INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

Happy February - this is one of the coldest times in the UK so we’re heading somewhere warmer this week just to reminisce about hotter times, because if you don’t manifest it - you’ll just cry in your big duvet for the winter.

DESCRIPTION:

Yes this week, we’re heading over to the wonderful Peru in South America for this monster - the Yacumama. I’m going to start this off by saying there are two different pronunciations for this monster - one with a Y sound, and another with a J sound - HOWEVER, I could not find one that is dominant so I’m going with the Y sounding one. I watched loads of Spanish TV reports to no avail, and ended up going with what my lovely Venezuelan pal Sooz suggested with the soft Y, so there.

Anyway, enough about its name. This monster is a massive snake from the Amazon river basin - which stretches through most of the northern countries of South America, such as Peru, Brazil, Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela. 

However, this monster is mostly known from Peru, and lives within the Boiling River section of the Amazon, which is named that way because it is home to hot springs, which bring the temperature up to almost boiling point at 100C - killing almost anything that lives within or near it. It’s also the only boiling river in the world, and is a natural beauty - highly recommend looking it up. It’s also said to be home to a water spirit which heats the water, but that’s a whole other story I’ll leave for another time. 

And of course, the Yacumama is not just an ordinary giant snake, this is a massively long snake, reaching an unbelievable 100 feet in length with at least a 2 metre wide head, so you can only imagine how big the rest of it was. It has the colouring of a large boa constrictor, so that dark, patchy skin - but the general look and physicalities of an anaconda, with the ability to live completely underwater. Both of these features help it blend into its surroundings in the deep amazon rainforest and in the waters within it. It does also benefit from being able to withstand the temperatures from the Boiling River, but tends to laze about on the river banks where it can catch prey.

Much like the modern anaconda, it has tremendous strength and is able to pull in anything around the river bed from large animals to humans, and is able to swallow anything in one fair swoop - no chewing required. However, it does also have the additional power of being able to suck in anything that comes within 100 feet of it, which is pretty impressive. Sometimes it’s said that the Yacumama could also spit boiling water, but I honestly couldn’t find anything to back that up officially. 

They are also known to move around their areas, and will fell trees and create paths in the ground by just how enormous they are - and of course, that leads people to go hunting for them too, or reminds them to stay off of that path in fear of being eaten too. They will literally eat anything in their path, or that they can access easily enough, although they can even eat natural predators like big cats, other reptiles or apes, because they are just that strong and massive. If you’re not crushed to death by their immensely strong grip, because remember, snakes are literally just muscle - it’s why boa constrictors are called that, you’re gonna just end up being digested I’m afraid, and that sucks. The only thing they won’t eat from the land is a common tapir, which are their sworn enemies - why? You’ll find out later, it’s in their origin story.

It’s pretty certain that there were more than one Yacumama, they were all over the place - but they would never attack their own kind or anything else that lives in the water due to a maternal link to them, which I’ll talk about in a minute. 

Is there something you can do to stop it from attacking? Yes, but only one thing - and that’s to blow on a conch horn before entering the water, which would only force the Yacumama to reveal itself if it is around the water you are going to enter. It doesn’t stop it attacking you, but it tells you to not go near that body of water again. 

ORIGIN:

In terms of etymology, Yacumama is a Quechuan word, which is a language from one of the Indigenous tribes of Peru. The term yacu means ‘water’ and mama, mother - which is pretty self explanatory. What I didn’t explain earlier because of this great etymology is that the Yacumama, name confirmed, is the mother of all things in the water - which is why it won’t eat anything that lives primarily in the river itself, due to this maternal image as protector and mother of the water itself. Sorry I held that back, it fit too well into this little section. 

It is also described as a protector of the River itself, going back to the mention of the water spirit that creates the Boiling River, keeping it from harmful influences, most likely humans though at this point. The Amazon is of course one of the natural unexplored wonders of the world too, and in constant need of protection, so maybe this creature is what will stop us from tearing it apart - who knows.

For this monster's history, it’s pretty complex but pretty amazing too because this monster goes all the way back to Incan times. The Incans were an ancient Mesoamerican civilisation along the west coast of South America in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and Columbia. The empire started in around 1200 AD and fell to the Spanish conquerors in 1532 which is pretty sad, but the remnants of them still remain in their little empire zones, for example Machu Picchu in Peru is Incan. The other Mesoamerican civilisations are Aztec and Mayan, which fell a similar way and existed at around the same time in different areas.

ANYWAY, how does this relate to our monster? Well because all of these civilisations used snakes in all their godly roster so we know they meant a lot to them. The Aztecs were actually way ahead and used a giant snake for one of their main gods, Quetzalcoatl - the god of wind and rain who we will cover eventually. He’s known as Kukulcan in Mayan, but in Inca, snakes had a different representation - and this is the civilisation that ruled over the part of the world our monster is from.

The Inca had a belief in the trilogy of animals to represent their worldview - with the condor, the cougar and the snake, which you will see if you visit any tourist sights. They represent the upper world or heaven, the world of the living and the world of the dead respectively. The snake being this deathly figure is also considered unlucky within the native Quechua populace, and it’s believed their appearance indicates death or issues with farming.

The original legend that is told to this day is also still going around which is the following; hundreds of years ago, there was a fisherman who would fish in the small quiet rivers in the evening when it was better to catch more. He cast his net, and suddenly a great head had emerged of a serpent, about a metre above the water. Terrified, he threw himself onto shore and tried to run into the jungle, but the Yacumama followed - the fisherman fell to his knees and prayed and all of a sudden 4 tapirs fell from the sky into the water, distracting the Yacumama enough for the man to get away. That’s the tapir reason I mentioned earlier, and I get why they’re not friends - you can also see the bad luck with the farming aspect here too.

