The Tunda (La Tunda) is a vampire-like monster woman in the folkore of afro-American community of the Colombian Pacific region.
Description
Sometimes la Tunda appears in the form of a loved one, as the likeness of a child's mother. In other versions, it appears to male loggers or hunters working deep into the jungle as a beautiful woman that tries to lure a man away, so it can reveal its hideous nature and suck his blood or devour him as a wild animal. However, la Tunda's shapeshifting abilities are not perfect, as this doppelgänger of sorts would always have a wooden leg in the shape of a molinillo, or wooden kitchen utensil used to stir hot drinks such as chocolate or aguapanela. The monster, however, is very cunning when trying to hide this defect from its would-be victims.
Behavior
The tunda would lure its victim into the forest and feed from him with shrimps she has farted upon (camarones peídos) to keep her victims docile in some kind of trance. This is call entundamiento and a person in this state is entundado(a).
See also
- The Tunda bears a marked resemblance to another Colombian female shape-shifting monster known as the Patasola who shares a deformity of the foot that gives her away as a supernatural creature and not a real woman. She too lures men to their deaths.
- This feature of deformed feet also shows up stories about the Deer Woman, another shape-shifter of North American natives mythology. Deer Woman is also a seducer of men, luring them to their deaths unless they are fortunate to notice in time that she has hooves instead of human feet.
- Sayona
- La Llorona