Gritón de Medianoche



El Gritón de Medianoche (English: The Midnight Screamer) is a Urban Legend of El Salvador.

Legend
One night, when I was returning from one of my walks; I was coming from there along the trail, when I passed through Calvary I heard a bell. I thought it was one o'clock ... I didn't stop freaking out a bit and quickened my pace. When there was a block to go to get to the Cabildo, to my surprise, I noticed that my cadejo (Cadejo: In Salvadoran mythology it is said that the white cadejo is like a guardian angel that protects night walkers and the black cadejo is a demon) didn't take care of me and in the corner of the square there were like 12 or more mutts (Salvadoranism for dogs) that were walking in a roar.

Ah! I thought sadly, if my cadejo were with me, all those pooches would shoot off. It had happened like this before, when the pooches saw me or felt the presence of my cadejo, they would scatter howling, and I don't even know where they were going. were going.

That night everything seemed strange to me. There were perhaps 20 meters to go to get to where the bulk of the dogs were, when all of them almost instantly stood still, sinking with their ears up and looking from side to side, scared. At first I believed that it was my presence that had caused a strange attitude and logically, I prepared for the attack. Instinctively I searched everywhere to pick up some more stones, since my arsenal was only two and I was not very sure that I could hit the target of the first to attack me. Dogs, as we all know, are very brave animals and although one or two are hit with good stones, the others do not stop the attack. It is different with the long club, at least one meter long, one can dislocate the first one that approaches him, and thus, three or four of them scream in pain, the others go into fear.

Well, the attitude of the mutts that day was something like a warning of very great danger, because instead of barking at me they came out terrified from one side to the other. A few began to howl very ugly. The howl was like the one they make when they say that death, the plague, or the devil are prowling nearby. At that moment, your hair is stopped. As the mutts ran away, I did not know where the danger they felt could come from.

I instinctively stopped a little, and looked back. I felt a strong warm air that enveloped me and some cuches barracos (Cuche: Salvadoreñeimo for pig) that were walking there growling also ran away, fleeing from something that I still did not understand or look at. Immediately after the blast of warm air I felt a wave of fresh air that in the branches of the hedges of the hedges violently swayed the leaves. Immediately after the bottom corner, where I had just passed, I heard a tremendous scream, something like the rumbling coming out of a cavern. In the cross street where I came from shortly before, a figure of a man appeared who was walking in my direction where I was. As he advanced, the figure grew larger before my eyes. With a great effort I tried to move out of the middle of the street but it was useless.

I don't know if I lost consciousness or if nothing happened, but when the man arrived exactly where I was, his figure was so gigantic that only the shadow of his body was projected on me and ... passed. I don't know how long I spent in that position of helplessness. I don't remember how or when I got home. The next day when I woke up I was on in a fever. I spent three days with the fever. Three days in my house that they did not know if I would live or die.

-That's the Midnight Scream. You are lucky, if it had been the Devil you would not be telling the story because he would have carried you body and soul- said my grandfather Pedro.

He is said to be a banshee who roams the streets, scaring some curious night owls to death. If his scream is heard loud it is because he is very far away, if it is heard soft it is because he is very close.

In other parts of Latin America, specifically in the Argentine Rioja, it is described as a large hairy lump without a head and gray in color; the screamer prevents the passage on the paths of the trails just as night falls, some brave tried to venture along the paths where he used to appear, first a nearby shout was heard that was repeated further and further until the screamer was planted in the middle of the road blocking the way. It is said that a man making crosses with his knife managed to pass but arrived at his house exhausted and in very bad condition, the screaming man shouts from afar and if I answer him he appears like a whirlwind quickly.

In the region of  'Trujillo'  and in the  'Sula Valley' , several  'Campesinos'  claimed to have heard the heartrending cries of the " 'Gritón' ". One of them tells:

" I know all the animals in these mountains, and I have never heard anything like this blood-curdling scream."

Some people say that they are spirits of  'Wandering men'  who were killed on the trails and ravines of those places, and that at night, they screamed in despair as if they were alive. Others claim to have seen his shadow. They say that he is a tall, thin man who swiftly crosses the roads and then disappears into the bushes. Others imagine or see it, like a tired muleteer, who, sitting on a hill, starts screaming.

Trivia

 * This legend resembles that of "El Silbón" in Venezuela.