3: The single leg

It lives among the thick tangle of the virgin forest, on the summits of the plain. With the only leg that has advances with amazing speed. It is the endriago most feared by settlers, miners, hunters, walkers, farmers and lumberjacks.

Some adventurers say that she is a beautiful woman who calls and attracts them to fall in love, but she advances towards the darkness of the forest where she leads them with her lascivious glances, until she becomes a horrible woman with eyes of fire, disproportionate mouth from where they appear some feline teeth and short, disheveled hair that falls on his face to hide his ugliness.

At other times, they hear the cries of a lost woman; they scream to help her, but the moans become more pitiful as she advances towards the victim and when she is very close, she becomes a beast that throws herself on the person, sucks her blood and ends up crushing her with her sharp fangs.

The defense of any person who sees it, consists of surrounding themselves with domestic animals, although they warn that dogs outnumber them, qualifying them all as "blessed" animals.

It is said that this character was invented by jealous men to frighten their unfaithful wives, instill terror and at the same time, recognize the benefits of the jungle. They say that in a certain region of Tolima Grande, a tenant had as his wife a very beautiful woman and in her he had three children.

The owner of the ranch wanted to get a consort and called one of the most trusted cowboys to say: "... go to the ravine and choose among the washerwomen the best, then tell me who it is and how it is ..." . The man left, watched them all carefully, instantly distinguished the wife of a fellow cowboy and friend, who was the youngest, was the most beautiful. The cowboy returned to give the employer the filiation and other information about the best.

When the time came for the "vaquerías", the husband of the beauty told the cowboy emissary his sadness, complained about his wife, because he felt cold, less affectionate and no longer arranged his clothes with the same assiduity as before; he lived a bad temper, he had been a despot for a few days now. He confessed that it caused him to go away, but he gave him grief with his children.

The cowboy, knowing the secret, sympathizing with his friend's situation, told him about the boss, warning that he had no guilt.

The saddened and betrayed husband thanked his partner for his frankness and went to ponder alone on the matter and said: "... if I could convince me that my wife cheats me with the boss, forgive me God, because I do not answer what happens ... " Then he planned a test and went to his home. There he told his wife that he was leaving for the town because his employer sent him for correspondence; That he did not come back that night. He kissed goodbye and caressed his children. At a gallop, he went out in different places to kill time. He reached the canteen and downed a few gulps of brandy. At about nine o'clock at night he went on foot through the forest and the waste to spy on his wife.

It would be about ten o'clock at night, when the woman, seeing that the husband did not arrive, went to the hacienda in search of her employer. The husband, when he saw that the woman was going down the road to the herd, came out of the hiding place, came to the house, found the children asleep and went to bed. As the dawn arrived the infidel very calm and serene. The husband said: Where are you coming from? She answered with carelessness: to wash some clothes. At night ???, I cut the husband.

A few days later, the deceived husband invented a new trip. He mounted his horse, circled several times in a pasture and then kept it in a neighboring stall. At night, he came on foot to hide in the banana tree that was in front of his ranch. That night the woman did not leave but the boss came to visit her. When the rich landowner arrived at the door, the woman came out to meet him and threw herself into his arms, kissing and caressing him.

The enraged husband who was seeing everything, jumped with the comb raised and without giving time to the lover to get rid of the haul, cut his head with a single machete. The woman, between surprised and horrified wanted to run away, but the energetic husband gave him a tremendous peinillazo to the rump under his leg as if it were the branch of a tree. Both died almost at the same time. The cowboy was sentenced to jail, but when he left shortly after, he returned for the three boys and set fire to the house.

The people claim to have seen her jumping on one leg, by mountain ranges, ravines and roads, distilling blood and throwing pitiful cries. It is the soul in pain of the unfaithful woman who wanders through mountains, valleys and plains, who dishonored her children and did not know how to respect her husband.