Whistling a Deadly Tune with El Silbón

[00:00:00] You know, it's weird that my video is so delayed here that I literally just sat down at the computer and my videos come on.

[00:00:07] So that is...

[00:00:09] It's a bit creepy, imagine?

[00:00:11] It's weird! Like I saw myself come in and take Robert's hardness off.

[00:00:31] The End

[00:00:37] Alrighty Michelle, you're a hard worker. I mean, you are a hard worker right? But like in the story you're an extra hard worker.

[00:00:53] Like a minor?

[00:00:55] Kind of like that, maybe not that extreme. You go out, you pick up like hey you distribute it to different places.

[00:01:01] Like you sell fixed things like you just try to get by like just doing your best and you work down in the hills of Venezuela.

[00:01:10] As you're walking down these valleys and beautiful scenery, you snap out of it for a bit. You're like wait a minute I got a hurry up because it's getting dark.

[00:01:20] So you start walking faster and faster because the darkness is approaching.

[00:01:24] And as you're walking down this road, like this is an actual road not like a dirt trail or anything. This is a road where cars pass by but you saw the last car like a while back.

[00:01:33] It's just you and the road and the hills and the trees off in the distance.

[00:01:38] But you notice that other people around their houses are picking up their things and their shops and rushing to get everything inside their house and get inside.

[00:01:47] You're so tired to just keep walking you're trying not to pay attention even though you know what this means.

[00:01:53] You're almost home right? You're walking down you can kind of see your house in the distance and up ahead you see your husband.

[00:01:59] He's waiting for you at the front porch and he's yelling at you signaling something.

[00:02:08] God, that'd be so annoying. It's like you've been working all day on your way home and then there's your husband on the porch doing random like air signs at you.

[00:02:18] It's like if this isn't about dinner don't talk to me.

[00:02:22] He frantically waves his arms and obviously is saying to hurry up.

[00:02:29] But yet you stop and you put your hand to your ear.

[00:02:35] You're like what? Anyway, he's going a little crazy now. He's way mad and then you hear it but it's not your husband.

[00:02:44] You hear this whistling sound all around you from these hills.

[00:02:50] And the tone itself, like it's an actual melody right? It just keeps repeating.

[00:03:02] It goes you begin to run all dramatic like you're just like like you're running and as continuing the drama like your back kind of falls off your shoulder.

[00:03:17] You keep running and you look back and you're kind of stretching out your hands like no, like it's all slow mo.

[00:03:24] You look back to your husband you look at your bag you're like what do I do? And then the whistles get louder.

[00:03:40] Just forget the bag. Just go. What if you have money in there? What if like something bad?

[00:03:45] Why did I drop it then? Well your husband's already well maybe he's signaling because he locked himself out of the house and this is just like another.

[00:03:54] Oh God.

[00:03:56] In between the whistling now you can kind of hear him say like leave up behind hurry up.

[00:04:05] And you're like oh now I heard him so now you listen to him and you start running like full speed towards the house.

[00:04:11] You shut the door behind you your husband locks it closes all the windows grabs a stick that he had by the side of the door and you and your husband are just kind of still there.

[00:04:21] Just waiting. The whistling is getting closer and then it starts fading away.

[00:04:28] Oh, until you just hear the regular wind and the rustling of the trees.

[00:04:34] Now you can finally catch a breath and now you really start breathing like okay you're safe for that night.

[00:04:43] What happened to my purse or my bag? You left it you left it like I cannot do two things at once that is a fact so.

[00:04:51] Okay well we can change it to story so let's go back to the scene.

[00:05:01] You finally catch a breath and then your husband's like don't worry I got this and you make him go out to the street thank you and grab your purse and then he makes it back in your safe.

[00:05:19] In South America there's this famous legend this urban legend that usually it's used to scare children and believers of the paranormal and supernatural and everything like that in the darkness of the hills.

