By Andrew McCarthy

Life has been tough for Costa Rica's ghosts and goblins as they try to put on good faces, for those who have them, because Halloween is approaching.

What have you heard about the Costa Rican tale el Cadejo?

In popular mythology, the Cadejo is a kind of ghost animal that is attributed to following some people to scare them or kidnap them, that is what the Royal Academy of Spanish Language says about the evil dog.

In Mesoamerican mythology, a "Nahual" is an animal that is considered a protective spirit of each person. According to some traditions, it is said that each person, at birth, already has the spirit of an animal, which is responsible for protecting them.

Upon the arrival of Europeans to the Americas, there was a clear syncretism between the pre-Columbian beliefs of an animal protective spirit and the myths and legends of infernal dogs that abound in folklore throughout Europe. 

Like the Cerberus, in Greek mythology or the Moddey Dhoo of the Isle of Man or the Gwyllgi mythical dog from Wales and many others. From these European legends, comes the black Cadejo. And the influence on the animal negative perspective, the Cadejo usurps the trust of human beings through terror. 

In Costa Rica, the Costa Rican author Elías Zeledon in his book "Leyendas Costarricenses" (Costa Rican tales in the English language) explains how people had heard howling from a distance or roaring; but the number of those who have felt, when it passes, the dog's claws on the sidewalk is infinite.

The Costa Rican Cadejo is described as a large black dog, similar to a stern, skinny, hedgehog, wolf kind, with two intense glowing and radiant red eyes, a long and wide tail, long sharp nails that sound when it is walking on the sidewalk (or, goat legs, depending on the version), which drags thick chains. However, the Cadejo is not brave or bloodthirsty and never attacks men.

The author specifies that Cadejo tenaciously follows the person who is partying at night, usually a drunk man, to the door of their house, and sometimes, waits for them at the entrance of their room "with his red eyes shining in the darkness of the threshold," like a silent reproach. However, Cadejo always keeps their distance.

Bullets or bladed weapons are useless against the ghost animal and before being forced to do evil, Cadejo disappeared, Zeledon said. 

There’s one version of the paranormal dog, that when children wake up, the ghost animal can be evoked. And in a short time: "the claws of their paws will be heard on the walls of the house, with their breath blowing through a crack in the window, without leaving the place until there is silence and the child falls into a deep sleep."

About its origin, the many versions are about a young man named Joaquín. In one of the tales, it is said that the young man was the son of a farmer from Escazú Canton in San José Province. While in another tale, he was the son of an old man from somewhere in Cartago Province. 

The versions coincide in that he was a drunk, irresponsible, tramp and troublemaker man. One day, after several days without returning home, he caused the deepest displeasure of his father, who cursed him, pouring on him so much indignation and pain of spirit that finally the boy ended up transforming himself into the Cadejo.

In another version, Cadejo was a priest, which distorted the religious sense of the community in which he was a town priest. For this reason, God originally punished the priest by condemning him to remain one hundred years in the figure of an animal spectrum in the shape of a mythical Cadejo, "the black dog loaded with chains, with a long, tufted tail, goats' legs and jaguar teeth, and whose red eyes gleam in the night."

In this tale, it is said that Cadejo must fulfill the role of man's eternal ally. For this reason, he takes care of drunks when they return home, and intimidates disobedient children in dreams.

The tale described by the author said that after almost one hundred years, the Cadejo priest committed suicide by throwing himself into the crater of the Poás Volcano in Alajuela Province. But as a result of trying to kill himself before fulfilling his punishment, he could not die, and from that day on the dog's growl sparks the tremors of the volcano.

Another version of the tale described by the author features a young man who is tired of his father's constant drunkenness. The son makes a plan for rehabbing his dad. The plan was to wait for his father on a lonely road while he rattled chains and made noises to scare his dad away from getting drunk.

"Night came and the father left the village cantina drunk. Entering a lonely road, he heard the sound of chains and growls that made his skin chill." Seeing that his father was about to faint, the son came out of his hiding place to tell the father that it was a plan to make him reconsider, but that he never imagined that the father would be so angry with him.

The father, recovering from the shock, cursed his son saying: "You will lie down and on four legs you will walk forever and ever. Amen." From that day on, the Cadejo follows the late-night men, guiding their way home and warding off any danger that they may confront.

According to the author, the Cadejo is generally attributed to mystical powers such as being able to avoid being harmed by the one they protect or by the ones trying to harm him. "Usually, when he is attacked he disappears into the air like a shadow and reappears behind his attacker," the tale reads.

The version of the Cadejo in Nicaragua is written without the last ‘s’ in the word.

The writer Eduardo Zepeda-Henríquez, in his book “El Cadejo un mito de Nicaragua,” (The Cadejo a Nicaraguan myth in the English language) explains how the origin of the word Cadejo comes from the Greek mythological legend of Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus and Latin tale of Zeus transformed Lycaon into a wolf.

The author suggests that the myth of the Cadejo is rooted in the provincial social imaginary as a moral source. That is to say, the Cadejo, more than a protective spirit, is a marauding spirit that goes out to scare street night owls.

The presence of this supernatural entity is a form of exemplary lesson for people of bad life that implies original sin or remorse of historical conscience, Zepeda said.

For those who still want to know more about the folk Costa Rican tales, the pleasant book by Elías Zeledón-Cartín can be purchased for about $5 online at the National University editorial website.

Have a Pura Vida Halloween!