Monsters: La Cegua

Photo by Anudariya Munkhbayar

La Cegua was a beautiful woman cursed to become a spectral monster in Costa Rica. It was said that she resided in Cartago. The story is said to have happened between 1563 when Cartago was established and 1823 when San Jose became the capital. She was half native and half Spaniard and was extremely beautiful. She would then fall in love with a Spanish soldier. They would have a sexual relationship and believed he loved her two. When the Spaniard left she had broken down and gone mad. A curse would befell her and she would use it against men she deemed unfaithful to their loved ones.

She will first appear to adulterers as a beautiful woman but then transform into a face of a rotting horse skull. In her womanly form, she has an oval face, large black eyes, long curly hair, red beautiful lips, a slender and tempting body, and a voice much like a siren. She is typically wearing full white or black, but there have been occasions where she wore a vapourous pink dress or a luxurious period dress. There are possibly more than one La Cegua and they may work together at times.

Travelers in Costa Rica are to be careful on their journeys. Especially on lonely roads at night. She typically appears in front of drunkards or womanizers. She will then ask the stranger if they could take her to her ride (in older tales it was a horse and more recently a modern vehicle). After she get's onto the man's horse or in his vehicle she rides with him for a while. She tempts him and tranformes into her monstrous version either killing or disabiling him and making him go mad.

She sometimes doesn't appear on the road and instead at dances and festivals in towns. She usually flirts wth every man who approaches her. The one who succeeds in having a hookup with her will accompany her to a clearing of the Guanacaste pampa under a leafy Guanacaste tree. They make love all night, but when he tries to kiss her that face appears.

There is another version in which it is a crying child instead. When the child is found on the side of the road the person will give them a ride. The child would then resort to turning into its horse face.

It's said in order to escape her wrath is to throw mustard seeds at her. She will take her time and pick them up. This gives enough time for the victim to run and flee the La Cegua.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Myths and Folklore Wiki

We Love Costa Rica

Villians Wiki