El Silbón: The Deadly Whistler of the South American Grasslands| Monstrum
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
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The “Terror of the Plain,” this emaciated, whistling devil is cursed to wander the South American countryside carrying the bones of his victims. Intimately tied to the cattle ranching history of Latin America, the myth of El Silbón remains an active albeit terrifying part of folklore. Featuring film director Juan Fernández Gebauer, this episode looks at why a murderous ghost became a symbol of Llanos culture-despite the fear he still inspired today. #elsilbon #mythology #MonstrumPBS
Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Stephanie Noone
Illustrator: Samuel Allen
Editor: Derek Borsheim
Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
The world is full of monsters, myths, and legends and Monstrum isn’t afraid to take a closer look. The show, hosted by Emily Zarka, Ph.D., takes us on a journey to discover a new monster in each new episode. Monstrum looks at humans' unique drive to create and shape monster mythology through oral storytelling, literature, and film and digs deep into the history of those mythologies.
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Bibliography
Arismendi Erminy, Santos. Huellas Folklóricas: Tradiciones, leyendas, Brujería y Supersticiones. Editorial Oceánida, 1952.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Llanos." Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Jul. 2008, www.britannica....
Loy, Jane M. “Horsemen of the Tropics: A Comparative View of the Llaneros in the History of Venezuela and Colombia.” Boletín americanista, no. 31, 1981.
Mahoney, James. Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America In Comparative Perspective. E-book, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Moreno, S. Andrea, et al. “Importance of the Horse and Financial Impact of Equine Trypanosomiasis on Cattle Raising in Venezuela.” Tropical Animal Health and Production, vol. 45, no. 8, Springer Netherlands, 2013, pp. 1669-76.
Novak, Cael. Sobrenatural: 300 Historias de Terror, Misterio y Leyendas Urbanas. Cael Novak, 2019.
Priesto Osorno, Alexander. “Bestiario Latinoamericao: El Silbón.” Cronista en dos mundos: realidad y ficción, 2007, pp. 174-177
Robles de Mora, Lolita. “El Silbón.” Leyendas de Venezuela: leyendas, mitos y tradiciones. Ediciones Robledal, 2002, pp. 69-70.
Ruíz Hernández, Rafael. Folklore Básico de Venezuela. Fundación Editorial Salesiana, 2005.
White, C. Langdon. “Cattle Raising: A Way of Life in Venezuelan Llanos.” The Scientific Monthly, Sep. 1956, vol. 83, no. 3, pp. 122-129.
So, his father murdered an innocent woman, his own grandfather brutally tortured him to death, but he is the monster material because killing your abusive father is where we draw a line?..
Somebody needs to sort that grandfather out.
Yeap... That's the point, is a tragedy.
Latin myths tend not to have monsters, per se. The silbón is an anima in pain, which in Latin culture, corresponds more to the figure of a ghost cursed by actions or third parties. The Latin "monsters", like the silbon, the sayona, the llorona, etc ... always have versions where they were only innocent cursed by the real villains.
@@JMTgpro Talk about sad...
The story of LA Llorona is similar,a girl about to marry a guy,the guy becomes atrangely close to her mother,he is seduced by the girl's mother and they have sex from time to time,then a friend of both of the,jealous of Hus friend who is gonna marry the woman he loves discovers them having sex and one day tells the woman about this,and she witness how her own mother has sex with her husband,goes mad,kills them both,and before dying,her own mother curses her for life.
@@inannaxanthus1749 I guess that's another version of it. The one told to me is that the young woman was going to marry her lover after they had two children together, but he left her at the altar because he found a rich noble woman to marry. In a fit of rage, she drowned her two children and then, realizing what she had done, threw herself into the river and killed herself. She now roams the area looking for the souls of her children because without them, she can't atone and enter Heaven. They tell kids to not wander at night near water because she might confuse them for her children and take them instead.
The concept of "if your hearing it louder you are safe and if you're hearing it softly means your in danger" really baffles me on how this concept started because in my country we have a folk lore that applies that concept
It’s the ..”just when you think you’re safe…” idea… extra creepy!!
Can you describe your folklore and the creature / myth around it? :)
@@TaterKakez tikwi
Yes like the Wakwak in the Philippines . If you hear the flapping noise that is still loud , you only have time to run or hide but once the flapping noise is faint or not loud , he is nearby
@@ErenYeager-zf3td also Tiktik from the Philippines also, loud "eeek" sound when far, and fades the closer it gets
@@TaterKakezIn Malaysia, it's the smell of frangipani or jasmine flower, if the scent is strong, Pontianak is present but far from you, if it's just a hint but you hear a wailing of women, it could very well be perching on a tree around your vicinity.
Clever but subtle scare at the end by playing the whistling noise extra quietly. You just gave your more attentive watchers a delayed scare via realization.
