From Cuentos Populares en Chile (Chilean Folktales) – by Ramón A. Laval
Part 2 – Myths, Traditions, Things (Mitos, Tradiciones, Casos)
042. El Chumaco (The Chumaco)
(Information provided to me in 1921 by the dental surgeon D. Roberto Sundt, a native of the Coquimbo Region.)
A legendary character with whom women were frightened in the fields and towns situated on both banks of the Choapa, near its mouth. They were warned to be careful of him, or else he’d disembowel them.
Chumaco was possibly the nickname of a satyr bandit who committed his misdeeds in those areas at the beginning of the last century.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Suministrar – (to furnish) to supply, to provide
Cirujano – (profession) surgeon
Margen – (space) margin; (opportunity) room, occasion, scope; (finance) margin; (limit) edge, bank (river), side (road)
Desembocadura – (geography) mouth, estuary; (of a street) opening
Destripar – (to eviscerate) to gut, to disembowel; (to open by tearing) to rip open; (colloquial) (to ruin) to spoil
Sátiro – (mythology) satyr; (lascivious man) lecher, sex maniac
Paraje – (area) place, spot
Fechoría – (crime) misdemeanor, misdeed, act of villainy; (naughtiness) mischief