La Patasola

In the jungles and mountain ranges of Colombia, especially in Tolima and the coffee country, people fear the Patasola, a female spirit with a single leg ending in a hoof or a stump. Legend says she was once an unfaithful woman caught by her husband; in his fury he severed her leg with an axe and she bled to death, condemned to roam the forests. She appears to hunters, woodcutters and muleteers who venture alone into the thickets, taking the shape of a beautiful woman or a loved one to draw them in; when the man approaches she reveals her monstrous face with fiery eyes and fangs, and leaps upon him to drink his blood. She is said to hate womanizing men, and her mournful cry is easily mistaken for that of someone lost. To ward her off people are told not to answer her calls, to light a fire and carry tobacco or a dog. It is a myth that guards the forest and punishes lust.