Spanish folklore

Ieltxu

Variations: Iditxu, Iritxu

Ieltxu

Ieltxu is a Basque creature found in the caverns and wells of Gernika. Notable haunts include a pit in Nabarrizmendi and the Busturia well.

Ieltxu appears either as a human or as a bird shooting flames from its mouth. At night only its burning fire is seen. While its appearances are sudden and terrifying, an ieltxu is not evil, merely mischievous. It enjoys leading people astray and getting them lost, especially if they can get lost near a cliff.

Around Bermeo it is Iditxu or Iritxu who appears as a small pig. It leads people on a merry chase through the night only to return them to where they started, exhausted and empty-handed.

References

Altuna, J.; Fornoff, F. H., White, L., and Evans-Corrales, C. trans. (2007) Selected Writings of Jose Miguel de Barandiaran: Basque Prehistory and Ethnography. Center for Basque Studies, Reno.

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Gallo de la Muerte

Gallo de la Muerte

Every hundred years, a kite in the Spanish mountains lays a red egg in a gorse bush. From that egg hatches a black and white bird, larger than a chicken, which lives exactly fifty years. When that bird dies, a green worm emerges from its rotting flesh. That worm gradually metamorphoses into a Gallo de la Muerte – a Rooster of Death.

A gallo de la muerte has black plumage and a white comb with blue and reddish spots. Anyone who hears its whining, screaming quiquiriquí is doomed to die the next day.

The only remedy for this death sentence is a particular herb that grows among the mountain apple trees from the start of spring till the month of May. This herb is blue and has black roots. The remedy involves boiling this herb in rosemary water and praying over the concoction before it is imbibed.

References

Candón, M. and Bonnet, E. (1993) A buen entendedor…Anaya & Mario Muchnik, Madrid.

Llano, M. (1998) Obras Completas, t. I. Alianza Editorial, Madrid.

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Animalito

Animalito

During his time in Spain, Prosper Mérimée was introduced to a number of current superstitions by his traveling companion Vicente. This worthy Valencian informed him of certain animalitos, “little animals”, available for purchase in France from unscrupulous sorcerers.

Nobody knows what they look like save that they are tiny animals that live in reeds. The notorious embellisher Dubois gives them dog mouths and lizard heads. The reed an animalito lives in is sold with a knot in one end and a sturdy cork in the other.

Animalitos are magical beings, capable of granting their owners any wish, any request they desire. Napoleon had one of these imps with him, which prevented him from being killed while in Spain. Only silver bullets can harm those protected by an animalito.

In return for their services, the animalitos request a steep price. They have to be fed every 24 hours. They crave the flesh of unbaptized children, and if that is not available (as is often the case), their master has to cut a piece of flesh from his or her own body. Vicente recounts the tale of an old friend, Romero the footman, who cured his lung disease with the help of animalitos. Now he can run from Valencia to Murcia without breaking a sweat, but his bones show through his skin, his eyes are sunken…

The animalitos are eating him alive.

References

Dubois, P.; Sabatier, C.; and Sabatier, R. (1992) La Grande Encyclopédie des Lutins. Hoëbeke, Paris.

Mérimée, P. Les Sorcières Espagnoles. In Mérimée, P. (1873) Dernières Nouvelles de Prosper Mérimée. Michel Lévy Frères, Paris.