[00:05:33] They say that there's this thing that comes out and they call it the whistler El Silbon basically this entity that forever roaming the dark hills and the forests of these places in South America.

[00:05:48] In search of something the stories go from anything like this is just a cursed man who's carrying something behind his back and just roaming dark streets regular roads and everything.

[00:06:00] It's alone has been known to bring fear you can kind of compare it to like your own type of thing once you grow older you're just kind of like oh you know used to be really afraid of that but then if it is like La Yorona it's more like yeah this thing is real when you believe it.

[00:06:17] Even as an adult you know you try to scare kids with it because also like hey be careful because I heard this thing and I can't explain it so it still doesn't make sense to you as an adult.

[00:06:26] The figure itself has been mixed with the country wide culture like in general in Venezuela for example it's just as important as like the food the music anything like that of high importance in some countries this yeah the whistle of the Silbon yeah and Silbon yeah imagine the moth vent in that town where it happened like that.

[00:06:45] Okay okay and some countries this character has been mentioned in presidential speeches it even has its own festival in its honor and even though there are different versions about it they all talk about a dark figure who roams in the night.

[00:06:59] If you're out in the woods you risk an encounter with a tall man some saying that he's between 20 to 40 feet tall so like he's a big exaggerated even for a legend.

[00:07:10] My God that's taller than a tree that's like how does he hide you'd see him coming like a million miles away.

[00:07:19] He's a kid in the tent and I like already a tower is kind of like oh I guess we should like hide because what the hell is that.

[00:07:29] His clothes are old and dirty from many thousands of kilometers he has roamed some say that even his physical features cannot be accurate

[00:07:39] because like as in how they're described because he usually kills all of his victims so yeah it's a case of like you see him if you're dead he has to kill you because he saw him.

[00:07:49] This is how they say that this started right.

[00:07:52] A man was working for his father on their farm there were long days in that farm you know typical farm work and one day he looked up from the ground

[00:08:02] to find one of the neighbors was running up to him and he was like upset.

[00:08:07] What is it the guy asked turns out that this other guy explains that somebody had murdered his wife after an argument as in the farmer's wife.

[00:08:17] Wait the farmer's wife or the guy running up to tell him basically the guy came running and it was like someone murdered your wife.

[00:08:23] Oh okay okay.

[00:08:25] The farmer was super pissed and he ran to seek revenge so he when he found who did it or whoever the claim did it and killed him with that knife.

[00:08:36] Some say that this fight had been between his own father and him other say that it was his father-in-law.

[00:08:44] That case he goes kills the father-in-law so I guess there's two murderers now right like there's the guy that killed the wife

[00:08:51] and then there's the husband that killed the murderer so there's two murderers.

[00:08:56] The farmer is the guy okay.

[00:08:58] The farmer's grandfather was like you shouldn't have killed that guy because he's like you shouldn't fight fire with fire

[00:09:03] like you already murdered somebody like you shouldn't go and murder someone because you're a murderer too.

[00:09:07] So he wanted to punish him so they tied him up and called up other farmers to come and whip him.

[00:09:14] They also rubbed salt on his wounds to add more pain.

[00:09:18] Cheese!

[00:09:19] After seeing the farmer just all beat up there and the grandfather was like okay that's enough everyone stopped whipping him

[00:09:26] so everyone listened to the grandfather because you gotta listen to him he's the grandfather.

[00:09:31] Right.

[00:09:32] And then they released him right but not because his punishment was over he was actually gonna be sent off the die on his own.

[00:09:41] And so he ran off into the woods quickly but still in a great deal of pain before two large black dogs were released to chase him.

[00:09:51] What?

[00:09:52] Straight to his death among the trees yeah.

[00:09:55] This farmer's body was never found but some say that his spirit was cursed and now spends the rest of eternity seeking revenge on drunks and adulterers

[00:10:06] and if you hear his tune the whistling he's coming after you.

[00:10:21] I know we have a lot of questions about this because life is okay.

[00:10:24] Number one, his punishment was really harsh.

