Don't Kill The Cow Too Quick - Bocas Bits & Pieces

Eduardo Atencio, a Guaymi Indian, says he played marbles with me. It is his way of
reminding me we have the same number of years and could have played marbles
together, had we known each other back in the 1930s.
I asked Eduardo if he believed in obejas, (Witches). As I have found on a number of
occasions the answer started in the negative but as conversation continued changed to
the affirmative without the speaker being aware.
“No I no give no mind to obejas and espritus,   They went when the teachings of the Lord
come. The Lord he drive them out.” Eduardo told me.
“One night I go to Water Cay from Bocas and when I am between Isla Popa and where I
am going, a big boat come in front of me. The boat he has many lights and many people
talking but I can’t know what it is they say. It give me a big fright and I call on the Lord
and the boat he vanish.”
In Finca Valle, the farm Eduardo gave to his daughter Adela, there are two huge rocks,
each more than twenty feet in height and forty feet in girth. It is thought they were thrown
there by one of the past eruptions of Vulcan Baru.   Adela pointing to one of the rocks
told me that it is the home of a tuliabeja.
“If you are here in the evening you may hear her calling. At first she doesn’t make much
noise but sometimes she gets louder. Once she was so loud the ground shook. I was
frightened and ran all the way to my house.
I asked Eduardo if he had heard her.
“Many times I hear her.”
“Do you believe she is a spirit?”
”Sure I believe she a spirit. I hear her.”
Valentino Smith, a descendent of Bill Smith, the first Creole to settle in Bocas and
Jacinto Rodriquiez and his wife Octavia, Bugle Indians from Santa Catalina, have told
me of similar tuliabeja experiences.
Eduardo, Valentino and Jacinto were all born in the 1930’s. However, if you think it is
only those of us who are near our end who still believe in spirits in some form or other,
ask a young Bocas mother if she tied a red bracelet around the wrist of her new born
baby. The chances are she will say she did to protect her baby from being looked upon
by a person with ojos fuerte. Some pregnant ladies wear a red ribbon around their waist
to protect their baby prior to birth.
Danilio Lewis, a young man in his early thirties, was one of the first security guards for
Red Frog Beach Club on Isla Bastimentos, where his duties were to guard a bodega.
When other guards mentioned a ghostly lady in white walking at night from the beach up
through the property, he told them it was all in their minds until he too came to see her.
He saw her on several occasions but when bright lights were installed in the area, she
ceased to visit.

If any estranjeros have encountered a tuliabeja, I would appreciate hearing from them.
Truth only please, no fiction!

TULIABEJAS
Female Spirits

While researching local superstitions, I have come across several stories of
encounters with tuliabejas, female spirits. I am interested to know if any readers,
who are not native to Bocas, have encountered a tuliabeja.
Some say tuliabejas are good spirits but others say that all spirits are bad. From
Bocas to Santa Catalina on the far side of Escudo de Veraguas, many locals have
experienced the presence of the tuliabeja. Some tell me they have seen her, a
faceless woman dressed all in white. Many have told me they have heard her call
and their imitations of the call have been remarkably similar, a deep throated
oooogh. I have suggested that the sound could have come from distant howler
monkeys but that does not account for Santa Catalina, where there are no monkeys. .
The encounters usually take place late in the day and near to a creek. It is said the
tuliabeja is searching for a baby that she hid in the grass on the creek’s bank.
The following is one account of several that have come my way.