It made my cat wig out before I noticed it. Extra freaky
The far the whistle sounds the close he is.
I couldnt hear it D:
@@XonixDerps you should probably look over your shoulder
The whistling noise actually plays several times thoughout the video
Wait...he's known for his whistle, punishes womanizers, attacks the innocent, and is unsettlingly misshapen? El Silbón is The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.
To be honest, punishing womanizers it's normal with legends here in Venezuela. There's another one called The Sayona, that does quite the same. It apparently appears in Caracas and round that area. It was made for men to stop looking for prostitutes in the streets or party until very late at night.
Hahahahaha! XD
La Xtabay is similar here in Yucatán, but she is a beautiful mayan woman with long black hair that seduces drunk men and womanizers, and kills them. If they survive, they suffer days and nights with fever until they finally die.
Eva Julia that's funny police the streets and grass lands with ghosts
@@evajulia2121 Really? How interesting. :)
Funny thing, the sound tapirs make is kinda similar to a human whistle. I always thought that maybe the legend of el silbón may have been inspired or at least reinforced by that. Imagine walking alone in the wilderness and hearing the noise of something big moving in the vegetation an making a sounds like a whistle
This made me look up a video. You weren't kidding. The whistle even has a wavering rise and fall pattern. That would be creepy as heck in the dark.
Ohhh kewl
I love learning about scientific explanations for myths
that might be the reason. The region has a lot of tapirs.
Yah that would *DEFINITELY* do your head in if you heard that!
Personal experience, peacocks are by far the most horrific thing to hear in the dark if you're not familiar with the sound of them roosting at night. . . It's like a woman getting stabbed repeatedly. First time I encountered it I had a head full of LSD and was walking towards a graveyard as it was a shortcut to my mates place. Let's just say I took the long way after not being able to convince myself I wasnt about to die at the hands of a banshee lol. . . Then I moved to rotto and heard it every single night for months, so I learned fairly quickly what did actually make that mindshatteringly terrifying sound. . .
My grandfather would always tell me of the stories of El Silbón, La Llorona, the duendes from the mountains, and la lechuza.
It’s always good to see these stories be told to a mainstream audience, it warms my heart and reminds me of my grandfather :)
Duermete porque a esta hora salen duendes
What is your bird?
@@dubuyajay9964 “La Lechuza bruja” is a witch that can transform into an owl, it’s either a warning of death like the banshee or she steals you away by mimicking a baby crying or stealing your soul if you look into her eyes.(kinda my fault for not specifying the lechuza as a witch because lechuza just means owl)
@@elic4106 Uh oh. D:
@@dubuyajay9964 Bearded vulture/lammergeier :) I have the same bird in my pic!
Whenever we stayed in my grandfather's farmhouse I would tell this story to scare my younger cousins.
Another thing that I heard as a child was that, if you whistle in the countryside at night, el silbón would answer and seek you, you would be basically summoning him to you
ohhh a nice dare to play with drunken friends at young adulthood age
Brazil or Argentina?
I think it’s really interesting how so many cultures say not to whistle at night. It makes me wonder how many spirits or monsters are out there that respond to human whistle
Whistling taboos are very interesting when studying myths and folklore. Whistling in the wilderness is almost universally prohibited in folklore, even among cultures that have had no contact with one another. Mariners in age of sail believed that whistling above decks at night was bad luck. The Yami people, an Austronesian tribal people on the Island of Irala between Okinawa and Taiwan believed that whistling in the woods called ghosts (interestingly, they believed that everyone who dies becomes a ghost, and that all ghosts were inherently evil. Its actually pretty dark). These people were mostly uncontacted before WW2.
It's likely that, when hunting, people knew not to whistle so as not to scare off the game. Since hunting was important in nearly every human society at one time or another, this evolved into a generalized taboo against whistling when in a forest or at nighttime. Although the purpose was to not scare things away, the mythological justifications were usually based on not attracting a dangerous entity towards them. This may also be be a hold over from tribal warfare as well, which usually involved sneaking and raiding rather than pitched battle. However, the superstition remains. I was even told as a small child that whistling at or near a church will bring the devil to you, lol.
@@NouvelIVague I've also heard of stories where, if you hear a voice calling for help (for instance) in the dark, not to respond back. Because it's a monster who learned human speech well enough that it figured out how to lure its well-meaning victims to them.
El Silbon was nightmare content back when I was 8 years old living in Venezuela, and it's still nightmare content for me now, twenty years later. It's exactly as the Argentinian director said: we laugh about it, but in seriousness, it's a damn scary monster. I remember the Venezuelan story saying that if you ever saw him sitting down on the sidewalk, his knees would reach higher than his head.
creepy...
You South Americans have the creepiest monsters I’ve ever heard.
Yeah dude trinidad has nothing compared to this
@@Toneill029 pretty much, centuries of believe and superstition..
