Saturday, April 4, 2015

Keeping the Rougarou Away

The rougarou, or loup-garou, is a mythical swamp dweller in Louisiana who is very much like the werewolf of Eastern Europe. This is a human who shapeshifts into a wolf, whether when the moon is full, or by choice, or having failed for seven years to perform his or her Lenten duties. Anyway, rougarous are not very popular. Some parents advise their children to behave lest the rougarou come to get them!

Since there are these kinds of bad hombres running around, it is no surprise that in folklore there are supposedly effective techniques to thwart them. One way is to leave 13 pennies or 13 beans by the door to the house. Supposedly, when the rougarou tries to enter to do some mischief on a child within, he starts to count the pennies. However, rougarous are dense: they can't count past twelve and so they get upset and go away. I put out 13 pennies, just in case!



7 comments:

Elvis Wearing a Bra on His Head said...

It's a creepy critter, straight out of 1930's movies.

TexWisGirl said...

interesting bit of lore!

Cherdo said...

Finally - an effective way to guard against loup-garou! I'm getting the change purse...

Mike said...

Leaving 13 beans could be kind of risky should a little critter come along and eat one of them.

The Bastard King of England said...

A nice bit of lore!

Dixie@dcrelief said...

So in this case 13 is good luck? But, beans?

Bilbo said...

If I put out 13 beans or coins in front of my door, will it also keep the Jehova's Witnesses and itinerant salesmen away?