Trauco
Also called El Trauco.
In Chilote folklore from the Chiloé Archipelago of southern Chile, the Trauco is a small, hypnotic-eyed forest-dwelling being blamed for the seduction of young women and for unexplained pregnancies.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Chilote folklore
- Region
- Chiloé Archipelago (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The Silent-Winged
- Symbols
- Stone
Near this figure
and 1 more
Symbols
Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.
- Stone bears image-domain Stone denotes hardness, permanence and foundation, closed against entry and therefore inviting meaning, raised upright to make a presence where there was only ground.
why
He is typically dressed in ragged bark-cloth or plant-fiber clothing and carries a small stone axe, which in some tellings he uses to fell trees or to strike fear into anyone who intrudes on his forest haunts.
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Fused or stunted legs requires being carried
why
Accounts describe the Trauco as short, ugly, and hunched, sometimes said to have legs fused or stunted so that he cannot walk and instead moves by leaping or is carried through the woods, in some tellings astride a fallen tree trunk that serves as his mount.
- Wife or husband counterpart with inverse power
why
Tradition identifies the Fiura as the Trauco's wife, sometimes called the Trauca, a female forest being who likewise attracts and seduces men despite being extremely ugly, using a harmonious voice and an enchanting, magical breath; where the two figures contrast is that she then curses or deforms those men, leaving some part of their body twisted, or drives them to madness.
Behaviour
- Paralyzing stare
why
His most distinctive attributed power is a hypnotic or paralyzing gaze: a look from the Trauco is said to root a person in place or draw them toward him against their will, leaving them unable to resist or flee.
Sight and sound
- Disproportionately large hypnotic eyes
why
small, hypnotic-eyed forest-dwelling being
Offensive powers
- Hypnotic gaze
why
His most distinctive attributed power is a hypnotic or paralyzing gaze: a look from the Trauco is said to root a person in place or draw them toward him against their will, leaving them unable to resist or flee.
Curses
- Seductive charm
why
accounts hold that his gaze or presence overcomes their will, and that any resulting pregnancy in a Chilote community could be attributed to an encounter with him
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Trickster carries
1 citation
- George M. Eberhart, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, s.v. "Trauco."