From Cuentos Populares en Chile (Chilean Folktales) – by Ramón A. Laval
Part 2 – Myths, Traditions, Things (Mitos, Tradiciones, Casos)
048. The Piguchen (El Piguchen)
(D. Francisco Vásquez, 1911.)
The Piguchén is a very old culebrón, about half a meter long and covered in bristles (needles); it is black and has wings. It lives in the mountain range, but, by flying, it arrives at night as far as San Bernardo and Santiago and sucks the blood of the cattle. It hides during the day in the hollow of old trees and its presence is made known because the trunks are dripping with blood that it vomits. It cannot be caught because it is venomous, so much so that it is enough for its bristles to touch the skin of a man to get him killed. To kill it, they will need to cover the tree in which it was hiding with a strong fabric so that it cannot flee, and then to immediately set the tree on fire.
In order to scare it off and prevent it from harming the livestock, it is enough to sound an ox horn; the hoarse sound produced by this instrument frightens it and it would leave to go elsewhere.
It does not attack men except in the case where it is attacked by them.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Cerda – (on a broom, brush, or toothbrush) bristle; (animal hair) horsehair, bristle
Cordillera – (geography) mountain range, mountain chain
Chupa – (colloquial) (clothing) (Spain) leather jacket
Chupar – (to suction with the mouth) to suck; (to touch with the tongue) to lick; (to smoke) to puff on, to puff at, to suck on; (to take in) to absorb, to suck up, to soak up; (colloquial) (to take) to bleed of; (to drink alcohol) (Latin America) to drink
Chuparse – (to suction with the mouth) to suck; (to get thinner) to waste away; (to suffer) to put up with, to stomach
Chorrear – (to dribble) to drip; (to be soaked); (to pour) to gush, to gush out, to spurt, to spurt out; (to arrive gradually) to trickle in; (to let fall in drips) to drip with; (to steal) to swipe, to pinch
Ahuyentar – (to scare off) to frighten off, to frighten away, to scare away; (to get rid of) to dispel, to banish; (to fend off) to keep at arm’s length
Ahuyentarse – (to leave) to run away, to stay away
Ronco – (croaky) hoarse, husky; (grating) husky (voice), harsh (sound)
Pavor – (fear) dread, terror
Embiste – (assault) attack; (rush of an animal) charge; (scourge) onslaught