Carbuncle (legendary Creature)

Carbuncle (; ) is a legendary species of small animal in South American folklore, specifically in Paraguay or the mining folklore of northern Chile.

The animal is said to have a red shining mirror, like hot glowing coal, on its head, thought to be a precious stone. The animal was called (emended spelling) in the Guarani language according to Barco Centenera who wrote an early record about pursuing the beast in Paraguay. There are other attestations for from the Tupi-Guranani speaking populations in Brazil.

To the colonial Spaniards and Portuguese, the creature was a realization of the medieval lore that a dragon or wyvern concealed a precious gem in its brain or body (cf. ).

Etymology

The English word carbuncle and the Spanish word carbunclo comes from the Latin ''carbunculus'', meaning "little coal" (i.e. carbon). is used to refer to ruby because this gemstone's shine is said to resemble the glow of hot coal. However, it is garnet and not ruby that is said to have been the mineralogical identity of the so-called "carbuncle of the ancients".

In turn, the creature was named after the red gem. It was around the 1600s, Spanish conquistadors began to apply the name to a mysterious small animal they saw in South America.

In Spanish, the forms are attested, and rarely perhaps also. The term could also mean "firefly".

The creature may sometimes called (meaning "lantern"), though this might be considered a separate creature of the lore of the La Plata area in Argentina.

Sources

Descriptions of the carbuncle came mostly from 17th- to 19th-century Spanish language sources which remained untranslated, but an entry for "carbuncle" appeared in the English translated version of the ''Book of Imaginary Beings'' (1969) by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges, even though the entry on this creature was unincluded in the original Spanish edition. Some later publication in Spanish, such as ''El Libro de la Mitología'' (1997/1998) by Chilean writer Renato Cárdenas.

Early accounts

The chaplain and explorer Martín del Barco Centenera in '' La Argentina'' (1602) called it (''recté'' ; cf. below) and described it as "a smallish animal, with a shining mirror on its head, like a glowing coal".
As explained in the ''Book of Imaginary Beings'', this explorer Barco Centenera "underwent many hardships hunting the reaches of Paraguayan rivers and jungles for the elusive creature; he never found it." Barco Centenera had explained in marginal notes that the beast ''carbunculo'' was called in Guarani approximately meaning "the devil that shines like fire".。

The mirror in the carbuncle's head was likened to two lights observed by Spanish explorers in the Strait of Magellan by another conquistador Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, who also commented the gem was reminiscent of the legend about a gemstone supposedly hidden in the brains of a dragon. Oviedo probably had read from the dragon lore given by Isidore of Seville in the 7th-century ''Etymologiae''.

18th century

In an account of the prodigious monster that appeared in the mountains of the Kingdom of Chile (published 1751), a group of men follow a moving source of light, which would dim and shine. One of the men explained his belief that "this light must come from some carbuncle tone often said to be the most precious stone in the world; he stoneshone at night odgedon the head of a certain species of dragon, which was rarely caught, because it only grazed at night by the light of that brilliant stone.. and when it sensed any noise, it covered the said stone with a membrane, which they had for that purpose, making everything dark.." The village seniors, who dubbed the beast the "" ("brute") then discussed its capture in a trapping pit.

While it is not clear to what extent this beast corresponds to a carbuncle monster, modern commentary on it points out there is a connection between the Latin American carbuncle monster and the medieval lore that a ''vouivre'' (''guivre''≈wyvern) holds a carbuncle gem on its head.

Friar Feijóo's ''Teatro crítico universal'' (1726–1739) writes on the current myth about a supposed creature with a "carbuncle" on its head, better called a "Astro Elemental" since it purports to be worth ten times as much as diamond. He believes travelers to the East invented or imported such fable that a King of Persia here or an Emperor of China there owned such a gem, but these were fabulous, and the gem was really only a (mined) ruby. He also read Louis Moréri's encyclopedia entry under Dolomieu village that in 1680 a flying dragon had been slain which carried a carbuncle on its forehead. Feijóo considered this a concocted old wive's tale or fable, but knows of a painting depicting the dragon of Dolomieu as cat-headed, and wonders if this might be the origin of the rumor, which he heard many times, of the animal with the carbuncle on its forehead bearing the shape of a cat.

General description

The description of the animal vary; and "no one ever saw it well enough to know whether it was a bird or a mammal, whether is had feathers or fur". In Chile some say it moves like a firefly in the night.

In Latin American lore, it is said to hold treasures inside so whoever manages to capture it will become wealthy. An alleged specimen seen in Ovalle on the Tulahuén hill in Coquimbo Region, Chile shone bright from the jewel and gold inside it.
Or else, such gemlike gleam is supposed to be a guiding beacon to naturally occurring treasures. In Catamarca Province, Argentina, the ''carbunclo'' is considered an imaginary animal that emits a much light from its head, while many believed the light source to be a carbuncle (gem).

In Tarapacá, it is said to look like a bivalve with a strong white-blue shine from within the shell which can be observed from a distance 1 league away; this "bivalve" has an acute sense of hearing, so that it can quickly detect humans approaching, and clam up inside its hard shell, and be mistaken for a stone. According to some, it is shaped like a corncob but is articulated or jointed, and according to a witness who tracked it, it had bluish white light leaking from the joints, and had more than four limbs.