@@Toneill029 and the list goes on
A small 'fact' about El Silbón is that if you hear his whistling close he's far away but if you hear him really close he might be behind you. That's what I've heard and is probably the scariest thing about, imagine not knowing that and thinking you're safe.
I find this detail quite common with multiple creatures, ghosts, and monsters across the world.
I swear to God, that's was happened to me when I 'encountered' him when I was about 8/9 years old.
We used live in a kinda 'farm' in a rural part of my state, anyway, the main gate of the farm's entrance was about 3/4 mile away from the house, and since we didn't have electric gates back then, someone had to get out of the car an open/close them every time.
I'd always choose to walk the rest of the by myself since I enjoyed looking the cows and horses running around.
One night after locking the gate, I started hearing this weird whistle right on top of me and I thought it was a night bird or something.
As I got close to the house, the whistle became more and more faint so I stopped paying attention.
When I finally made it, the farm's foreman immediately came up running and asked me if I was okay and I told yeah, why wouldn't I be?
He asked if I 'heard the whistle' and I told him yeah, I guessed it was some bird I've never heard before.
He then told me: "That wasn't no bird, kid. It was him.
who?
"El Silbon, carajito!!"
I remember I started sleeping in my dad's room for like month after.
That pretty common
La Llorona is supposed to be heard close when far and in reverse, most Latin American monsters have this aspect
@@Goblinhandler there was a creature in Australia with this trait as well I forgot which one though.
In the Philippines there's a legend about the "Tiktik". When it makes a sound and it sounds close, it's actually far away, and when it sounds far away, it's actually close.
As someone who grew up with this tale, it's awesome to see it here!! In the version I heard, it was about killing the father because he didn't brought back the animal the son wanted for dinner, and the sack with the father's and the victim's bones is made of the father's flesh. It's also said you shouldn't whistle at night in Los llanos cause that its gonna summon him, and then you gotta walk endlessly cause if you story he'll get you (hence The Endless). Dad told me he and a few friends went through a similar experience while walking back to the ranch they a worked at very late at night, and that what was supposed to be a 49 min walk turned into a two hours walk where they constantly heard the whistle getting closer (which is good) and it wasn't until the ranch owner and his dogs found them that they realized they finally made it back.
Of course they probably just got lost and heard the wind hehe, but it's still an urban tale that's very present in peoples mind even now.
Never heard about Silbon going after unfaithful man though, I think you got that mixed up with La Sayona, who you should totally do by the way, we love femme fatales!! In high school we did a deep dive about her tale and it's just amazing.
I fought this legends in D&D. My DM forgot our homebrew Asians monsters for our Japanese Campaing and we end up fighting Latin american monsters instead. It was fun.
That's super cool
In the beginning sadly, DnD really screwed up folklore, And mythology, and then with the self created creatures, it was off the charts, so when I threw actual folkloric beings at the party the rules lawyers fled, lol
@@stefanjakubowski8222 I once watched a D&D game my friends were playing only the monsters they were using were things like the aswang and whatnot. Southeast Asian monsters.
Now I really want to homebrew an encounter with El Silbón.
@@foolslayer9416 awesome, both RQ and HERO have "accurate" folklore critters, 5th ed hero actually had two books dedicated to asian monsters,
People were pointing out that Death from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is similar to this, and I find it fascinating
It's just the whistle and both killing people. Death waits, Silbon doesn't
Likely inspired by this legend
I hope the whistling was inspired by this legend as I love lesser known (excluding their region of origin, of course) tales being woven into media in a respectful way.
I looked this legend up because I saw it a clip and it reminded me of this legend.
I really like the part where if the whistle sounds far away, that's when El Sibon is close. Creatures that bend/violate our understanding of time, space, matter, energy, etc. are fascinating and frightening.
You know, a lot of the different motivating incidents for El Silbon name him sound entirely justified in killing his father.
Some do, but until now the only version I'd heard was the deer heart one. That definitely wasn't justified.
There is one version where he ate his father, pretending the meat was deer meat
@@amberkat8147 i know that one
@@amberkat8147 yeah that's the first time I'd heard of him too, from watching Snarled's video on him.
As a Venezuelan, this legend frightened me as a kid.
I can't blame you, your monsters are *SERIOUSLY* Fucked up man! I though Fredy & Jason were scary as a kid, but this guy - Nuh Uh! That is a whole other level of Nope! No way! No How!
@@itwasagoodideaatthetime7980 Not gonna lie i saw this comment and for the firts time i realize yeah monsters of my country are really something, funny how one just don't get it after so many years of knowing about him
Yes a Colombian and Venezuelan myth! Finally!
So just wondering are there any superstitions in this region regarding people whistling (especially after dark) because of this monster?
Reminds me of Negan's whistling, from The Walking Dead.
