Jawnomicon

Kolowisi

Also called Kolowissi, Serpent of the Sea, Palulukong (Hopi).

Kolowisi is a horned water serpent of Zuni tradition, guardian of sacred springs whose enormous coiled body can shake the earth and command floods.

At a glance

Tradition
Zuni folklore
Region
American Southwest (place of origin)
Trait family
The Swallowers

Near this figure

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Two-horned variant unicorn
    why

    a vast serpent with a pair of horns, a great gaping mouth, and fins running the length of its body

  • Expandable swallowing mouth
    why

    a great gaping mouth

  • Serpentine elongated body
    why

    Kolowisi belongs to the living oral and ceremonial traditions of the Zuni people of the southwestern United States, where the being is described as a vast serpent with a pair of horns, a great gaping mouth, and fins running the length of its body.

Behaviour

  • Shapeshifts animal to human and back
    why

    In this telling, Kolowisi took the form of an abandoned infant in the spring, was carried home and cared for by the unsuspecting woman, and in the night resumed his true enormous shape, coiling around her until her father, a priest, interceded and negotiated her passage into the serpent's keeping.

Sight and sound

Defensive powers

  • Water guardianship
    why

    One widely retold narrative, recorded among collected Zuni tales, describes a young woman devoted to washing and bathing at a sacred spring, whose repeated use of the water for ordinary purposes was said to anger the serpent who kept it.

Utility powers

  • Shapeshifting
    why

    In this telling, Kolowisi took the form of an abandoned infant in the spring, was carried home and cared for by the unsuspecting woman, and in the night resumed his true enormous shape, coiling around her until her father, a priest, interceded and negotiated her passage into the serpent's keeping.

Curses

  • Causes natural disasters
    why

    Reference works describe Kolowisi as inhabiting deep pools, underground streams, and springs, and as a being capable of causing floods when disturbed or angered.

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.