[quote]GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) - A crowd of Guyanese villagers lynched an elderly woman they accused of being an evil spirit who drinks the blood of human babies, police said Monday.
Authorities in the South American country said the woman raised suspicions with unusual behavior and was set upon by villagers who apparently believed she was an “Old Higue”—the equivalent of a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals.
The woman, who has not been identified, was beaten to death and her remains were found on Saturday in a village 15 miles east of Georgetown, police said.
Police have arrested three people and are questioning others, Superintendent Balram Persaud said.
“We are still investigating,” he said.
Some expressed surprise at the persistence of belief in Higues, a creature said to take the shape of an old woman who can shrink herself to enter victims’ homes through a keyhole.[/quote]
This Higues sounds like a fascinating creature.
But if they beat her to death I guess she wasn’t really a vampire.
Unless the beating included a stake to the heart.
Oh well, there’s always the next one.
I guess “the equivalent of a vampire” means that she drinks blood, so she’s like a vampire, but there are obvious differences.
Old higue is like a vampire, but more powerful.
If you suspect a person to be an old higue, draw a line across the road with chalk and the person will be unable to cross the line.
Old higue can walk in sunlight.
Old higue spins into a ball o’ fire, goes in the house of a new baby and sucks the blood, so it turns blue and die. When folks see a baby turn blue and die, they say it was old higue.
Spill uncooked rice on the floor so when old higue enters the house, she will count all the grains, and while she’s preoccupied you can catch her.
Take a coconut broom and beat an old higue, beat and beat her. Remember, she has no skin, so you can imagine it burns.
Lynching works for vampires? Even if cunningly disguised as an old woman?
I thought it was stakes, blessed wholly water, and a combination array of codpieces and crucifixes.
Sorry to hear about the old Lady (probably a local eccentric whose behaviour scared the murderous local dimwits). The how many millionth victim of ignorance and stupidity in this, the 21st century.
