La Sayona

Across the Venezuelan plains people fear La Sayona, the specter of a stunningly beautiful woman who appears to men who carouse at night or cheat on their wives. Legend says she was once Melissa, a married woman who, misled by a rumor, came to believe her husband was betraying her with her own mother. Blinded by jealousy she burned the house with her husband inside and stabbed her mother, who with her dying breath cursed her to wander for eternity punishing unfaithful men. Dressed in a long white nightgown, she appears on lonely roads as an alluring young woman asking for company; but when the man draws near, her face twists into a fanged skull and her laughter becomes a howl. Some versions show her accompanied by a huge black dog. Told in Barinas, Apure and other plains, the story works as a warning against infidelity and a reminder of the destructive power of jealousy.