@@itwasagoodideaatthetime7980 is more like a way to tell how near the specter is to you
Im just waiting for Peru
@@bobpobcf9723 same here, although in the Amazon we got el tunchi
They: Slender Man is this really scary tall skinny monster!
Me, a Colombian: Hold my aguardiente...!
We have Freddy vs. Jason,now they need to make Slenderman vs. El Sibon.
@@artifacthunter9293 El Sibon would eat Slender Man for breakfast!
Pls don’t do daddy longlegs dirty like that :(
What is aguardiente
@@trin873 a sugar-cane based liquor that is the typical spirit in many Hispanic countries.
This is the first time I've ever heard of this particular legend. Fascinating stuff!
Same
Just finished watching Puss in Boots The Last Wish. Immediately had to come and rewatch this after meeting The Big Bad Wolf.
death you mean
@ali ryan No spoilers for the people who ain't seen it yet!
Also known as the Old Sack Man here in Uruguay (El Viejo de la Bolsa)
In Chile is "el Viejo del saco"
El viejo de la bolsa doesn't hit people, it takes disobedient children away. Totally unrelated.
Nada papi, no es lo mismo, es como decir que la pata sola es babayaga
Saca la bolsita!
No es lo mismo
As a Llanero from Venezuela, I'm glad to listen to people from outside talking about our culture. Los Llanos region has a lot of interesting myths and superstitions.
I'm in Indonesia. Will the silbon come and potentially endanger myself, my family and friends?
El Silbon: *looks at Venezuela* ... They have other monsters to deal with right now.... *Goes away*
Silbón for president. I would 100% vote for him🥲😌
@@MariaGonzalez-ur4bi i know right?, Nice guy, dedicated worker, you know, whistling while working
@@MocaHere he clearly is committed to what he does and has been doing it incredibly well for centuries now. If I were registered to vote in Venezuela I would do it 😌😌😌 plus he kills criminals? My life would have been different with him in Miraflores
Seriously, I'd rather deal with the silbon
@@MocaHere i don't know If another "Presidente Obrero" (Working-class president) is what we need right now....
Maybe he's just a dedicated worker... ya know? Whistle while you work
Whistle while you work on finding new bones for your to-go collection :P
In Brazil it's known as Homem do saco, or sac man and i was was so afraid of him when i was a kid!
the man of the sac also exists in Spain and the rest of latin America, so i doubt it has any relation with El Silbó.
@@guairefernandezamil4084 because it has a relation to el silbon.
It also remind me of the sac man. But the man sac is used to scare children into obeying.
Interesting! In that case, I think Sac Man deserves a video of it's own :D
@@raquelbeatrizbretzke7194 Ok now I'm curious. Who the Hell is this Sack Man? & why is he so bad/scary?
5:50 I remember there is a Southeast Asian lore of a certain bird would make a noise that sounds loud meaning the bird or monster is actually quite a distance away; when the bird's call/noise is faint or seem to be far off, the monster is really close by or even behind the person listening.
In the Philippines, there's a monster that's called a Tiktik that does that but the noise it makes is like 'tik-tik-tik-tik'.
In the Philippines its called Wakwak.
@@buttercupbite nowadays it has evolved into a more fiendish bloodsucking monster known as Tiktok
@@leylinfarlier889 ah yepp there are beliefs that the Tiktik and Wakwak are the same but there are others that believe they're different creatures. Filipino mythology do be like that sometimes lol
@@buttercupbite they all belong to the whole race of aswangs (flesh eaters) but in different sub species.
Oooh now do "Las animas" the souls in purgatory who will protect others if someone prays for their sould's salvation but will pull your feet while you sleep if you don't leave a glass of water for them
someone with a kink would do a power move and do it intentionally.
Aaaa extraño esos cuentos
If I hear El Silbon's whistle in the dead of night, I'll be praying that he's whistling Twisted Nerve.
Meanwhile I’m grabbing my knife and shotgun and dog and a cameraman AND we going hunting
@@calvinmilleriii2628 your weapons will be useless against a being that is supernatural and not mortal.
@@Jz-sv1ju But not the dog tho, El Silbón is scared of dogs, so they'd protect you.
It's amazing how these stories we used to listen to as kids are getting known outside Venezuela. I used to be scared of El Silbón whenever I went to Los llanos with my family. My dad loves these stories and he told me all of them 👀💢
He's probably the reason why I love them now.
You just HAD to put that whistling in at the end, didn't you? That was so darn creepy! I'm torn between being impressed and wishing it wasn't so late in the evening already.
As a kid I was absolutely terrified of him... And probably I'm still scared of that whistling lol
Seriously everyone was scared shitless of this thing, both in los Llanos and even outside of them in the cities wherever the tale could reach. Just playing or mimicking what we believed was his canon whistle was enough to give goosebumps to me as a kid or any other kid for what mattered. Today even though i know those are simple tales, when i dig back in my memories they surface up on my skin as goosebumps again, as if it was some sort of twisted nostalgia.
