Chains on Roof

Age: 22

Text:

Informant: “He lived in Mexico and it was like a very small bedroom, a one story house. This was probably around midnight, I could be wrong. He was either by himself or with his siblings. All of a sudden they hear someone up on the roof walking, just like dragging chains. Hugh chains. It went on for a couple of minutes.”

Context:

The informant’s uncle told them the story of when he was living in Mexico and heard chains dragging on the roof in the middle of the night.

Analysis:

A common motif in Mexican folklore is the sound of chains dragging on the roof. It can symbolize a restless spirit. Although, there’s no specific myth or legend attached to it.

The informant’s uncle’s personal story may or may not be true. It could be a story created in good fun to scare the informant when they were a child. If so, it takes a functionalist approach because there’s a purpose to the story being told.

El Cadejo

Age: 74

Text:

Informant: “When people walk alone in the mountains, farms, where no on else is around on the roads, or if you come home late after being out, if you saw a white dog, it was there to protect you. But, if you saw a black dog, the black dog would look for drunk people on the street and attack them. People who saw black dogs that looked like a spirit, they would run to someone’s house. If it was white, they felt it would protect them.”

Context:

This Nicaraguan legend was told to the informant as a child and teen by their mom and grandma, who lived in Nicaragua. The informant was born and raised in Nicaragua until they moved to the U.S. at 16 years old. People who lived in the mountains or farms and saw a white dog were told that it served as a protection. However, if they saw a black dog and they were drunk, they’d get attacked.

Analysis:

I’ve found that a lot of Nicaraguan legends have an underlying lesson that is meant to be shared to young ones. This particular legend served a functionalist approach because it was likely meant to discourage people from getting drunk. It could also have been told to prevent people from being out alone in the middle of the night. Adding the element of potentially seeing a white dog could give teens a little bit of hope that they were safe on their walk.

‘Star of India’ Ghost

Age: 20

Text:

Informant: “In 5th grade, everyone went to the Star of India which is this big ship for our maritime unit in 5th grade. Basically, the ship is docked in the harbor, I don’t think it actually sails anymore. While we were there, the guys that were running the whole thing were telling us ghost stories and there was one where a really young kid fell from one of the masts and so around that area, he haunts that place. We would go out in shifts throughout the night and just do random stuff, like make some food or the other people would go look at the stars. It was said that if you were out there at 2 A.M., you could hear the mast creak and that was supposed to be him haunting the ship.”

Context:

The Star of India is a historic ship located in the Maritime Museum of San Diego, CA. It’s open to the public to tour. The informant learned about the legend while attending their 5th grade field trip. It’s said that a few passenger’s died while on the ship and now allegedly haunt it. The story gets told to employees and passed on to visitors.

Analysis:

The Star of India is the world’s oldest active sailing ship. It was built in 1863 and embarked on numerous voyages. In 1927, it was purchased by people in San Diego where it has since been restored and remains in the city. By definition, this haunted ship is considered a legend because the story is based on a location in the real world. Employees are taught to share the legend with each other and visitors, keeping the stories alive. It also has a supernatural element being that it involved multiple ghosts.

Karnataka Proverb

Age: 20

“Everything that’s gold doesn’t glitter.”

Text

Informant: “I’m from Southern India. A place that’s called Karnataka and so we speak this language called Kannada and in Kannada it translates to “Everything that is white is not milk.” I think it’s supposed to be like…I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the saying in English that’s like, “Everything that’s gold doesn’t glitter.” So she’d always say it to me when I would be more dramatic or if I made a generalization she’d say it in Kannada to me. I feel like it has to definitely do with something with the fact that I’m vegetarian we eat a lot of… Hindu’s and people like that have a lot of respect for cows and so our form of gold is milk, I guess. I don’t know if that’s necessarily an equivalent.”

Context:

The informant is from Karnataka, a state in India, and retells a proverb that their family often tells them. It’s meant to teach people to not judge things by how they appear because it may be deceptive.

Analysis:

This text from Karnataka would be classified as a folk speech and a proverb in folklore. It’s informal and is passed down by families over generations. It fits the criteria of a metaphorical advice or wisdom. In other words, the proverb is saying that you can’t judge things based on what they look like. The piece of advice being taught is that looks can be deceiving. It’s also in the “topic + comment” structure. The topic is “everything that’s gold” and the comment is “doesn’t glitter.” At the same time, proverbs can give a glimpse into the culture. In Chapter 5 of ‘Living Folklore,’ Sims and Stephens write that “proverbs are frequently culture specific – express knowledge in terms that people from that culture or group will understand.” Since Karnatakans view cows in high regard, this proverb equating milk to gold makes sense in their culture.

La Carreta Nagua (The Witch Wagon)

Age: 54

Text:

Informant: “My grandma would tell the story of ‘La Carreta Nagua.’ It was a wagon that was pulled by bulls and they were so skinny that they were skeletons, practically dead. The conductor was also a skeleton and they called her “La Muerte.” This wagon supposedly passed by in the middle of the night/early morning. If you were on the street, you were told to go somewhere where you could hear her coming. It made a lot of noise. You could hear the wagon’s wheels and chains. The old ladies would always tell you to not go outside in the middle of the night, especially when you’re alone and there’s no one else on the road because sometimes, the skeleton would give you a bone. That bone meant that someone in your house would get really sick and die. They told you not to go outside so you wouldn’t see them. My grandma says that when she lived in her parent’s house, everyone in her family slept in a room near the living room. The windows were doors but instead of being double doors, they were divided into four. In the middle of the doors, there was a gap. Because of that gap, her and her sisters saw the wagon pass by once in the middle of the night and it was really loud. Everyone outside ran to hide. The wagons would disappear at every corner because corners are in the shape of a cross. Since the skeletons are demonic and Catholics think crosses are holy, the story goes that the wagon can’t go on corners, they’ll disappear and reappear on a different street.”

Context:

The informant’s grandma lived in Nicaragua and told the story about La Carreta Nagua, which is a wagon pulled by bulls and controlled by a skeleton. Children and teens are warned not to go out and night because if they hear the wagon and receive a bone from this skeleton, it means someone in their family will die. The informant revealed that their grandma has told them that she saw the wagon one night when she was an adult.

Analysis:

This Nicaraguan legend seems to take a functionalist approach by scaring teens and children from going out alone at night. Adults didn’t want their kids to be out in the middle of the night unsupervised and likely created this story to make sure they followed their curfew. The setting is a real place – it includes streets that the children and teens live near, which makes it feel more real. While it is a Nicaraguan legend, the informant says that their grandma always told it as a true story and even once they became an adult, their grandma never said that the story was false.