Variations: Abúhuwa (pl.)
The victims of the Abúhuwa, the rainforest demons of the Cubeo people of the Colombian Amazon, are easily recognized. An abúhukü will cut a hole in the skull before sucking out the contents of the body. Sometimes prey is rolled in palm leaves and tenderized. Either way, they leave an empty skin hanging from a branch.
Abúhuwa are nocturnal creatures who embody disease, death, and all that is evil. They associate with the spirits of dead poisoners, murderers, and male adulterers, and are described as misty creatures from the realm of darkness. Their name is derived from “whiteness”, or the foaming of rapids. Like almost all other Amazonian ogres, the abúhuwa are hairy and foul-smelling, associating them with bestial sexuality and death respectively. In addition to that, they have an extra face in the back of their head, and sticky bodies that make escape from their embrace impossible. The females have long pendulous breasts and prefer to kill men, while the males attack women, often killing mothers and abducting their children to raise as their own. Such abúhuwa changelings become cannibals themselves.
The abúhuwa were once far more common, and were allied with a race of evil jaguars that worked with them to decimate human populations. Humanity got a respite after a series of floods and fires that reduced the numbers of both predators.
Abúhuwa are fortunately quite stupid, and can easily be outwitted by children. They are relegated to the status of nursery bogies, reflected in a sort of tag game where one child plays the part of the abúhukü. The grotesqueness of the abúhuwa makes them easier to confront and mock.
Armpit hair from an abúhukü makes a potent ingredient in poisons. To obtain it, an abúhukü must be caught during a lunar eclipse, and the hair from its left armpit must be cut with a corn husk, reduced to ash, mixed with water and turned into paste, and left to dry. It keeps well in a gourd sealed with beeswax.
Capsicum smoke is toxic to abúhuwa, and they can be easily driven away by burning peppers. When killed, they turn into sloths.
References
Goldman, I. (1979) The Cubeo Indians of the Northwest Amazon. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Goldman, I. (2004) Cubeo Hehénewa Religious Thought. Columbia University Press, New York.
Smith, N. J. H. (1996) The Enchanted Amazon Rain Forest. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
