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| Mesoamerican Mythology By Kay Almere Read, Jason J. Gonzalez |
"A present-day Tzotzil tale tells why weird creatures called Charcoal Crunchers no longer exist. A long time ago, a man was married to a charcoal crunching wife. Every night her head would leave her body and bounce over to the fireplace to eat hot charcoals. Occasionally the head would leave the house and thud around the neighborhood.
One night, the husband had enough and rubbed salt on her empty neck so that when she returned she could not stick her head to her body again. Annoyed, she bounced up on his shoulder and stuck there, causing him great discomfort. Some days later he convinced his wife to temporarily leave his shoulder so that he could climb a tree to fetch some pine nuts for her. Once up in the tree he refused to come down and she could not bounce high enough to reach him. Banging around the tree she accidentally crashed onto the shoulder of a passing deer and stuck there. The startled deer ran off and carried with it the last Charcoal Cruncher."
Makes you think twice doesn’t it? :)
*Cited From: "Charcoal Crunchers." Encyclopedia Mythica from Encyclopedia Mythica Online. http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/charcoal_crunchers.html
