Basilisco Chilote

What it is

In the stories of the Chiloé Archipelago off southern Chile, a monstrous serpent is said to hatch in secret beneath people's homes. The Basilisco chilote is pictured with a rooster's crest on a snake's body. It begins life as an egg, and the bird that warms it into hatching is a rooster rather than a hen. Once out of the shell, it digs a burrow underneath a house and settles in. There, the tale says, it lives on the phlegm and saliva of those overhead, and the household slowly dries out until all are dead. The creature belongs to Chilote mythology, the legends of the archipelago, and shares that company with beings like the Colo Colo. In the tale, the danger and the remedy share one address: the house itself.

Where it comes from

The creature's story braids local and European threads. One root lies at home: Chilote mythology already knew the Colo Colo, a being whose legends fed into this one. The stronger inheritance, though, came from farther away. The Basilisco chilote takes most of its shape from the cockatrice, a creature of European legend, and the cockatrice itself grew out of the older basilisk story. The tale is kept in Spanish-language books on the archipelago's mysteries and on its magic and witchcraft. Chiloé, an island group in southern Chile, is the only home the legend claims.

Tools and materials

Two things carry the story. One is the egg: a hen lays it, but a rooster is the bird that broods it into life, and in the tale flame ends it the moment it appears. The other is fire again, for once the creature has hatched, the story allows no other ending: the whole dwelling burns, serpent and burrow with it. The rooster's crest on the serpent's head completes the picture, a bird's mark on a snake's body.

What people believe

The story follows strict rules. The egg must be one laid by a hen yet hatched by a rooster; from it comes a creature with a cock's crest and a serpent's form. It digs itself a hole beneath a house and stays there, feeding on the phlegm and spit of the residents. As the feeding goes on, the household wastes away from loss of fluids until death. Two remedies appear in the tale. If the egg is burned the moment it is laid, and the hen that laid it is destroyed, no more eggs will follow. Once the creature has hatched, the only way to end it, the story says, is to burn the house down.

Compare and confuse

Three creatures shadow this one. The basilisk is the older European serpent whose legend lies behind the whole family. The cockatrice, which grew from that legend, is the closer model; the Chilean creature is said to take after it more than any other. The Colo Colo belongs to Chilote mythology itself, the local relative whose tales helped shape this story. A listener who knows the European pair can hear which strands of the archipelago's serpent came from where.

Questions people ask about Basilisco Chilote

Good reading and sources

• Basilisco Chilote on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data