The Tunda ( es, La Tunda) is a
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
of the Pacific coastal region of
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
and
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
, and particularly in the
Afro-Colombian
Afro-Colombians or African-Colombians ( es, afrocolombianos, links=no) are Colombians of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent (Blacks, Mulattoes, Pardos, and Zambos).
History
Africans were enslaved in the early 16th Century in Colombi ...
community of the
Chocó department
Choco Department is a department of Western Colombia known for its large Afro-Colombian population. It is in the west of the country, and is the only Colombian department to have coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It ...
,
La Leyenda de La Tunda
/ref> about a shapeshifting entity, resembling a human female, that lures people into the forests and keeps them there.
It is capable of changing its shape to appear in the form of a loved one, as in the likeness of a child's mother, to lure its victims into the forest and feed them with shrimps (''camarones peneídos'') to keep them docile. This is called ''entundamiento'' and a person in this state is ''entundado(a)''.[González Cortés, Flover. 2001. ''Fantasmagorías. Mitos y leyendas del Pacífico colombiano'']
Her shapeshifting
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, Magic (paranormal), sorcery, Incantation, ...
abilities are said to be imperfect, as this ''doppelgänger
A doppelgänger (), a compound noun formed by combining the two nouns (double) and (walker or goer) (), doppelgaenger or doppelganger is a biologically unrelated look-alike, or a double, of a living person.
In fiction and mythology, a doppelg ...
'' of sorts would always have a wooden leg in the shape of a '' molinillo'', or wooden kitchen utensil used to stir hot drinks such as chocolate or ''