that she hides it there to keep the skin intact and because nobody would honestly look for it there, which is fair because that's where my spices go.
00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:40.240
Now, underneath that skin, she transforms into her true form as a blazing ball of fire.
00:12:40.480 --> 00:13:02.799
Now, if you're a local walking home late at night, navigating a gravel road, and you happen to look up at the sky and see a strange, fast-moving streak of orange and blue fire cutting across the tops of the bamboo trees, you don't stop, you put your head down, and you run as fast as your legs can carry you.
00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:08.240
Because that is a sukunya, and she is hungry.
00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:22.559
Now, what makes her even more scary is that compared to traditional Western vampire stories, locking your doors and bolting your windows does absolutely nothing to protect you.
00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:25.840
She doesn't need an open door to get into your house.
00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:34.000
She can slip through any tiny crack under a frame, a gap in the window, a keyhole.
00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:42.000
It makes absolutely no difference how locked up you think your home is because she was never looking for an entrance in the first place.
00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:46.080
She was only ever looking for a small seam.
00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:53.120
Now, once she's inside, she floats into your bedroom and finds you asleep.
00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:57.519
I've heard she especially targets babies and small children.
00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:02.080
So I mean, at this point, you're in you're in your grave and you're dead.
00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:05.120
Now she's targeting babies and children.
00:14:05.360 --> 00:14:06.879
It just seems like anyone can get it.
00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:08.000
You're no one's safe.
00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:18.000
She hovers over you and she feeds off the arms and the legs, and she may leave a mark behind, this little blue and black bruise.
00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:33.759
When she's full and satisfied, she slips back where she came from, flies to her hut, pulls her wrinkled skin out of the wooden mortar, slips it back on, and goes right back to pretending to be your quiet neighbor.
00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:37.279
And this is why I feel like they say, know thy neighbor.
00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:40.720
At least that's for me after hearing the story.
00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:49.840
You wake up the next morning feeling completely drained of energy, pale and weak.
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:56.080
And when you look down at your leg, you see a deep, painful black or blue bruise.
00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:00.960
In Trinidadian culture, elders don't just call these random bruises.
00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:05.200
They look at them and say, A sukunya gotcha last night.
00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:12.240
And according to some versions of the legend, if you die from the attack, you don't get peace.
00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:20.559
Your spirit is cursed and you transform into one yourself, doomed to repeat the same cycle for eternity.
00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:26.960
What's interesting is that she doesn't actually keep any of the blood she takes for herself.
00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:30.879
Which maybe you're like, then why go through all that work?
00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:40.720
Well, every single drop she collects, she carries straight to a massive ancient tree known as a silk cotton tree.
00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:48.000
And that tree has its own wild backstory because it's been long feared as a place where spirits live.
00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:50.799
And that's a history lesson for another day.
00:15:51.120 --> 00:16:04.480
So living inside the roots of this tree is a demon known as Bazal, and she trades him every drop of blood she's gathered in exchange for the dark power he gives her to keep doing all of this.
00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:08.480
The shape shifting, the black magic, all of it.
00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:14.399
So, how on earth do you survive and protect yourself from her?
00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:18.080
Which honestly, I feel like this is the most important part of this story.
00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:22.240
I feel like this is the most important part of all the stories we're talking about today.
00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:25.759
Now, there are a couple ways of doing this, and hallelujah.
00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:28.159
We have choices, am I right?
00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:30.320
The first way is rice.
00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:39.679
If you think she's in your neighborhood, you scatter it by your door, your windowsills, around the perimeter of your house, or a nearby crossroads.
00:16:39.919 --> 00:16:49.200
Legend says she's compelled to stop and count every single grain one at a time before she can do anything else.
00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:57.200
If she hasn't finished counting the grains before sunrise, she's caught outside, exposed to the light, and destroyed.
00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:01.360
Now, I know my mom has deeply embedded in me.
00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:02.960
Waste not, want not.
00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:06.640
And I feel like I would be wasting perfectly good rice.
00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:11.680
So if you don't want to waste your food, you could instead use a broom.
00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:16.319
You place it upside down at your doorway with the handle touching the floor.
00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:20.559
Supposedly, the exact same compulsion applies.
00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:24.480
She has to count the bristles just like rice.
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:28.880
Another version says she simply just will not cross the broom.
00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:41.920
Now, if you want to eliminate the threat permanently, because I feel like I'd rather her gone forever and not just kept at bay, you have to wait until she leaves her hut to go hunting at night.
00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:55.200
While her fireball is out in the sky, you break into her house, search the dark corners until you find that heavy wooden mortar, and inside you should find her shed human skin.
00:17:55.440 --> 00:18:05.920
You go grab a big bag of coarse salt and a handful of local hot peppers, mash them up, rub the salt and the hot pepper all over the inside lining of her skin.
00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:10.480
Then you put it back exactly how you found it and slip away.
00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:23.599
When she comes home and tries to climb back inside her own skin, it burns her from the inside and she can't get it back on before daylight catches her, which means she explodes and dies.
00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:25.440
So that's the sukunya.
00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:28.160
She can literally come for anybody.
00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:34.640
Man, woman, child doesn't matter to her, and there's no dodging her by being a good person.
00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:37.599
Only by being a well-prepared one.
00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:46.400
Now, our final entity doesn't walk the lonely country roads, and she definitely isn't trying to squeeze through your front door's keyhole.
00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:50.000
She rules a completely different domain.
00:18:50.319 --> 00:18:55.680
The deep, freshwater rivers and hidden mountain pools of Trinidad.
00:18:57.119 --> 00:18:59.680
And so the tale goes something like this.
00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:05.519
There's this fisherman walking home along the same river he's fished his whole life.
