| The soucouyant, also known as the lagaroo is a woman by day, but in the night, she can shed her skin and transform into a fireball. In this form, she can fly and she feeds off of the blood of other animals, human and non-human.
This is a very popular character and there are many different versions about her origin and behavior. In some stories, she is an old, haggard woman by day and in others, she is a beautiful woman who leads men astray. Some theories suggest that a woman becomes a soucouyant when she is bitten by another soucouyant. Others suggest that the victim of the bite dies or just becomes very weak. Some theories suggest that the soucouyant only attacks people who have done evil to others. Other theories portray her as being able to charm her way into her prey’s houses where she then attacks them. Consistently, it is said that the soucouyant has a compulsion to count rice grains, so if you put rice grains in their path they must count each grain, leaving you time to escape. It is also said that if you find and destroy their skin that they must find another to occupy. Salt is also said to be able to maim a soucouyant. |
Soucouyant by Rachel Moss in The Whisperer’s Warning |
There are stories of similar creatures in many cultures in Africa, which strongly supports the idea that the lore originated in Africa and persisted when Caribbean ancestors were enslaved and transported to the islands. This idea is explored in Greyborn Rising which stars Katherine, a reformed yet dangerous soucouyant.
The award-winning The Whisperer’s Warning by Danielle Y. C. McClean also features a soucouyant.