Magadalena's River Legends

What is the Legend of “La Madre Monte” in Colombia?

This legend tells that the peasants and lumberjacks who have seen her say that she is a bulky well built, elegant lady, dressed in fresh leaves and green moss, who is half woman and half a bush, with a hat covered with leaves and green feathers, but that she does not ever allow anyone seeing her face.

This supernatural being punishes all who harm nature, especially greedy hunters and lumberjacks. In the same way, it stuns everyone who is wrongdoing, planning misdeeds, losing them in the forest or jungle.

                                                                                                                    

Some claim to hear their screams and bellows on dark nights and dangerous storms. She lives in tangled places, with lush trees, away from the noise of civilization and in warm forests, with dangerous animals.

The peasants say that when Mother Mount bathes in the headwaters of the rivers, they become blurry and overflow, causing floods, strong storms, and frightful damage.

She punishes those who invade her lands and fight for boundaries; the disloyal, the wicked, the unfaithful husbands and the vagrants are also repremended. It curses with pests the cattle of the owners who usurp foreign lands or cut the fences of the adjoining ones.

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