It was a creature larger than a mouse but equipped with a hard shell, as crudely described by a certain laborer who was in too much of a hurry to kill it and seize the gold and riches from the shell before attracting the greedy notice of others. It is commented that the man got rich but science suffered the knowledge lost.

During the great drought of 1924–25 there were reported sightings of carbunclos on moonless nights. Around 1925 a family of carbunclos was seen descending from the mountain of Tulahuén towards Río Grande (Coquimbo Region).

Chilote mythology

In the Chilote mythology of southern Chile the carbunclo is said to be the "guardian of the metals". Descriptions of it vary, from a luminescent small dog, a luminescent bivalve, a cat with a luminescent lock or tuft under its beard or a greenish-red fiery light reminiscent of fireflies. Varitation in color has been explained as the creature's property of taking on the color of the metal or treasure it is guarding. Whoever becomes owner of the luminous beard is said to become free from poverty.

The carbunclo is said to manifest itself at night around the Southern Hemisphere winter solstice (late June).

Legend prescribes a certain method which needs to be followed in order to retrieve the carbunclo's treasure: First, a length of string, or a belt (or some personal belonging) must be cast towards the carbunclo which will snatch it and disappear. The treasure seeker shall wait and return to the site in the morning before dawn, and search for signs of the thrown object, as the tail end of it should be sticking out of the ground to mark the buried treasure, and the spot will usually be the foot of a spiny ''calafate'' (''Berberis microphylla'', Magellan barberry) shrub. The treasure seeker must wait again, until midnight, to dig it up in a certain prescribed way: with a new shovel in hand and in the company of an old widow holding a black cat. When he has dug a '' vara'' (Spanish yard) deep, he must throw the black cat into the hole, which will vanish, but soon reappear the woman's hands, and for each fresh yard dug, the cat must be tossed in again. If this ritual is not performed, the digger will die in the pit due to noxious gas. He must also not show any sign of fear the treasure will turn into rock.

Brazilian or Guarani mythology

In the state Rio Grande do Sul of Brazil, the lore of the as a fabulous animal and provender of riches had formed around the time of conquest, and was spread through missionaries. Conflation with this tradition may have created the mythical lizard known in the Guarani languages as the , though others only concede vaguely that there was some sort of Christian influence on the lore of the ''teiniaguá'' in Tupi-Guarani mythology.

The notion that the "red devil" (, ), the Andean ''carbunco'' () and the ''teiniaguá'' of the missionaries are the same creature by different names was held by Spanish philologist Daniel Granada, but his insistence on equating the three has faced criticism. A connection between the ''carbúnculo'' and the mythical Tupi-Guarani serpent ''mboitatá'' has also been proposed by Granada and , but refuted by Câmara Cascudo who didn't think the serpent was connected with gold. In addition, Granada or Teschauer had thought the golden lizard () from the Mãe-do-Ouro cycle could be connected to the ''carbunco''.

Algerian attestation

According to a letter from Oran, Algeria dated 29 August 1736, a Spanish soldier who was stationed there at the fort (of Castillo de San Gregorio) claimed to have caught a carbuncle (, annotated as what the Greeks call "") with a shining gem lodged in its forehead. Its was initially witnessed nightly by a number of men around 12 midnight, a short distance away from this fort, as a dazzling glow at Cubo de San Roque (apparently a hole or cave). The soldier came off duty one midnight and encountered the dazzling creature emerging from the said cave. It was a "small animal like a weasel (), with dark brown fur that was very soft and smooth, a short tail a little less bushier than a squirrel's, its front or back paws and body like a weasel, its head long, its eyes large and beautiful, and between them, in the middle of the forehead, a singular Stone like a hazelnut in the shape of a diamond point, which is covered with a little cap, or hood of skin". This cap had to be peeled back forcibly in order to see the stone while it was alive. It wouldn't take food so it was slaughtered and skinned after two days.

Rational explanations

According to some, the carbuncle is explainable as a bivalve mollusk which glows because of bioluminescence from the "" (''Noctiluca scintillans'') or from fireflies.

In games

Carbuncle is a recurring character in the Final Fantasy series of role-playing games, and "appears as a small
creature, fox- or squirrel-like, with green or blue fur, depending on the game". It often appears as an ally that can be summoned by magic, providing protection against magical attacks. Occasionally, it acts as a vital component of the plot, along with its fellow summons.

The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons monster manual ''Fiend Folio'' describes the carbuncle as an armadillo-like creature with a removable ruby on its forehead (illustrated by Albie Fiore).

It also appeared in the game '' Madō Monogatari'' and ''Puyo Puyo'', the latter having reused many of the monster characters from the former. Carbuncles also appear as a common enemy in the game Reverse: 1999, depicted as black cat-like critters who love dust.

See also

* , associated with mineral deposits
* Boitatá - A serpent monster ''cum'' will-o'-the-wisp
* - set phrase, whose sinetic analogue is
* uktena - serpent of the Cherokee, with a diamond on forehead.

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

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Spanish-language South American legendary creatures
Mining in Chile
Mining spirits
Mythological felines
Legendary dogs
Mythological molluscs
Chilote legendary creatures
Gemstones in popular culture
Guaraní mythology
Dragons
Argentine legends
Brazilian folklore
Chilean legends
Chilean mythology
Paraguayan folklore
Legendary treasures
Cat folklore