Sukuyan in Trinidad

Sukuyan is a vampire creature of Trinidad and Tobago.  Melville Herskovits shared a story about a man who discovered that his wife is a Sukuyan.

The wife allegedly does not only feed on the blood of her husband, she also visits nearby homes in order to satiate her thirst for blood.  Eventually the man found out that his wife is drugging his tea drinks every night. One night he decided to pretend on drinking the tea.  He was already feeling daze due to sleepiness but he fight it in order to confirm his theory.

The man heard his wife say:

‘Kin, ‘kin, you no know me?‘Kin, ‘kin, you no hear what your mistress say?‘Kin, ‘kin, come off, come off! 

She witnessed how her wife took of her skin and placed it in a big water jar. She then jumped out of their house and into the roof.  The man was so surprised on what he saw.  That night the man noticed that the night seems to be on fire due to the color of the sky that illuminated the room.  The man took the skin of her wife and put a salt on it.  He then returned it back to the water barrel.  Before the breaking of dawn, the wife returned and attempted to wear back her skin but she couldn’t since the salt inside burned her.

‘Kin, go on.‘Kin, you no know me?‘Kin, you no hear what you mistress say?

The man also heard his wife said thrice “Skin squinch he draw, can’t go on, he burning he.”  The woman in fear of dying placed back her skin in the barrel and covered herself with a blanket and hid under the bed.  The man reported the incident to the authority where he was arrested and identified as a vampire creature.  She was executed by covering her entire body with tar and she was set on fire.