So the image of the snake in these Incan states was pretty negative. Now if we put the idea of these bad snakes from the time, plus big snakes in the Amazon themselves - of course you are going to get reports of giant ones - it happens. However, the most common snakes to see would be ones in the trees, such as boas, coral snakes, tree vipers and rattlesnakes - which don’t really get much bigger than a boa at around 10ft, most average out at around 5-6. But anacondas, which are, as we know NOW, more elusive, are much bigger, averaging at 16 feet - so maybe seeing a much bigger snake than usual was proper scary and worthy of emphasising a little bit back home back in the day. So it kind of makes sense that this becomes this immense scary, man eating snake spirit - but how has this persisted in modern day? 

Well, they still happen even though we know what the average anaconda looks like - I’ve seen a few in real life and I live on the opposite side of the world. I literally live 20 minutes away from one at Colchester Zoo - so we definitely have more exposure in modern times. However, there are still myths of the Yacumama around today, and some people in the area swear blind that they have been attacked or have seen one. There are videos on YouTube of sightings, so it is still something that is believed in. 

The most modern story is that in the 1900’s, two men went looking for the Yacumama, managed to blow it up and make it bleed and come to the surface, where they saw it’s massive size - turns out it wasn’t dead though, and they rowed out of there as fast as they could. In 1906, the explorer Percy H.Fawcett shot a giant anaconda and said that it was 62 feet long - however, this was dismissed by herpetologists as a farce. 

Two brothers, Greg and Mike Warner, then mounted an expedition in 2009 and apparently found one - and their research was convincing enough to get National Geographic interested. They found that it was more likely a type of caecilian, which look more like worms than snakes, and are technically amphibians due to the horns that are apparent on the giant snake's head. Following this, there are more and more reports of these monsters to this day, with hotels, restaurants and tourist agencies in the area even using the Yacumama for names. 

However, speaking of real life comparisons - of course, could be that this is just an overly large anaconda, it seems the most reasonable suggestion as it has the same traits. But there are arguments that this could be the thought-extinct Titanoboa, which was a prehistoric snake that grew to be around 40 feet long on average. Fossils have found them in water logged areas, and so scientists are sure that this was a water based snake - but this one is also venomous, and would often fight each other, shown by holes in the fossils found. It’s believed that this creature died off 60-58 million years ago, but they did live in Columbia - so it makes sense that this myth exists there. 

The same argument for the Megalodon existing now can be made for the Titanoboa, we know they did exist once, and considering they are water based - who really knows? 

In terms of mythical comparisons though, this certainly isn’t the only big snake within mythology - there are so many throughout world mythology that we can look at. However, there are a few in American mythology such as the Tlanusi from Native myth, which is basically a giant leech - but we’ll cover this another time. But there were two other snakes within Mesoamerican myth too, the Sachamama and the Minhocão. The Sachamama was the Earth Mother snake to contrast this one, and is certainly as popular and the Minhocão is a giant worm from Brazilian folklore that again, lives in the water and causes havoc - gross.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, we don’t have anything specific on Yacumama I’m afraid, at least, not any that I could find. So here are some of my suggestions for big anacondas or like minded water or jungle snakes in the media!

For art, I actually really recommend independent art this week - it’s where I found my marketing image which is super cool, but there is an original old style drawing of this from way back when you can find in an South American or typical Aztec art style - not sure what to suggest to find it as it has no artist or anything, but you’ll find it when image searching.

There is also a statue of a Yacumama in Parque Tematico in Peru, so if you’re around there - you can go check this out! It’s a lifesize model so it’s a bit creepy!

In movies, we have; The Jungle Book, Mowgli, Anaconda 1-4, Snake, Lake Placid vs Anaconda, Koati & Megaconda. 

For TV, we have; Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Ninjago, Primal, The Legend of Tarzan, Primeval: New World, River Monsters, Deadly 60 & 72 Dangerous Animals.

In video games, we have ones such as; Final Fantasy 7 & 11, Jurassic World Alive, Jurassic World: The Game, Bladed Fury, The Crystal of Kings, Sonic Forces & Spinmaster.

My book recommendation this week is Mesoamerican Mythology: Fascinating Myths and Legends of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes and Monster from the Ancient Maya, Inca and Aztec Mythology by Simon Lopez for a great summary on all things Mesoamerican monsters, and you can have a look at the rest of the mythology too!

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

Well this one is interesting, because I want to say it probably did, but once - not now. I think it’s possible that this was a massive anaconda, which is totally believable back in 1200 as the climate was so different, and species were undiscovered. But I think either they got smaller by nature, or this was a different species of big water snake that got too big for its belly - much like the Titanoboa and the Megalodon - there’s just not enough prey for something like this to survive on I’m afraid. 

Also, it lives in a pretty much inhabitable environment in that Boiling River, and considering that snakes are cold blooded, and super fussy about how warm they are and how much they eat - I’m just not sure about this one. But as always, I never completely say no - especially to water monsters, and to be honest - Amazon monsters - because we just don’t know what's in those thick forests, and those deep waters.

But what do you think? Did the Yacumama roam the Amazon? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

What a fantastic monster, and such a great mythology that we don’t cover much. I honestly knew very little about the Mesoamerican civilisations until this episode, and I cut a huge chunk out that I learnt, because I literally did not know the difference between Incan, Mayan and Aztec - because it was way too long, but if you want to know, let me know and I’ll tell you all about it.

Next week, we’re heading over to Ancient Greece for the first time in ages, and you’ll know if you’ve been listening for a while that this is my favourite mythology - and this week’s monster is no exception - bring along a couple of virgin girls and some string for the mighty Minotaur next Thursday!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.