[00:10:28] It's like he's being punished for killing the man and that man is not being held accountable for killing the wife at all.

[00:10:35] So it's a little like what what's going on here?

[00:10:39] I'm sure that thousands of people have had that exact same thought and I think this is why we have different versions of the story.

[00:10:45] For example, the Venezuelan version says that he was a spoiled son instead of a hardworking farmer but in eerie rendition of the story this one ends up a lot worse than this.

[00:10:55] After an altercation a man killed his own father that was supposedly another version of the story.

[00:11:01] The mother was terrified at the collapse of her family so she complained to her own father.

[00:11:06] By the way, just cultural reference here families in like Latin American countries typically are very close and multi generational like they communicate with each other.

[00:11:15] They like take care of each other like that.

[00:11:17] They're all like a unit.

[00:11:19] So this includes in laws great grandparents like everybody right?

[00:11:23] So they're all very involved.

[00:11:25] Anyway, this is why the mother complained to her own father.

[00:11:28] That's when this guy was tied up to a tree whipped until he bled and as part of his punishment he was given his father's remains in a sack to face his own demons forever.

[00:11:40] Oh so that's part of the sack that he carries.

[00:11:43] Okay, so I like this version better where it's like he killed his father and then the grandfather's like now you will be punished.

[00:11:50] That makes more sense to me than than the other tail.

[00:11:54] And there's a few others like some of these involve cheating husbands cheating wives all this other stuff, but you know, these are the some of the main ones and this other version of the story he also ran off into the woods two large dogs were sent after him and they killed them.

[00:12:08] But that's what people say like oh they killed them when now his ghost rooms around other people say that Oh the dogs didn't kill him and he ended up escaping and growing up really tall and.

[00:12:18] He grew 40 feet tall just being in the woods that's what happens when you just wander in the woods and you leave society you just start to grow.

[00:12:28] You start eating healthy I mean the whistler diet it's so easy I gained 30 feet results are not typical yeah they say that in Colombia.

[00:12:38] El Silvón targets drunks and stocks the region of Los Janos an actual real place, especially during the rainy nights in May and June so we're approaching.

[00:12:49] In this version he isn't quite as evil but rather represents death instead of revenge.

[00:12:55] But either way in this in the Colombian version not everyone is safe either way like he still kills victims and it's because they were doing something that they weren't supposed to do.

[00:13:05] Usually these things are like don't cheat you know don't do that some creatures gonna kill you yadda yadda yadda.

[00:13:11] Now like I said earlier like this legend might remind you of La Urona there's also this thing you know sac man there's a sac man from Latin American countries like there's this all.

[00:13:22] I want to learn about sac man what sac man it's kind of a similar thing like La Urona I've heard of the bubac no La Sallona Venezuela no no these are like cautionary tales of like.

[00:13:34] Be careful of these things right it's he won't take the cake here is he won is one of those super super popular urban legends slash really cool ghost stories from over there.

[00:13:46] And through the many versions of this story that have been passed down I definitely found my favorite in this one he was a brat right spoiled he was rejecting food he didn't want to eat poor food he didn't want to eat rice and beans he wanted something else.

[00:13:59] He didn't like his family he didn't like that lifestyle just didn't fit him you know alright once his family started doing a little bit better he started demanding even more.

[00:14:10] And his parents didn't do much to help out the situation they want to fix them but one day he ordered his father to hunt for a deer bring me a dear father.

[00:14:21] Sure and this is South American.

[00:14:25] So the father goes out into the woods to get a deer during the time of the year the deer had gone a little more inland but the father couldn't find one so you came back empty handed.

[00:14:38] The son was so pissed off that he killed his father cut out his liver and heart and then he brought the innards to his mother to cook them for dinner.

[00:14:53] This is a good version of this story because what the fuck what the fuck.

[00:14:58] Yeah the mother begins to suspect that something is wrong when the meat is far too tough to be that of a deer.

