La Siguanaba: The Shapeshifting Woman Who Punishes Unfaithful Men
On the night roads of El Salvador and Guatemala—by the river fords above all, and the public washing-places, and the ravines where the road dips away from the houses—a man riding late may see exactly what a man riding late most wants to see: a woman bathing in the moonlight , or walking ahead of him with a washerwoman's basin, long black hair to her waist, figure flawless, face always somehow just turned away. If he is the kind of man the night is fishing for—the married man out prowling, the seducer, the drunk with appetite—he follows. She lets him. She leads him off the road, ford by ford, ravine by ravine, always a little ahead, always about to turn—until the settlement lights are gone and the dogs are out of earshot; and then she turns. Under the beautiful hair is the face of a horse —or a bare skull, in the harder tellings—and the scream, the pounce, or the sheer sight of her does the rest: men are found days later mad, mute, fevered, jugados —"played with"—or found...