Even though my father was trying to scare me with these tales, these memories are dear to me because they remind me of him , my people and my home, so it is a bittersweet feeling in the end.
Thank you for looking into this legend and sharing it again.
Welp, now I'm having flashbacks to the Whistler video that was circulating around the internet a while back.
That's what immediately came to my mind, too. Like "dude better run like hell before that boat lands."
Do you have the link
@@shortleader0958 Video: ua-cam.com/video/y9OLi6A2rzU/v-deo.html
Related story: www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3xg36j/serious_what_is_the_creepiest_thing_that_has_ever/cy4f6mm/
0:11, I knew that surprise was coming, yet I still screamed and nearly had a heart attack.
When I was still a little child I would hear whistles in the dead of night, my family are always asleep at that time. I didn't know El silbón back then so I thought that my brother was the one whistling to scare me of, I was really curious why I would always hear it in the night were people are asleep the whistling is still so vivid to me, I can describe it as a melancholic melody with a repeated rhythm there are also times were the pitch of the melody will go high but still I can hear it as if it's whistling near my ear . So, when I heard this story and I heard the whistling I was like "OMG this is the whistling that I've been hearing since I was a child!" That no one believe in me, so in short I wasn't hallucinating at all.
I stop hearing the whistling in the night when we start to have dogs in our house.
Bro this happened last night but I live in Cali and I heard whistling repeatedly I have it caught in my ring camera
I am beyond fascinated with the story of El Silbón. You can be assured this video will receive many views . . .
I can say with confidence your channel is *the* best channel on UA-cam. You also done a great video covering the "Loch Ness Monster" which I enjoyed very much. Especially since I am from Scotland
He definetly is a scary one, when I was younger I was camping there with some friends, I was walking down a road that led me out of the property, searching for a ring I lost, when I heard a whistle near to me and cold sweat started running down my back, I grow with the legend of that monster, listening to my instinct, I started to run away, the whistle started to sound distant and I saw a tall shadow near the property, in that moment I ran as fast as I ever did, I was so panicked I couldn´t even scream, I just ran until I found my friends. I ended spending that night with the granny of the property, praying a rosario while I cried. Horrible night but a great story once you arent in the Llanos
I actually had this guy show up in a Deadlands campaign once as an "antagonist" for one adventure.
The story goes the party was hanging out in Southern Mexico for a good while because of plot that happened, and found that they needed to go back up to the Americas (again, plot), but needed cash and supplies to make the trip. Conveniently, their needs were answered when this one rich cattle baron who owned a great many farms and ranches all throughout Mexico and South America approached them asking for help. It turned out he also needed to get up to the Americas partly for business reasons, but also to try and evade someone he believed was stalking him. He had no idea who it was, but kept hearing/seeing a figure out on the outskirts of his mansion's grounds that never seemed to go away no matter how many guards he sent after them.
Naturally, being a bunch of wild west gunslingers and mercenaries with a bit of a reputation as professional problem solvers, he offered a large reward if they worked for him as bodyguards - offering to double their pay if they happened to apprehend the stalker. Naturally, the party accepted and off they went on and off by train or horse and wagon.
Now not really anything of interest happened each time they took the train, but each night they travelled on the actual roads/trails, the more perceptive party members occasionally heard a faint sound. None of them could really identify it at first, but they mostly just chalked it up to birds or possibly bats out in the wilderness.
Meanwhile, each time they managed to get to a small town or village in the countryside, the party kept getting a chilly reception/occasional dirty looks from the locals. At first, they just chalked it up to the locals not liking outsiders or Americans all too much (only one party member was Mexican), but after a while they slowly started realizing it wasn't that the villagers disliked them, it was the cattle baron.
As they kept travelling, it slowly got revealed that this guy was, to put it simply, an greedy bastard. He'd gotten most of the land he now owned mostly by scamming honest farmers out of their livelihood and homes, or bribing/blackmailing government officials to give control of the land over to him, the stories of his misdeeds getting increasingly despicable with each stop they made - and the louder and clearer the strange sound they kept hearing on the road became...
Then, one night, as they were starting to become reluctant to help this guy go any further north, a pretty substantial dust storm was kicking up, as they came within a couple miles of yet another small village, they saw *something* standing out in the distance, just slightly ahead of the storm. No one could really make out who/what it was, just that it was tall... and that the strange "bird calls" were coming from its direction...
So the party rushed towards the village to try and beat out the storm, and to try and get somewhere defensible in case this mysterious figure was the stalker. After they tried to secure lodging, however, the party and their client were soon confronted by a small but very unhappy group of townsfolk who wanted them to get the hell out of their town, as they revealed a fair number of them used to live/work on the farms in the area before this cattle baron guy swindled them and drove them out.
