Aventesmas/Coisas Ruins
The word aventesma has some different meanings. Someone scary, a ghost, but for the fishing town of Póvoa de Varzim, it is a creature all of its own.
Coisa Ruin literally is just an old way (or the current Brazillian Portuguese way) to say ‘’bad thing’’. It comes from the same place and a lot of times used interchangeably with aventesma/abentesma (both ways are fine). But other times they are different things.
Oh, Happy All Souls Day.
Some say they are the souls of those who stay behind for one reason or another. An apparition, a specter, a phantom, practically. But something differentiates them from the usual alma-penada.
When midnight comes, the world no longer belongs to those human and living. If you find yourself awake and outside after another day ends, be very careful. Being a rosary, a mirror or a cross.
If you see an animal, even one harmless as a chicken or a cat, ignore them. Don’t even look at them. They are not what you think they are. Some Coisas Ruins won’t be under any disguises, appearing as undescribable beasts. You’ll know what they are when you see them surrounding you.
If you see shadows where there weren’t any before, call upon the holy trinity and hope for the best. When you can finally return home don’t turn on any light, if whatever was after you managed to followed you, you don’t want it to know where you live. Maybe a murmuring prayer is a good idea. You are only safe when dawn breaks, or when after your prayers you hear a small explosion and see the smoke. They explode when they can’t get to you, as goofy as that sounds.
Some avestesmas are trully lost spirits, like almas-penadas. They wear priest-like robes and seem mostly human. Still, like most other Portuguese creatures, you’ll know they’re not human when you look at them more closely.
Those spirits are... tall... Almost two times more than the average human. They tower over you and you are not imagining when you think they’re getting taller. The more you look, the bigger they become. Now you can no longer look away but there’s a trick to leave.
If you let them grow enough, they will fall over and form an arch. Take off one of your shoes and throw it. If the shoe passes through, you too can go under the arc and go on unharmed. If it bounces back, don’t go. Stay where you are and wait for the sunrise. God knows what will happen to you if you even attempt to cross the aventesma’s arc after your shoe bounces back.
I never heard of someone foolish enough to do it, but that’s probably because they didn’t return home to tell the tale.
That was fun!
Sources: ‘’O Póveiro: Usos, Costumes, Tradições, Lendas’’ by A. Santos Graça
Video: ‘’Ti Desterra - A abentesma e o homem’’ by memoriamedia