00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:08.559
It's getting dark out and it's quiet.
00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:13.599
Quiet enough that it actually makes him a little uneasy.
00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:21.519
He's heard the stories about this river before, the same ones every fisherman out here grows up hearing.
00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:27.440
Aboys who follow a sound they shouldn't and never come back quite right.
00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:29.440
Or at all.
00:19:30.319 --> 00:19:38.640
But because nothing's ever actually happened to him, he doesn't really believe in the stories, which is usually how it goes.
00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:50.240
He almost doesn't catch it over his own footsteps, but they're singing, very faint, coming from somewhere up ahead, past the bend in the river.
00:19:50.559 --> 00:20:00.480
He should just keep walking, but the singing is so beautiful that before he even realizes, he's already walking toward it.
00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:08.720
He gets around the bend and there's a woman sitting on a flat rock at the edge of the water with her back turned to him.
00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:15.599
Her hair is dark, really long, and she's slowly combing through it with a gold comb.
00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:25.200
She hasn't turned around yet, so he tells himself she hasn't noticed him, which he already knows is not true.
00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:27.279
She turns around.
00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:29.279
She's stunning.
00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:37.279
Stunning enough that every warning he's ever heard suddenly feels like it was about someone else.
00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:39.839
But her eyes are off.
00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:44.559
They aren't reflecting light the way a human should.
00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:50.880
Instead, they're glowing with this eerie yellow predatory light.
00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:57.119
He looks down past her face, and that's when the real horror clicks.
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Where her legs should start, there's nothing human at all.
00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:09.359
Just this thick, coiled, scaly serpent body disappearing into the emerald water behind her.
00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:17.279
He freezes, paralyzed, with absolutely no idea what to do next.
00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:19.839
This is Mama Delo.
00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:27.039
And what happens to him in the next few seconds doesn't depend on how fast he can run.
00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:31.920
It depends on the life he's lived up until this exact moment.
00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:39.119
There's this heavy, suffocating silence where she's not even looking at his face anymore.
00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:45.759
She's looking right through him, judging his entire history with this river.
00:21:46.319 --> 00:22:01.759
She knows every single fish he's ever caught, whether he's taken more than he needed to to feed his family, whether he's ever dumped trash into the current, or if he's ever wrecked the Just because he could.
00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:09.680
In that silence, she is deciding if he has earned the right to walk away from her water alive.
00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:16.960
If he's been respectful and kept the river safe, she might actually let this go.
00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:26.000
Her tail will break the surface and slam down once, hard, like a whip cracking across the water.
00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:29.519
That crack is his only warning.
00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:36.880
He'll be running before the echo even fades and he'll never fish this stretch of river again.
00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:46.960
But if he's not that kind of guy, if he's a poacher or a polluter, what comes after that silence isn't a warning.
00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:49.119
It's an execution.
00:22:50.160 --> 00:23:02.240
Before he can even inhale to scream, those massive heavy anaconda coils wrap around his chest, crushing the air straight out of his lungs.
00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:09.440
She drags him backward into the water, suffocating him until his lungs finally give out.
00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:14.160
Or, even worse, she doesn't let him die.
00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:20.079
She drowns his human body, but she binds his soul to the riverbed.
00:23:20.319 --> 00:23:29.359
She turns him into this waterlogged, mindless servant forced to rot under the mud and guard her waters for eternity.
00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:33.599
Nobody on land ever sees his face again.
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:39.279
There's one more thing worth knowing for anybody who thinks they'll see this coming in time.
00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:46.480
If she's not just annoyed, but actually furious, her hair does something first.
00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:57.759
It stops moving like hair and it starts twisting and coiling on its own until it looks less like hair and more like a bunch of small snakes.
00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:03.839
By the time anyone notices that it's happening, she's already past the point of warning them.
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:07.920
And she turns into this 10-foot snake.
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:09.759
That's the final straw.
00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:11.839
But you done lost the game there.
00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.759
There is no going back, there is no negotiating, there ain't anything.
00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:22.960
If you were ever standing where that fisherman was standing, there are two ways out, and it depends on your timing.
00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:35.759
If you see her before she's fully turned around, you take off your left shoe, flip it upside down, and walk backward the whole way home without looking back.
00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:37.440
Not even once.
00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:43.119
Nobody's ever explained why it has to be the left shoe or why walking backward matters.
00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:49.599
It's just what got passed down and it stuck around this long, so I don't know, must have worked.
00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:56.240
But if it's too late for that and she's already turned around and has seen you, everything changes.
00:24:56.559 --> 00:24:58.319
You can't run anymore.
00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:02.160
All you've got left is how you talk to her.
00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:12.559
Speak to me nicely, be respectful, agree with whatever she says, don't raise your voice, and don't make a move.
00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:15.200
You don't outrun something like that.
00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:21.359
You get through it by being exactly as careful as she needs you to be.
00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:25.920
So that's the three stories for this episode that I wanted to share.
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:36.640
Let me know what versions you have all heard or if any of this matches what you grew up with, because I know these change depending on who's telling them and where you're from.
00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:50.319
And I know that I might have missed out on some information with some of the stories, like Mama Delo has a man, she has a husband, but I feel like that can be for another episode, and perhaps I'll cover three more stories.
00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:58.559
So if you got another folklore story from Trinidad or anywhere else, send it my way as I will be doing more of these.
00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:07.599
So lock your doors, as if that matters, watch the road, and mind yourself and what you're following at night.
00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:12.240
So if you hear singing, perhaps, perhaps tonight's not the night.
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I will catch you next week for whatever the show turns into next.
00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:18.079
Might even surprise me.
00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:20.079
This has been Decoffinated.
00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:23.359
I'm your host, Misha Harper, and we'll chat soon.
