Tlahuelpuchi

The Tlahuelpuchi:  The Aztecan culture was largely destroyed by the European invasion and the religious conquest of the land by Roman Catholicism.  The goddesses continued somewhat, however, transformed in the popular imagination into witches that survived under different names.  They were called bruja (feminine) or brujo (masculine) by the Spanish and tlahuelpuchi, the blood-sucking witch, by the descendants of the Aztecs.

The tlahuelpuchi was a person (most often a woman) believed to possess the power to transform itself into one of several animals and in that form attack and suck the blood of infants or, on rare occasions, children and adults.  The tlahuelpuchi drew elements from both the ancient Aztec goddesses and the witches of Spain, who had the power to transform themselves into animals and liked to suck the blood of infants.  The most common animal into which the witches transformed themselves was a turkey, but animals as varied as fleas, cats, dogs, and buzzards were reported.  Such witches lived incognito in the communities, and witches became objects of fear, especially among couples with infants.

The tlahuelpuchi was born a witch and had no control over her condition, which remained with her for life.  since the condition was a chance occurrence of birth, the witch could not pass her condition to another.  There was no way to tell if a person was a witch until she reached puberty.  The power of transformation arrived with the first menses.  At that time the young witch also developed an insatiable thirst for human blood.  That a person was a witch would soon become known to relatives, of course, but out of shame and fear, they would seek to conceal the fact.  A witch would kill anyone who revealed her identity, but would otherwise not attack kinspeople.  The tlahuelpuchi had to have blood at least once a month and some as much as four times a month. 

On the last Saturday of every month, the tlahuelpuchi entered the kitchen of her dwelling and performed a magical rite.  She lighted a fire made of special substances and then transformed into an animal, usually a dog.  Her lower legs and feet were left behind in the form of a cross.  Upon her return from feeding, she retransformed into a human and reattached her appendages.  The witch could, on occasion, be known by the limp developed from her regular transformations.  Occasionally, the witch might attack children, adults, or the livestock of a person they had quarreled with.

The tlahuelpuchi also had hypnotic power over individuals and could cause them to kill themselves, primarily by having them walk to a high place and jump to their death.  They might also attack livestock of people they wished to harm.  Thus, particular kinds of evil that affected people were routinely attributed to the witches in their midst. 

Protection from witches was most ensured by use of the ubiquitous garlic.  Wrapped in a tortilla, cloves of garlic might be placed in the clothes of an infant.  In the absence of garlic, an onion could be substituted.  Bright metal was also considered effective, and parents sometimes placed a machete or a box of pins under their infant's crib.  Pins or other metal objects might be fashioned into a cross.  Parents also used clear water, mirrors, or holy medals.  Infant deaths were attributable to parents having relaxed their vigilance in protecting their child.

On occasion, people reported seeing a witch in animal form.  It was spotted and distinguished from other animals by the phosphorous illumination it emitted.  There would often follow an attempt to kill it, either by stoning and clubbing (to avoid direct physical contact), but more often than not, the witch escaped by changing form.  On very rare occasions, a woman in the community was called out as tlahuelpuchi.  If the accusation was accepted by a group of people, that person would be attacked in her home and clubbed and/or stoned to death.  Afterward, the sense organs, including the fingers, were removed, and the body, unburied, was disposed of in a deserted spot. 

Belief in the tlahuelpuchi has continued to the present day in rural Mexico.  As recently as 1954 the state of Tlaxcala passed a law requiring that infants reportedly killed by witchcraft had to referred to medical authorities.  Researchers Hugo G. Nutini and John M. Roberts, working in the same state in the 1960s, had not trouble gathering numerous tales of witchcraft. (P)

Resource List - all entries are taken verbatim from the original source:

(P) "The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead."  J. Gordon Melton.  Visible Ink Press.  ©1994