People love dogs. But really, what is not to love? Those fluffy, silly, selfless creatures that seem to unconditionally love their owners. They come in different sizes and colors, so there’s love for everyone, you can teach them cool tricks (both funny and useful ones), and they can even get jobs! When you think about this millennia-old relationship developed with humans, there isn’t much room for bad memories.
What I’m trying to say is: Dogs = Love almost anywhere in the world.
If you happen to be a Catalan, however, you may belong in the group that, well, kind of likes dogs, but can also recollect some awfully bad memories regarding our furry fellows.
Why? Well, let me tell you.
Today I’ll talk about two hell-hounds hailing from Catalonia, Spain: the Pesanta and the Dip. They may be dogs, alright, but they’re far from being good boys. Let’s see why.
- The Pesanta
The Pesanta is this Catalan mythological figure that is shaped like a dog (rarely, almost never, as a cat too), and its raison d’être is destroying your good and well-deserved night of sleep. Its modus operandi is simple: it enters your house at night and lays down over your chest, making it terribly difficult for you to breathe and prone to horrible nightmares.
“Hey, but that’s not so bad!”, you may say, “A dog can’t be THAT heavy, right?”. Well, a regular one may not be that bad, sure, but this one is huge. And with iron legs. And with a black fur that weighs like lead.
Ok, but how the hell this small sized Panzer Tank enters your house at night and you don’t notice anything? See, the Pesanta is kind of spectral too, so it can invade your home by your keyholes or by any gaps in the door. Actually, it can pass through your wall Shadowcat-like with no further problems too if it wants, so yeah, it’s quite difficult to keep this bastard at bay.
When the Pesanta is not engaging in its disgusting habit of making people out of breath (not in the good way) and reach naked-at-school levels of nightmares, it also enjoys using its iron paws to hit stupid people who took the definitely bad decision of making a late-night walk with a dark, lead-furred beast on the loose.
The Pesanta has one weakness, though: Its iron legs have holes on it, and in such a pattern that it can’t effectively grab anything. Silly, huh? But it’s its only true weakness.
Fun fact: The tale of the Pesanta is intimately related with parasomnias (sleeping problems), specially sleep paralysis, a problem so afflictive that lots cultures around the world have a folklore-ish way of explaining it, usually a demon immobilizing someone or an impish creature resting over the said person (à la Pesanta).
- The Dip
The Dip is also a Catalan mythological figure, also shaped like a dog, also has a black fur, and also likes to destroy people’s lives in a way, but the similarities between this creature and the Pesanta end here. Let’s say the Dip is way gorier…
The Dip is a creature straight out of the depths of Hell, sent by the Devil himself, to terrorize human beings. As I said before, it has a black thick fur, but it is also easily recognizable by his limpy march, since it is lame on a leg, and by its intense red eyes. This demonic creature feeds on blood, with a special taste for human blood, there is.
You’ll notice a Dip is nearby when the cattle around the town starts dying, in a sucked-dry manner. Soon after that, if nothing is done, people wandering at night will be unceremoniously murdered (Already missing being hit by iron paws, right?) and, of course, sucked out of his/her blood too. And you know how people say that “God protects the drunkards and fools”? This surely doesn’t apply to our black-furred friend here, because according to some accounts, it has a sweet tooth for poor, drunk souls erratically strolling around.
You can say that the Dip is popular around Catalonia as a whole, but there’s one specific location where the legend is very much alive. The town of Pratdip in Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, is where the tale comes from, and besides having Dip even in the name (Dip comes from Dhiib, wolf in Arabic; the name of the town, then, can be translated as “Wolf Meadows”)), it also has the creature in its coat of arms! Check it out:
Fun fact: Just like the Pesanta has parallels in many cultures, it’s possible to find equivalents to the Dip all over Spain and the rest of the world too! Like the Tibicenas from Canarias (We’ll talk about them in the future) or the infamous Chupacabra.
Hey everyone! This post, just like the first one I posted on this blog, is the “standard” layout for whatever I decide to publish (2 shorter myths, I mean). I’d like to thank you all once again for your support! More tales coming soon!
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