If Caribbean folklore had a superstar I think the Soucouyant (pronounced: Soo-koo-ya) would be it. I’m hard pressed to believe that there is an island with no tales of her. For the most part it is said that a Soucouyant is a woman who sold her soul to the Devil or gave herself to him in return for dark powers. She is said to possess great powers including flight and shapeshifting however the Soucouyant’s trademark is the shedding of her skin like how you would remove your clothes. There is much to say about the Soucoyant but I’ll get into that another time. Right now, I have a story for you….
You see, once upon a time, as these things go, in a village high up in the mountains where as far as the eyes could see were giant forest trees and wild flowers and waterfalls there lived a community of peaceful people. Farmers and hunters they were, tending to their farms on the slopes of the mountain. The village was frequently covered in mist and was in a part of the island where the people said it never stopped raining
At the core of this pristine, nature bound jewel, however, was a darkness. A blight which haunted and plagued the good folk. Granted these folk were hardy and the men were stout of heart but even they spoke in hushed tones when talk was about that which roamed the night. That which roamed the night wasn’t restricted to just the forests where one might hear their name called by long lost loved ones or spy a beautiful maiden in white. No, that which roamed the night was now among them. A flicker in the shadows or the corner of the eye, a strange dog or cat lying in one’s path. No one wanted to admit out loud but they all knew that a Soucoyant was in the village now or more correctly, has returned.
As far as they could tell, there has always been a Souc-Souc, as they are sometimes called, in these parts and although everyone had their own suspicions as to who it might be, nobody knew for certain who it was. So they went about their lives keeping a close eye on each other. So it went until that fateful night when they heard the blood curdling wails pouring out of a certain lady’s house.
The sound was disconcerting, it freezed your heart and scraped your bone. A few brave men lit torches and lanterns and armed with cutlasses set off to investigate. Nearing the house, the scream reaching higher more frantic pitch, the men wondered what sort of wild animal found its way into the good lady’s house, but they never heard an animal sound like that, not even butchered pig. They circled the house until they were able to get a look through one of the windows. The blood drained from their faces and they made the sign of the cross as they caught sight of the source of the sound.
Inside the good lady’s house was a skinless creature. It resembled a child no more than 10 years of age, screaming and flapping around the house, crashing into things, tossing itself wildly too and fro. One observer later recounted that it seemed scared and helpless.
Now the men knew. They now knew who the Soucouyant was. Mixed in with the fear was a burning anger as well, not just because of the deception but also because the child was caught up in that person’s evil. They quickly rallied more men and women and camped outside the good lady’s house, knowing that she must return into her skin before sunrise.
The Soucoyant returning from her wanderings alighted on a tree and saw the angry villagers waiting outside her house. she howled because she knew all was lost for her, she couldn’t enter undetected and she could hear her daughter calling for her inside the house. Meanwhile the villages who had finished coating the inside of the Soucouyant’s skin which the found in a mortar with pepper, black pepper and other spicy herbs called out to her to come and meet her fate.
The Soucouyant was trapped, she had to get back into her skin before the sun came up, but her skin had been steeped in the pepper. She gave in. She was made to, first, help her daughter back into her skin and then get into her own skin which immediately started working on her flesh. The villagers then took the daughter away as the burnt the Soucouyant and disposed of her.
Later on, the daughter told her tale. She told the villagers how her mother was grooming her, teaching her the dark arts. She admitted that her mother never taught her how to shed her skin but she learnt by spying on her mother. She was trapped because she didn’t know how to control the powers of that form and she couldn’t fly through the keyhole like her mother.
Well as to what became of the young girl, I do not know. We can only guess but the villagers never hurt the girl…as far as we know…