Soucouyant

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The Soucouyant or Soucriant in Caribbean and specifically Trinidadian folklore is a creature that lives by day as an old woman at the end of the village. By night, however, she strips off her wrinkled skin, puts it in a mortar and flies in the shape of a fireball through the darkness, looking for a victim to suck the life-blood out of. To get rid of her, you must put coarse salt in the mortar containing her skin, then she cannot put it back on and must perish. The Soucouyant practices witchcraft, voodoo, and black magic. Belief in Soucoyants is still preserved to some extent in Trinidad.^{[citation needed]}

1 Origin
2 Beliefs
3 References
4 See also

[edit] Origin

Belongs to a class of spirits called Jumbies. Some believe that soucouyants were brought from the European countries in the form of French vampire-myths. These beliefs intermingled with those of Africans, which were then enslaved. Others believe that soucouyants were actually elder ladies, who experienced many things a lot of people could not bear. Those with mean humour would make up witch stories about them in regard to their wrinkled skin, and wisdom.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Beliefs

The skin of the soucouyant is said to be very valuable, as it is used when practicing the Black Magic - Obeah. The soucouyant can enter a home by turning into a fireball, and then entering through the keyhole or any crack/crevice in the home. If the soucouyant draws out too much blood from its victim, it is believed that the victim will die and become a soucouyant themselves. However some believe that the victim dies and that the existing soucouyant takes over/possesses the victims skin.

[edit] References

Used in Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys in III.4 as one of Anna Morgan's daydreaming fears before she undergoes an abortion that leaves her bleeding to death. It's worth noting that before the ending was edited, Anna Morgan dies of the abortion.
Also used in Rhys's short story, "The Day They Burned the Books" in a servant's description of Mrs. Sawyer, a main character in the story: "...Mildred told the other servants in the town that her eyes had gone wicked, like a soucriant's eyes, and that afterwards she had picked up some of the hair he pulled out and put it in an envelope, and that Mr. Sawyer ought to look out (hair is obeah as well as hands)."
Also used in a third Jean Rhys book, Wide Sargasso Sea, when the former slave, Christophine, describes Antoinette's eyes as "red like soucriant"