Hardly anyone would imagine in this era that a person with certain magistical knowledge could transform his body from human to animal. This is known in Mexico as nahualism. And the stories of nahuals are famous in Mexican and Central American lands, because they come from ancestral cultures such as the Toltecs, Aztecs, Mayas, Zapotecs, among others, centuries and perhaps millennia ago. The legends and stories of witches and wizards capable of such feats are still very popular. Precisely, below we will see the terrifying experience of some young peasants with a strange supernatural creature:
From Calm to Fright
Veracruz, Mexico. December 8, 2016, 22:34 p.m. Hacienda “el guamo”. A group of six friends who had finished their work for the whole week in that ranchería in Tempoal. They were gathered around the campfire, sharing and talking about everything a little. In those rural areas, at night you can only hear the orchestra of crickets and cicadas, accompanied by the sound of the wind and the barking of the occasional dog.
The hours passed quickly and in less than no time, it was already midnight. The weather in that area is very warm, so the boys saw no inconvenience in cooling off a bit in a nearby well and enjoying the starry sky that illuminated them. One of them, Alberto Castaneda, always carried a Marlin 22, fully loaded with very special ammunition: bullets designed to kill nahuales.
Castaneda was a man who was always ready to respond to a dangerous situation, because he was well aware that in those territories, not only bandits, but also witches and nahuales had to be protected. That is what the locals say almost in its entirety. It is something that goes from generation to generation and from childhood they are taught to respect these entities and to remain alert and vigilant in the face of any danger. In such a way that when they have to defend themselves from the so-called nahuales, black magicians capable of turning into horrible animals, they use bullets that have previously gone through a ritualistic and magical process, which they also call: the cured bullets.
The others were not as cautious as Castaneda, since they had never seen a nahual in their lives, although they had heard many testimonies. But when they were bathing in the well at that late hour of the night, they began to perceive that the light of the lamp they were using could illuminate, a few meters away, a large and very strange animal. They all began to feel a bad omen and supposed that the time had come for them to confront a supernatural being. They felt fear and despair, especially because of the appearance of such a creature: it had huge ears that hung down to the ground and it had the face of a devilish owl.
Suddenly, Castaneda told the others that this animal was not normal. As soon as they assimilated the situation they were facing, the man took the rifle and resolutely fired several shots at the creature and tried to hit its head. When he had it in his sights to blow off its upper body with the gun, something strange happened: the rifle jammed. Never before had the weapon failed and at that moment, it seemed that nothing worked and it was totally jammed. The diabolical animal stared at them, as if it was mocking and feeding on their fear. It was when Castaneda aimed at its chest that a shot was finally fired and the animal, upon impact, ran away at full speed.
The young men ran away too; they wanted to catch it as fast as they could, but it was advancing at great speed through the pasture. It was then that they suddenly heard loud and close gallops, more and more pronounced, but no one could be seen. They kept running and reached a wooded area, where they finally lost track of him. When they realized where they were, the fear and adrenaline increased, since they were in a cursed place, known to be the meeting point of witches and warlocks for their covens.
From their fear, they were in their pants.
In view of the circumstances they decided to turn back, but the terror almost didn’t let them move, worse when a howl broke the silence and the lamps went out. They were left in total darkness. They had no choice but to run away terrified and while they were doing so, they heard a fearsome voice from beyond the grave shouting all kinds of rudeness and threats. Castaneda responded with several shots and one or two insults.
After the great noise of the shots and the screams, everything returned to a penetrating silence. The young men were stuck side by side and behind Castaneda. They backed up 300 meters and when they were sure they were no longer being pursued, they ran with all their might until they reached the galley again. Two of them literally wet their pants. According to the story, what they experienced was beyond the limits… Another one of the boys was crying and trying to deny everything that had happened.
Obviously, that night none of them could sleep and Castaneda did not stop hugging the rifle until dawn. Only fear and anxiety reigned. The next day, the neighbor of another nearby hacienda came to ask them about the numerous gunshots and screams they heard in the early hours of the morning and to tell them that “Juancho”, one of the workers of the farm next door, had been found dead, shot in the chest.
They all concluded that Juancho was dedicated to witchcraft and nahualism, because several had already accused him of causing evil in the region, transforming himself into a horrible animal. Since that time, they have never been able to recover calm and tranquility. In different parts of rural Mexico and Central America, such things are told on a large scale.
