Calls
The cherufe is a gigantic mythical creatures of the Mapuche in the border region of Chile and Argentina .
description
According to legend, the Cherufe is a man-eating lava creature that lives in volcanoes and is the cause of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions .
The only way to calm his destructiveness is through a human sacrifice who has been pushed into the volcano. Similar to the dragons of European mythology , the Cherufe is said to favor virgins. After he had finished his meal, the Cherufe is said to have set fire to the heads of his victims and hurled them out of the volcano.
The origin of this myth was probably to find an explanation for geological events such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
literature
- María Acosta: Cuentos y leyendas de America Latina: los mitos del sol y la luna. El jardín interior. Océano Ámbar, 2002. ISBN 847556190X , ISBN 9788475561905 (Spanish)
- Carol Rose: Giants, monsters, and dragons: an encyclopedia of folklore, legend, and myth . Editor WW Norton & Company, 2001, ISBN 0-393-32211-4