El Silbón: One of the most terrifying legends of the eastern plains

El Silbón leyenda de Colombia y Venezuela
The Silbón or the Whistler Illustration. Photo: El Rincón Colombiano

The Silbon es la legend que cuenta la vida de un joven malcriado que vivió en las zonas de llanos orientales; este joven llanero fue desde muy pequeño toñeco (mimado) y consentido por su familia, hasta llegar al punto de que todo capricho que se le antojaba se lo cumplían.

The young man acquired the nickname “el silbón” because he spent all day whistling, he lived his daily life from cantina to cantina; One day while they were serving him lunch he threw a big tantrum because the food they had served him was not to his liking, he threw the food on the floor and stood up shouting that he wanted venison offal (innards); His father, who always sought to please him in everything, took his shotgun and went to the forest to hunt the deer. Unfortunately, his journey was not successful and he was unable to hunt it.

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During the trip back to his house he met his son who was drunk, he had spent the whole day in the canteen getting over the rage he had acquired during lunch; The father tried to explain to him that he could not hunt the deer, but the young man in an act of rage and madness hit his father until he fell to the ground, there he took his shotgun and shot him dead, then he took the hunting knife from his father and he gutted him like an animal, took out the viscera and entrails, wrapped them in a shirt and took them to his house.

When he got home he gave his grandmother the entrails to prepare. When she asked him where he had gotten them from, he without any remorse confessed that they were his father's entrails, that he had taken them because he did not he had managed to hunt the deer; His family, stupefied by that act of horror, captured him and by order of his grandfather he was tied to a stick in the patio of the house, then he was tortured with whips until he could not bear and then they poured chili into his wounds so that he writhed even more. more of pain.

After that torture they released him and exiled him; while he was leaving they threw him out the turkish dog (a demonic dog) and his grandmother placed a curse on him condemning him to live all eternity wandering the world without rest carrying the bones of his parents and being chased by the Tureco dog who would bite his heels every time he caught up with him.

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In order to fulfill his sentence, the young man returned to the place where he had left his father's body, there he found the bones, which he put inside a sack and went into the forest to fulfill his curse.

It is said that the whistle of the wigeon follows the musical notes do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, in the same order and it is said that if you hear the whistle very close it means that this spectrum is very far away, but if you If you hear very far away it means that it is very close so you are in serious danger.

Who is the Silbón chasing?

The wigeon usually chases drunks, womanizers and night owls; When he attacks a drunk, he usually sucks their navel to drink the liquor he has ingested. He usually dismembers his other victims without any compassion and then puts their bones inside the bag. The wigeon is considered one of the most dangerous specters because it does not usually recognizes between good and bad people; Legend has it that this being usually chooses a house and sits in the corner of it to count the bones in his bag while singing his whistle. If several members of the house can hear him, nothing happens, but if one of the house does not hear him, people from that home wake up dead.

Other versions of the legend of El Silbón

Like other legends, the Silbón has several versions about its origin, one of these stories tells that the silbón murdered his father because he found him mistreating his wife. Faced with this act, the young man, blinded with rage, attacked his father until he killed him. Upon discovering these facts, his grandfather tied him up and tortured him with whips, then cursed him by urging the dogs to bite him and condemned him to wander the world with his father's bones on his back.

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In another version it is said that the silbón or the whistler as he is also known was a young man who died of loneliness and who wandered the world looking for company. It is said that his particular whistle is to attract people to accompany him in his loneliness.

Another well-known version of this legend tells that Silbón was a man who lived in the states of Portuguesa, Cojedes and Barinas. His wife was unfaithful to this man with his own father. When he found out about this betrayal, he murdered his father. Although his father regretted it at the time of doing it, he feared the revenge and reprisals that this act would have caused, so he tried to flee, but his grandfather realized the facts and captured him in order to have him executed with his machete, the man manages to escape from the hands of his grandfather and that is when he asked his dogs to capture him, the man ran as far as he could and the dogs chased him until at a certain moment neither the barking of the dogs nor the voice could be heard. of man; Only a high-pitched whistle was heard coming from a small bird that no one had ever seen before.

In Colombia there is also another legend called “The Little Whistle” That it is a totally different spectrum.

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From that moment nothing was heard from the man or the dogs, people presume that the man in his flight cried out for help to God and God transformed him into a bird to save him, but in exchange he condemned him to wander the world chasing to unfaithful men; Since then it appears in the form of a bird to the unfaithful nightbirds who, if they hear the bird sing and answer it, it transforms and scratches them, causing them to lose themselves in the forest.

What does the Silbón look like or what does it look like?

The appearance of the wigeon is described as that of a thin and very tall man who can measure up to 6 meters in height. When he sits, his knees reach up to his head, he wears a hat and carries a sack on his back in which he carries the bones of his father and his victims.

How to protect yourself from Silbon?

There are two ways to protect yourself from the Silbón, the first is to be accompanied by a dog, since its barking usually scares it, probably due to the curse that was placed on it after being chased by the Tureco dog, and the second is to carry chili peppers since He is also afraid of him because of what he suffered during the torture.

Origin of the legend of the Silbón or Whistler

The wigeon is a legend that has its origins in the eastern plains of Venezuela and Colombia; During the 19th century, this legend has great cultural importance in both countries to the point that there are sculptures of this character in several iconic cities of these countries. Songs, couplets and verses have been created around the figure of the wigeon.

¿El Silbón es una leyenda o mito?

El Silbón es una leyenda no un mito, ya que narra la vida de un personaje situado dentro de un tiempo histórico real, el cual se presume que si existió, también relata hechos que si pudieron haber sucedido en la realidad, aun cuando estos no hayan tenido en la realidad los toques de fantasía que generalmente poseen las leyendas.

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