But the real kicker was that the party met this old woman who, distraught, told one sympathetic party member about how this cattle baron guy wooed her daughter into marrying him, only for her to die under mysterious circumstances a few months after the marriage. Afterward, he took the family's farm for himself and married some other woman only a few *weeks* later.
So, the party was driven out by the townsfolk and now had to try and simply ride out the increasingly violent dust storm that was slowly brewing around them. Now, at this point, the party had had enough of this guy, and were now genuinely debating whether they just leave him stranded in the wilderness nearby, or send him back to the angry villagers (after robbing him of all his valuables, and his pants, of course).
But just as they were starting to debate their course of action, the party heard sounds again, and this time, it quite clearly wasn't bird calls...
It was *whistling*
So the party immediately stopped what they were doing and rushed down the road to the closest rail station in hope they could get to a semi defensible position for the stalker to arrive so they could meet him/her/it on their terms - the party had half a mind to just give the cattle baron over to the stalker and call it a day. So they reach the rail station just as the storm legitimately hits them, and they all hole up in a tiny station building for the rest of the night, all the while the whistling keeps getting louder and clearer, so much so that they can still hear it over the wind screaming around them.
Then, almost tow hours later, *he* slowly walks out into the view of the station. They only just barely see him, but they get the clear impression of a tall, stooped, emaciated figure with a sack over its shoulder slowly creeping around just out of the lights around the building, just enough that all they see clearly are the thing's eyes.
Now, you see, this whole time, the party more or less was convinced the stalker was a normal person. Maybe a jilted lover or a disgruntled former employee, since I'd made it clear throughout the campaign at this point that not everything in Deadlands needs to be supernatural to be interesting - one party member started to think it could've been an old fashioned ghost following them, but that specific character had a history of blaming every slightly odd occurrence on ghosts, so everyone took his claims with a grain of salt by default.
So when it became clear that El Silbón was, indeed, NOT a normal person, the party immediately started shooting at him out of sheer reflex (some of them even thought he was somehow causing the storm around them, which he actually wasn't, he just saw that moment as his time to strike). So they enter this defensive standoff with Silbón as he's slowly but surely making his way to the station building, meanwhile the cattle baron's having a nervous breakdown as he suddenly remembers and recounts how he heard about this guy from various workers on some of his farms in South America.
Then, just as they think they've driven El Silbón off and into the storm, he suddenly rushes this building from the side, smashes through a barricaded window, grabs the cattle baron by the neck and rips him through the hole in the barricade.
The cattle baron was a decent bit bigger than the hole Silbón opened up, but he fit through all the same... eventually...
Then, just as abruptly as he arrived, El Silbón left, taking just long enough to silently stare back to the party through the window for a second, slowly stuffing the still screaming remains of the cattle baron into his bag, before resuming his whistling and slowly walking back off into the storm - leaving behind a tired and thoroughly shook party, almost $2000 dollars of valuables and cash amidst the cattle baron's belongings, and one very frightened and confused station clerk...
This was almost a year ago, both in real time and in the (still ongoing) campaign. The party hasn't seen El Silbón or been back to Mexico or South America since, but they still get nervous every time they see a dust storm kick up, and they swear they can hear not only a faint "bird call" every time they see such a storm start up, but they *swear* they can hear something else, too - a man screaming...
tl;dr - The party took a job to protect/escort a rich cattle baron who thought he was being stalked by someone, learned he was a greedy prick who hurt/cheated a lot of innocent people to get what he had all across Mexico/South America, then got jumped by El Silbón in the middle of a dust storm. The big guy grabbed the guy they were escorting, who is now almost certainly worse than dead, but the party still got paid so it's all fine in the end.
Yay! I studied a lot of myths and legends for fun as a kid (yeah…I wasn’t popular lol) and I’m always so happy when you guys introduce one I’ve never heard of! Awesome episode, as always.
From Costa Rica here. It's great to see Latin American myths and legends in this channel. Thank you!
This was an amazing episode! I hope we are able to get more Meso-American monsters down folklore!
I love how across so many cultures and continents, some of the scariest monsters are tall, spindly, and mysterious humanoid figures. Makes you think why it’s such a common thing
There are a few variations of this legend in South America!
El Silbón... what a classic. As a member of a Colombian family who has always been deeply interested in folklore and legends, this story has been a favorite of mine since I first heard it. Thank you for this, it really did make me happy to see it.
Heard the whistle and nearly broke my thumb slamming that notification button
I love that you're doing venezuelan/colombian myths! I just wish you had a venezuelan or colombian person to talk about it, argentina is very far away and has a very different culture :(
I actually like people from other cultures talking about our myths, it's a way of sharing our culture to the world in a really universal way
Let the guy speak about it. He does a good job.
Now I know where they got the concept of Wolf/Death whistle in Puss in Boots 2.
