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Continued Ignorance and the Lore of Old Higue

There is a folk legend in Guyana about an evil spirit that sheds her skin and takes the form of a ball of fire or some such, and then sucks the blood of the living. I'm not quite sure how a ball of fire would be able to contain teeth, let alone fangs, or even suck blood without incinerating the victim. Hmmm, could it be that this lore is not based on reality? Could it be just a story, a tall tale, a fantasy? Sure, I would say that's a rather safe, and logical assumption.

Unfortunately, for a poor woman in Guyana, some villagers still believe in such nonsense.

On Saturday, April 28th, 2007, a woman was beaten to death by a group of villagers in Bare Root, East Coast Demerara, Guyana, who believed that she was an "Old Higue."

Depending on which variation you hear of the legend the higue is either a vampire who sucks blood; an evil spirit who transforms into a ball of flame and sucks blood; an old woman who can shrink to enter homes through a keyhole and then suck blood; or, according to Jamaican lore, an evil spirit who flies in the form of an owl and sheds her skin to suck the breath of the living (no blood in that case), particularly babies.

Accounts of this recent incident, collected from a few villagers, vary. For example, according to Stabroek News of Guyana, one resident claimed that "around 5 am two men who were on their way to work saw a person who they thought was a girl from the village. They reportedly called out to her and were greeted by a snarling sound from the woman. Scared, the men called out to other residents who ran out. At the same time a resident nearby discovered that her six-month-old baby had a red mark on his chest."

That article goes on to say "Residents surrounded the woman, who it was claimed at the time was just a ball of hair. They threw rice around her and some threw kerosene and tried to burn her, but she did not ignite, according to a witness."

Another resident told Stabroek News that "the woman was caught in the act of 'sucking the baby' and an alarm was raised." This resident went on to say that the woman appeared to be a "dark ball with long hair in the pre-dawn light and was beaten with the manicole broom and a paling stave."

let's take a look at the "witness" testimony...

"...appeared to be a dark ball with long hair in the pre-dawn light." A few things confirm that this statement should not serve as reason for murder. First, "appeared" indicates that the witness was not certain one way or the other as to the reality of what they thought they were seeing. Second, "in the pre-dawn light" indicates that lighting was less than sufficient to verify the actual appreance and identity of the assumed hairball. Third, thinking you see a moving, human-sized ball of hair in dim light should promt you to take a closer look before beating it to death. Couldn't this just have been a rather plump older woman with long hair? A ball... really.

"They threw rice around her and some threw kerosene and tried to burn her, but she did not ignite." The kerosene part is just plain scary. According to lore (there's that all-too-important word again) the spirit would be compelled to count the grains of rice, giving a victim time to escape.

Believing in an evil spirit is not something I recommend at all, but that said evil spirit would be obliged to count grains of rice is just preposterous. What self-respecting evil spirit would be that dumb?!

This is sad proof that basic reasoning and logic are scarce in many parts of the world. Scarier yet is the the idea that many people living right in our own cities and towns believe this crap too.

Come on people... let's accept the truth. It is unwise — and can prove deadly, as we can see — to cling to such nonsense. This is lore and legend, and I venture to say... never once was it a reality.

Drew Vics — May 11, 2007