El Silbón (The Whistler)

Folklore from the Venezuelan plains tells that El Silbón, 'the Whistler', is the tormented soul of a young man who murdered his own father; in some versions he butchered him to feed him to his unknowing mother. As punishment his grandfather flogged him, rubbed chili peppers into the wounds and cursed him, setting the dogs to chase him for all eternity. Since then he wanders the savanna carrying a sack of his father's bones, condemned to count them night after night. He is known by a whistle that climbs and descends the musical scale, and belief warns that when the whistle sounds far away he is actually near, and when it sounds close he is still far off. The plainsmen say he pursues drunkards, revelers and unfaithful men, and that only a barking dog or the crack of a whip can drive him away. More than a mere ghost, he embodies a moral warning against parricide, passed by word of mouth across Portuguesa, Guárico and Barinas.