La Cegua

La Cegua

A Folktale from Nicaragus provided by Wilberth Medrano 2008

Photo from the Museum of Legends and Traditions, Leon, Nicaragua

Another popular tale is about La Cegua. As told in Monimbó (a barrio of Masaya), the legend has to do with perverse women who by night disguise themselves as ghosts with painted faces and long tresses of hair. They go out very late at night along the lonely streets and paths in search of unfaithful men who have cheated on their wives, misled lovers, or men or women with rivalries because of jealousy over some amorous or passionate relation.

Our ancestors tell us that someone who runs across them and hears their insufferable shrieking becomes despaired, gets nervous, and falls to the ground ill or unconscious. And at precisely that moment, La Cegua bewitches or puts a spell on their victim. They vomit out their souls and transform themselves into young women garbed in leaves of guarumo. Their hair reaches down to the waist and is made of cabuya (sisal) and their teeth are caked with green like the peel off of a green plantain. As children, many of us that have now grown up heard this story about women of the night that toyed with men they found on the way, mainly those unfaithful men who are deserving of punishment and those who stay out too late. From this comes the phrase “You’re playing La Cegua,” said to those who behave in a silly or foolish manner.