Interesting. There was a old time radio show called The Whistler. The plot usually centered around a person who committed a crime but has unfortunate consequences which the Whistler, who is the narrator of the story, hints about. I wonder if the creators of the radio show were inspired by this creature.
That subtle whistle at the very end made me jump. Great video!
"Que no vayas para el monte
te dijeron Juan Hilario
Que en tierras de Portuguesa
un espanto anda rondando"
that's part of an old song about a man who fought el Silbon and survived... A legend from literally where i live
A true classic
These mythological videos are pure gold. I absolutely love them. Keep them coming and the fantastic work! It's much appreciated.
Note to self: if I need to walk outside alone at night in northern South America, whistle as I walk, bring a stick, wear a hat, wear a backpack. 💜
And a dog!
@@calituchi1 Nooo! if I want miscreants and ne'erdowells to think I'm el silbón, I can't have a dog because el silbón is afraid of them ^^
But are u tall tho
@@aokiocojongco1881 I'm tall for a woman, and the darkness and their belief will make me even taller >83
@@Ulthar_Cat you're a woman?
Won't they notice u have boobs😳
about a week ago, my boyfriend and I woke up to someone whistling a melody in the alley outside our window. as soon as we registered it, we paused our white noise, but it stopped. the more I find out about El Silbón, the more freaked out I get. our alley is mostly used by loud, drunk tourists walking back to the nearby hotel
El Silbón lives in Latin America, I really hope you’re not in Latin America. Good luck if you do. 🍀🍀🍀
Hey, just to share more of the story El Silbon is also known to sit outside people's houses and start counting the bones in his sack if no one wakes up and acknowledges that by morning someone in that house will die.
I'm from Guanare - Portuguesa, it's a region within "Los Llanos" of Venezuela. Seeing this made me cry, it's part of my culture and it makes me so proud that a channel like this is talking about it. Thank you!
great way to start the day
I was so happy to see this on Monstrum!!! Huge fan of your channel! Muchas gracias!!!
So glad you guys are covering this! One of my all-time favorite Latin American Legends/Monsters. Been watching this channel (Monstrum) for a while now and have been fascinated with the deep cuts -shout out to the Nuckelavee and Kasoganaga.
Would you ever do one on the Imbunche? I’ve always wanted to learn more about this monster and why/how it was created in Chilean culture.
I freaking love El Silvon. I feel it's one of the best and one of the scariest cryptid I've ever seen due to the subtle yet clever little fact that if you hear he is far away, he is actually really close. By just making that little change you make an amazing source of phycological terror! Imagine a "Slender" type game with that as the concept. Instead of seeing a weird man, you just hear whistling constantly. and your instinct is going to be to scape, but that's precisely what he wants
I love that he is a part of my forklore here in Venezuela. And in between all the awful crap going on throughout the continent, and specially here in Venezuela, in terms of politics and the economy and stuff. Tales like El Silvon and the many other amazing creatures found here in south America are one of the very few things that really makes me proud of my cultural heritage
oh yeah we also have this one!
We also have la mariamonte, el pollito malo (for real an evil chicken), en tunjo, el hombre caiman (alligator man), and others
Wait what? I'm from Venezuela and i've never heart about this "Pollito Malo" and you have really peaked my interest. Can you elaborate?
What's the Pollito Malo story? I mean, my grandfather raised chickens and some of them were nasty, but why is this particular one a monster?
@@sebastiangudino9377 siii, I think it's the same as the gallina fantasma, a monster from Clarines, Anzoátegui. My favorite version is written by Mercedes Franco in her book of ghost stories for children.
I kinda wanna know about this evil chicken
¿¿¿¿El pollito malo????
I'm happy you've past most of the common western myths and are focussing on less known ones from other places. Never heard about this one and I loved it
WOW! I had never heard of this creature but it's soooo creepy! A creature that carries the bones of his victims in a sack, & whistles as he works. Very chilling!
just as I was about to sleep, oh how i've yearned for another monstrum content drop
the wolf!
This legend could be a plausible inspiration for his whistling.
That would be beautiful.
This monster is FASCINATING thank you so much for making an episode on this!!
The contradicting whistle of El Silbon (loud if far, soft if near) reminds me of Malay ghosts, where a high-pitched laugh means it's far away, but a low, whispering giggle means it's nearby.
También, si el Silbón se pone a contar huesos en la puerta de tu casa, y lo escuchas, falleces al día siguientes. En Barinas, Guárico, Apure, Lara, todos estos estados de Venezuela, se dice que sale. Tengo varios amigos que lo han visto. Cuentos que al escucharlos te espeluca la piel. Por mi parte, también he ido a los llanos. De día, una belleza. De noche, es tan oscuro que no puedes ver ni tus manos frente a tus ojos. Yo no sé si sale, pero si alguien me dice que ve algo en esa oscuridad, lo creo.
