Huay Chivo
The Huay Chivo is a sorcerer who becomes a black, fiery-eyed goat or dog to raid livestock at night. Rooted in Maya shapeshifter traditions (wayob), it can be driven off with prayers, salt, and dawn’s light.
Story beats
- 1) A person makes a pact or learns witchcraft, gaining power to assume beast form after dark.
- 2) Glowing eyes and hooves prowl haciendas, slaughtering goats and leaving scorched prints.
- 3) Farmers set salt lines, holy water, and midnight vigils; gunshots barely slow the shapeshifter unless struck at dawn.
- 4) Capturing or wounding the beast injures the human body; revealing the culprit breaks the curse or invites revenge.
Context & symbolism
Huay Chivo tales mix pre-Columbian wayob (animal-soul companions) with colonial fears of witchcraft and cattle theft. They caution against envy and hidden malice within the community, turning ordinary neighbors into potential predators.
Dawn-as-bane highlights nighttime vulnerability and moral light dispelling secrecy. Charred hoofprints link the creature to balefire and the underworld Xibalba.
Motifs
- Glowing goat eyes and scorched hoofprints
- Salt, holy water, and sunbreak as wards
- Pain shared between beast and human form
- Livestock bloodletting as signature
Use it in play
- Track a livestock killer whose wounds mirror a respected villager’s injuries.
- Lay salt lines around corrals while surviving night assaults from the Huay Chivo.
- Break the pact by reclaiming a token hidden in a cenote before dawn.
- Decide whether to expose the sorcerer to the town or secretly cure them, balancing justice and mercy.