Informant: A bizarre creature of Brazilian folklore that for some reason, people, like, actually believe in, is… there’s a tale of a headless mule, and it’s just a mythical creature that’s a mule without a head. And the part without the head is, like, fire. Neck up of the horse thing is just fire. The legend is that it was a woman that was cursed, and then – I don’t remember why she was cursed, but it was a woman who was cursed by God, and then she… turned into a horse. Without a head. And she would just run through empty spaces…. Just… terrorizing people. Like horses do when they don’t have heads. I don’t know man, I grew up with the story. It’s weird, but yeah. I heard my mom talking about it all the time. 

Background:
My informant is a 19-year-old college student at a small liberal arts college in Washington state. She was born in Brazil, and grew up there, moving to Florida in late elementary school, back to Brazil for a few years, then finally settling outside of Seattle in our last two years of high school. Her father’s American, and her mom’s Brazilian. Portugese was her first language, and she still speaks Portugese at home with her mom. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this piece was collected via an interview that took place over FaceTime. 

Thoughts:
This creature sounds nothing like the creatures in the folklore stories I grew up with, which is fascinating. Part of that may be because mules are much more integrated into the culture in South America than they are in North America, so they wouldn’t be showing up in the most well known Native American myths, especially in the Pacific Northwest, where I’m from. Another thing I found interesting was that she said people actually believe in it. Some of the other creatures she described to me, such as an alligator lady who eats children, seem more plausible to me than this one because this one is missing a head, which should mean it’s not alive anymore. Even though an alligator lady eating children also defies the rules of logic, this one feels a little too out there for me to genuinely believe it exists.

Informant: I don’t actually know that much about La Llorona, but I heard that she drowns her two children in the river to get back at her husband who left her, and now she regrets it so much that she lurks in the night – well, she wanders in the night, calling out for her children. I don’t remember how she gets you, but I think you just run into her? And she thinks you’re her children? 

Me: Do you think there’s any reason this was less scary to you than the Skinwalkers?

Informant: I don’t feel in active danger from La Llorona like I do the SW’s. They’re supposed to be pure evil, and she’s just not as powerful, ya know?

Me: We read an article for class on La Llorona that had multiple different versions of the story, and, it painted her in various shades of evil, of like, whether she was a tragically misunderstood feminist icon, or if she was – 

Informant: The way I learned it, she was definitely tragic. She wasn’t evil, she’s just – I don’t know, she was angry, and now she regrets what she did and is looking for her children, and when she finds you, it’s… over? I guess? I don’t know. 

Background:
My informant is a 19-year-old college student at USC, who grew up in a small town in Arizona. She is the youngest of three sisters, who she thinks may have toned down the story elements of various legends or myths to avoid scaring her. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this piece was collected via an interview that took place over FaceTime. 

Thoughts:
I thought it was really interesting that La Llorona wasn’t as scary to my informant as another piece of folklore she gave me, which is the legend of the Skinwalkers. Personally, I think I would’ve been more scared of La Llorona, although I hadn’t heard of either of them until I moved to Los Angeles for college. I think a big part of that had to do with La Llorona’s portrayal in the version of the story my informant heard – she was never evil, never intended to cause you harm even if she got you, she just made a mistake and is now regretful of it. This is very different from other versions we read for class, some of which painted her as a cold-hearted killer who hated kids. It’s an interesting variation on the same story, and I’d never stopped to consider how different variations would impact a person’s opinion on a piece of folklore before this.

Informant: Okay. So. I’m going to tell you about Skinwalkers. The first time I heard about them was in 7th grade. One of the things is that you’re not supposed to talk about them or think about them because it attracts them, which is very scary, because also I’m in Arizona, which is where it happens, except I’m not near any reservation, which is good, but it’s still very scary, because everybody that I’ve talked to about it just talks about it like it’s a real thing, like it’s a matter of fact, which is actually very scary, and some of these people are people I, like, respect a lot. Anyways. So basically what I know about it is – so, I believe it originates from the Navajo, but there’s also some similar stuff like everywhere, mostly on reservations, and basically, it’s like, these medicine men who go to the dark side. I think they have to do some creepy rituals to, like, give up their humanity, and then they become, like, pure evil and they have the ability to transform into animals, the animals they have the pelts of. They’d generally use predator pelts, which makes it, like, so you aren’t supposed to wear predator pelts in the tribe. Unless you’re a Skinwalker, and you shouldn’t be a Skinwalker. 

Anyways. So there’s a bunch of stories about them appearing at night, and one of the things they can do is imitate voices, but like it’s… not right. So, one of the descriptions that comes up a lot is that they can… imitate the voices of animals, but it can morph into a voice of a loved one or a friend so they can lure people out to help – or a child – so they can lure people out. Which is super scary!! And one of the things they’ll do is, if you’re camping, they’ll separate someone, like, bodysnatch them, and transform into that person, and rejoin the group, except something’s off with them, because they’ll, like… mimic what other people are doing? To act as one of them? It doesn’t really make sense if they were human to begin with, but that’s one of the stories.

And the story that really freaked me out was of – if you’re driving at night on a reservation, it says that sometimes they’ll chase your car, or just hop in front of your car to make it crash. But the chasing of the car really scares me, because – and I think I told you about it before – they’ll knock on the side of your car until you think something’s wrong, and you’ll pull over, and then they’ll get you. But another one I’ve heard was where it was running alongside the car, and they looked over, and its eyes were human, and it was an animal running but it got on two legs and was still running alongside the car, like 60 miles per hour! And it’s a very scary concept. And it’s taboo, so people don’t generally talk about it, because talking and thinking about them is supposed to attract them, but I’m not on a reservation, so hopefully, it’ll be okay. 

Oh! And the way you’re supposed to… defeat them or destroy them is to know they’re name from when they were a person. Because when they become a… SW, sorry, I feel weird saying the name so much, they are – they denounce their humanity, so if you face them with their name… I don’t know what happens actually, I think they just die or crumble or something. 

Background:
My informant is a 19-year-old college student at USC, who grew up in a small town in Arizona. She is the youngest of three sisters, who she thinks may have toned down the story elements of various legends or myths to avoid scaring her (although she admits that doesn’t seem quite right with this piece). While she remembers first hearing about Skinwalkers in 7th grade, she doesn’t have a memory of who told her first. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this piece was collected via an interview that took place over FaceTime. 

Thoughts:
I’d never heard of Skinwalkers before. I find it really interesting how some stories become so commonplace in a particular area, but then are completely unknown in other parts of the country or the world. I also found it interesting that the informant was still uneasy talking about Skinwalkers, even though she didn’t wholeheartedly believe in them. The fear she had about them hurting her as a child has carried on as she continues towards adulthood, and even after all these years, she was still a bit spooked when she heard noises outside while describing them.