Case file · Folklore / legend
Lafcadio Hearn hears of La Diablesse
In 'Two Years in the French West Indies' (1890) Lafcadio Hearn retold Martinique's tale of La Guiablesse, a beautiful woman in old-fashioned dress, with a cow's hoof hidden under her skirts, who leads men to their deaths.
1890 CE · 14.74, -61.18 · status: legend
The account
La Diablesse is known across the Eastern Caribbean, from Martinique and St Lucia to Dominica, Grenada and Trinidad. Hearn also wrote of zombis and of the soucouyant ('soucouyan').