Native North American Vampire?

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (obit 1558), on his trips into the wilderness of North America, did not meet a vampire: but he heard about a creature that sounded strikingly like one and that had caused the Indians some problem a generation before, c. 1500. It would be tempting to say that we are referring to a dreamtime outside of time. And yet… And yet… The Indians showed Álvar the wounds that the Bad Thing had left on their bodies.

These Indians and the ones we left behind told us a very strange tale. From their account it may have occurred fifteen or sixteen years ago. They said there wandered then about the country a man, whom they called ‘Bad Thing’, of small stature and with a beard, although they never could see his features clearly, and whenever he would approach their dwellings their hair would stand on end and they began to tremble. In the doorway of the lodge there would then appear a firebrand. That man thereupon came in and took hold of anyone he chose, and with a sharp knife of flint, as broad as a hand and two palms in length, he cut their side, and, thrusting his hand through the gash, took out the entrails, cutting off a piece one palm long, which he threw into the fire. Afterwards he made three cuts in one of the arms, the second one at the place where people are usually bled, and twisted the arm, but reset it soon afterwards. Then he placed his hands on the wounds, and they told us that they closed at once. Many times he appeared among them while they were dancing, sometimes in the dress of a woman and again as a man, and whenever he took a notion to do it he would seize the hut or lodge, take it up into the air and come down with it again with a great crash. They also told us how, many a time, they set food before him, but he never would partake of it, and when they asked him where he came from and where he had his home, he pointed to a rent in the earth and said his house was down below. We laughed very much at those stories, making fun of them, and then, seeing our incredulity they brought to us many of those whom, they said, he had taken, and we saw the scars of his slashes in the places and as they told.

Estos, i los de mas atràs, nos contaron una cosa mui estraña, i por la cuenta que nos figuraron, parescia que havia quince, ò diez i seis años, que havia acontescido, que decian, que por aquella Tierra anduvo vn Hombre, que ellos llaman Mala cosa, i que era pequeño de cuerpo, i que tenia barbas, aunque nunca claramente le pudieron vèr el rostro, i que guando venia à la Casa, donde estaban, se les levantaban los cabellos, i temblaban, i luego parescia à la puerta de la Cafa vn tiçon ardiendo: i luego aquel Hombre entraba, i tomaba al que queria de ellos, i dabales tres cuchilladas grandes por las hijadas, con un pedernal mui agudo, tan ancho como vna mano, i dos palmos en luengo, i metia la mano por aquellas cuchilladas, i sacabales las tripas, i que cortaba de una tripa poco mas, ò menos de un palmo, i aquello que cortaba echaba en las brafas, i luego le daba tres cuchilladas en un braço; i la segunda daba por la sangradura, i desconcertabaselo, i dende à poco se lo tornaba à concertar, i poniale las manos fobre las heridas, i deciannos, que luego quedaban sanos: i que muchas veces, quando bailaban, aparescia entre ellos en habito de Muger vnas veces, i otras como Hombre: i quando èl queria, tomaba el Buhìo, ò Casa, i subiala en alto, i dende à un poco caia con ella, i daba mui gran golpe. Tambien nos contaron, que muchas veces le dieron de comer, i que nunca jamàs comiò, i que le preguntaban donde venia, i à què parte tenia fu Casa, i que les mostrò vna hendedura de la Tierra, i dixo, que fu Cafa era allà debaxo. De estas cosas, que ellos nos decian, nofotros nos reìamos mucho, burlando de ellas: i como ellos vieron que no lo creìamos, truxeron muchos de aquellos, que decian que èl havia tomado, i vimos las señales de las cuchilladas, que èl havia dado en los lugares, en la manera que ellos contaban.

Cabeza de Vaca interpreted this unpleasant creature as the devil.

Read more here: http://www.strangehistory.net/2012/11/13/native-north-american-vampire/