Soucouyant story

The Soucouyant or Soucriant in Caribbean and specifically Dominican folklore is a creature that lives by day as an old woman in a 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 among other practices. The Soucouyant practices witchcraft, voodoo, and black magic. Belief in Soucoyants is still preserved to some extent in Trinidad. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soucouyant).

I've always heard stories of soucouyant as a little boy growing up, but it has been a while since i've heard them until this morning.

I usually reserve fridays for office days or to have meetings and while waiting on a few individuals I overheard this conversation, I can't remember how it started or when I started to pay attention to it, but this is somewhat how it went:

Lady One: I've slept with two soucouyants when i was a child

Lady Two: what, how you manage dat nah?

Lady One: as a child, i wasen afraid of anything nah but is my fada dat force me to go

Lady Two: so you never tell your fada dat den?

Lady One: my fada never believe me den

Lady Two: so how you find out they was witch?

Lady One: my broda (Mahway) tie up one with pied poule (fowl's grass)

Lady Two: how he do dat dere?

Lady One: one night de lady leave me sleeping and leave de house around 2 in de morning so i get up and call my broda nah. he had already prepare de pied poule so he put it infront of de door and around de house so when she come back in de morning she couldnt enter, he really tie her wii. all she could do was make noise. He ask her question about where she come out but she doh answer, de whole village come out and see her wii.

Lady Two: so if she was a witch, how come she never suck you or put u in deep sleep

Lady One: chile i blessed, she could never put her thing on me nah for me to fall asleep, even de other one not even talking to me up to today, she does pass me straight in de street and sending words for me. I tell her once she have to die alone and miserable

Lady Two: so what happen to the first witch? what dem ppl do her?

Lady One: nothing nah but people get to know she is a witch, she die a few years ago...

Around that time I had to leave to go into the other room so I missed the rest of the conversation. These type of stories are a part of every Dominican family and is passed from generation to generation with a little more added on every time. But you know where there is smoke, there must be some form of fire, don't be alarmed but there is some truth to the soucouyant...

Nesta