Edit: El Vuelvan Caras en el 7:44. Bello.
this has got to be one of the most interesting monsters the show has covered
Love this channel and finding out about myths & legends from around the world. I only heard of this gentleman when the this video popped up in my feed. That whistle is eerie!
I’ve been waiting so much for this video to happen and I’m glad you put so much care and effort. As a venezuelan of llanera asendence and monster lover I’m so happy 🥺💘
Please, do a video sometime about another well-beloved monster from my country, a queen and man-eater, La Sayona 🖤
I grew up with this story as a little kid and it was terrifying and exciting pretty much my introduction to folklore and horror. Sometimes as a prank my friends would whistle like El Silbón in the halls of the school to spook students and it often worked which goes to show how many people in Venezuela were scared of El Silbón even in the city lol. Thank you so much for highlighting this fella. Means a lot 💕
El Silbón looks so intresting, This tall monster was way before the Slenderman.
I find it interesting, that the characteristic where you hear a particular noice near, actually means ist far away and vice versa, is also aplied with La Llorona sometimes.
In Wales, it applies to the Cwm(?) Arawn, or Arawn’s dogs.
Very well chosen music and of course, the whistling in the background.
Thank you for sharing a little piece ancient legends from South American Grasslands.
El Silbón was also the villain in an episode of Victor and Valentino.
We don’t talk about that show here
Yikes, I hate that show.
@@michiponcio Nobody asked
When I heard the term “Terror from South America” my first thought was Augusto Pinochet.
hugo chavez
Only a terror if you’re a communist.
Hugo Chávez
I heard of this story once. It was so chilling. The fact that if the whistling sounded close he was far away and if it sounded far away he was closer was so terrifying. This would be a good Latin America themed horror movie.
I am a simple man, I see a new monstrum episode show up. I click and watch.
Would love to see an episode on Trolls from scandinavian mythology
Every now and again, UA-cam just offers you a bit knowledge you didn't realise you needed. I will legit fall down a research wormhole now. Thanks Doctor Emily.
I remember remember hearing this a-hole in my backyard one time, it was honestly chilling. Strangely I live outside the area where he is said to appear, but since the area I live count's as Llano it really doesn't surprise me
Cool. I never heard of El Silbón, since I'm pretty unfamiliar with South American folklore.
The concept of El Silbón's whistle is similar to Kuntilanak's laughter of Indonesia (equivalent of wider Malay Pontianak). If you hear Kuntilanak's laugh loudly, she is actually far away and you're almost guaranteed to be safe, but if her laugh sounds so far away to the point that you hear echoes, she's probably already right behind you.
Ya know this reminds me of the whistle of death in puss in boots where a wolf would whistle when it gets close to puss
To be honest, I would love to see an in-depth analysis of the SCP franchise
This brings back memories of a classmate I had that could imitate the whistle perfectly and she'd often bust it out during class to scare our former classmates. Fun times.
I remember this story. It always scared me as a child. In the night I would hide under my blankets and I‘d always make sure the dogs weren‘t chained up over night so they could walk freely over our homestead and chase him away if needed
Sounds like something that can pop up in dead by daylight.
nice 👌
Another bludgeoning killer, with a whistle to throw off victims.
Truth be told, reminds me of the Deathslinger to a degree.
That would be lit
This should be the new killer because DBD has iconic slashers, creatures, iconic video game monsters and everything when it comes to horror now all were missing is classic monsters and legends.
Love all your videos but this one was especially fascinating. I'm familiar with all the creatures I've seen in your videos so far, but El Silbon I've never even heard of. There's much I don't know. Just fascinating, well done.
Now this is an interesting episode: a really cool, scary creature I’ve never heard of before.
I’ve definitely heard of this one somewhere before but have no idea how long ago that was.
And I have to say the slight format difference in this episode makes it more gripping.
Anyone who plays Dead By Daylight would think of him as a perfect new killer, called The Whistler.
WOW! A monster and a history lesson!
Oh man. Poor guy. He didn't deserve any of that-
*El Silbón:* _laughs as he beats a man with a stick_
Oh. So everyone's a monster in that family.
Enjoyed the episode greatly.
The takeaway for me was the idea that the monster stories of a culture highlight the things it found, and currently finds, important. I look forward to monster stories from around the world. What a fascinating concept!
El hombre del saco, el silbón, etc etc terrified me as a kid 😂 thanks mom
It's been a rough day. Monstrum is what I needed. Thank you.
Never heard of this guy. Pretty spooky. I really like his name.
So if it sounds like he's close, he's actually far away, and if it sounds like he's far away, he's actually close. Sounds like El Silbon has been taking a page out of the Pontianak's playbook.
Something about adding a whistle just makes things really creepy.
Dr. Z saving the day today with this video thank you.
I think the mvie villain from puss in boots 2 is based on this
A completely new one to me! And one with really interesting back stories in both the mythological and historical aspects.