[00:15:07] Well this seems like my husband I know this liver yeah wait a minute soon she finds out that the guts she has been cooking belonged to her husband and so she lays a curse on her son forever.

[00:15:23] Enter the grandfather ties the young man to a post whips him until the skin of his back was flapping.

[00:15:30] Oh he was released and in a bit of relief knowing that he would now begin to heal he looked to his grandfather and was like hey grandfather forgive me but instead the grandfather gave him the remains of the young man's father in a sack

[00:15:46] cursing him to forever carry the bones of his father and then he ran off into the woods the two large dogs running after him.

[00:15:55] I don't know about these two large dogs like yeah I'm imagining like Cerberus or something you know like they must be black with like red eyes or something like that you know possibly shadow like salivating just like they have a need for two days.

[00:16:10] Yeah it's a lot is said to Rome the area of Los Llagnos and that in the summer when the Savannah of Venezuela burns from the lack of water people can see him.

[00:16:20] He sits among the trees stuck in the shade and he only wanders when it's raining he roams to fulfill his curse the one of vengeance on people who have done wrong.

[00:16:33] And he tries to correct himself for his mistakes in that way so like this last version of the story where he seeks forgiveness he's kind of trying to punish people that are seeking vengeance you know what I mean because he did it now he's like you shouldn't do that so he goes and tries to punish them but they say that he can also punish innocent victims which what the heck yeah there's no moral here he's just a creepy thing yeah and it makes sense because I mean he did kill somebody you know like in his.

[00:17:02] Well yeah he's like that he's he reacts so he doesn't think he just acts and then has to deal with the consequences so they say that he tears people to pieces and pulls out their bones for his collection where he carries the remains of his father.

[00:17:15] Oh my god the idea of pulling a bone out of flashes.

[00:17:20] The giant creature roams in the dark whistling his deathly tune his hat hides his face as the hunched body creeps through the darkness of the hills and streets.

[00:17:32] The tune of his whistle is set to harm those who hear him from a distance and doesn't hurt you if it's heard up close.

[00:17:40] Drunks on the streets have heard his melody far enough away to set them straight and they say that on certain nights he'll pick up a house to rest by.

[00:17:50] He slings the sack over him and back to the ground and then crouches over it he opens it and smiles because this collectible.

[00:18:02] The action is growing and one by one he counts the bones in the sack laying them neatly on the ground.

[00:18:12] He puts them back ties up the sack once again and steps out into the darkness forever roaming the hills and dark streets in search of wrong doers.

[00:18:32] I had never heard of the bone man or what are the whistle guy or the whistler.

[00:18:37] I like the name the bone man.

[00:18:39] The bone man.

[00:18:42] I mean it seems like that's his priority the bones seem like a priority now not any of the moral morality there.

[00:18:49] He's coming to steal your bones it's a very creepy creature so if you ever hear that whistling run especially if you've done something wrong because it's going to get you.

[00:19:01] It just run anyway because you don't know what kind of mood he's going to be in that day.

[00:19:06] I'm kind of glad it didn't grow up in that area because people that were commenting like I used to hear that sound in the morning or I used to hear that at night.

[00:19:16] I always thought it was birds which it could be but it could be a weird bone man who's just sitting out under your window just playing his whistle or I'm assuming it's a whistle made of a bone personally I'm assuming it's a flute made of wood.

[00:19:30] You know so you can do that you can make it out of bone but I like the idea of him just whistling with his mouth.

[00:19:38] Yeah I can imagine that him just whistling that's a cool it's a cool version I can see it.

[00:19:44] Yeah I can't whistle anymore I can't whistle I've never learned.

[00:19:50] Where are we going to talk about next week Michelle?

[00:19:52] I don't know but I think it'll be a surprise.

[00:19:57] Scary mystery surprise is hosted by Michelle Newman and Edwin Covarubias.

[00:20:02] This podcast was edited and sound designed by Sarah Voorheeswondo, a VW sound.