Carbuncle (legendary creature)

The English word carbuncle and the Spanish word carbunclo comes from the Latin carbunculus, meaning "little coal" (i.e. carbon). is used to refer to ruby because this gemstone's shine is said to resemble the glow of hot coal. However, it is garnet and not ruby that is said to have been the mineralogical identity of the so-called "carbuncle of the ancients". In turn, the creature was named after the red gem. It was around the 1600s, Spanish conquistadors began to apply the name to a mysterious small animal they saw in South America. In Spanish, the forms are attested, and rarely perhaps also. The term could also mean "firefly". The creature may sometimes called (meaning "lantern"), though this might be considered a separate creature of the lore of the La Plata area in Argentina. ==Sources==

The chaplain and explorer Martín del Barco Centenera in La Argentina (1602) called it '''' (recté'' ; The mirror in the carbuncle's head was likened to two lights observed by Spanish explorers in the Strait of Magellan by another conquistador Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, who also commented that the gem piece was reminiscent of the legend of the gemstone supposedly hidden in the brains of a dragon. Oviedo probably had read from the dragon lore given by Isidore of Seville in the 7th-century Etymologiae. The village seniors, who dubbed the beast the "" ("brute") then discussed its capture in a trapping pit. While it is not clear to what extent this beast corresponds to a carbuncle monster, modern study regarding this monster makes comparisons to the Latin American carbuncle monster and the medieval lore that a vouivre (guivre≈wyvern) holds a carbuncle gem on its head. Friar Feijóo's Teatro crítico universal (1726–1739) writes on the current myth about a supposed creature with a "carbuncle" on its head, better called a "Astro Elemental" since it purports to be worth ten times as much as diamond. He believes travelers to the East invented or imported such fable that a King of Persia here or an Emperor of China there owned such a gem, but these were fabulous, and the gem was really only a (mined) ruby. He also read Louis Moréri's encyclopedia entry under Dolomieu village that in 1680 a flying dragon had been slain which carried a carbuncle on its forehead. Feijóo considered this a concocted old wive's tale or fable, but knows of a painting depicting the dragon of Dolomieu as cat-headed, and wonders if this might be the origin of the rumor, which he heard many times, of the animal with the carbuncle on its forehead bearing the shape of a cat. ==General description==

The description of the animal vary; and "no one ever saw it well enough to know whether it was a bird or a mammal, whether is had feathers or fur". In Chile some say it moves like a firefly in the night. In Latin American lore, it is said to hold treasures inside so whoever manages to capture it will become wealthy. An alleged specimen seen in Ovalle on the Tulahuén hill in Coquimbo Region, Chile shone bright from the jewel and gold inside it. Or else, such gemlike gleam is supposed to be a guiding beacon to naturally occurring treasures. In Catamarca Province, Argentina, the carbunclo is considered an imaginary animal that emits a much light from its head, while many believed the light source to be a carbuncle (gem). In Tarapacá, it is said to look like a bivalve with a strong white-blue shine from within the shell which can be observed from a distance 1 league away; this "bivalve" has an acute sense of hearing, so that it can quickly detect humans approaching, and clam up inside its hard shell, and be mistaken for a stone. According to some, it is shaped like a corncob but is articulated or jointed, and according to a witness who tracked it, it had bluish white light leaking from the joints, and had more than four limbs. It was a creature larger than a mouse but equipped with a hard shell, as crudely described by a certain laborer who was in too much of a hurry to kill it and seize the gold and riches from the shell before attracting the greedy notice of others. It is commented that the man got rich but science suffered the knowledge lost. During the great drought of 1924–25 there were reported sightings of carbunclos on moonless nights. Around 1925 a family of carbunclos was seen descending from the mountain of Tulahuén towards Río Grande (Coquimbo Region). ==Chilote mythology==

In the Chilote mythology of southern Chile the carbunclo is said to be the "guardian of the metals". Descriptions of it vary, from a luminescent small dog, a luminescent bivalve, a cat with a luminescent lock or tuft under its beard or a greenish-red fiery light reminiscent of fireflies. Varitation in color has been explained as the creature's property of taking on the color of the metal or treasure it is guarding. Whoever becomes owner of the luminous beard is said to become free from poverty. The carbunclo is said to manifest itself at night around the Southern Hemisphere winter solstice (late June). Legend prescribes a certain method which needs to be followed in order to retrieve the carbunclo's treasure: First, a length of string, or a belt (or some personal belonging) must be cast towards the carbunclo which will snatch it and disappear. The treasure seeker shall wait and return to the site in the morning before dawn, and search for signs of the thrown object, as the tail end of it should be sticking out of the ground to mark the buried treasure, and the spot will usually be the foot of a spiny calafate (Berberis microphylla, Magellan barberry) shrub. The treasure seeker must wait again, until midnight, to dig it up in a certain prescribed way: with a new shovel in hand and in the company of an old widow holding a black cat. When he has dug a vara (Spanish yard) deep, he must throw the black cat into the hole, which will vanish, but soon reappear in the woman's hands, and for each fresh yard dug, the cat must be tossed in again. If this ritual is not performed, the digger will die in the pit due to noxious gas. He must also not show any sign of fear the treasure will turn into rock. == Brazilian or Guarani mythology ==

In the state Rio Grande do Sul of Brazil, the lore of the as a fabulous animal and provender of riches had formed around the time of conquest, and was spread through missionaries. Conflation with this tradition may have created the mythical lizard known in the Guarani languages as the , though others only concede vaguely that there was some sort of Christian influence on the lore of the teiniaguá in Tupi-Guarani mythology. The notion that the "red devil" (, ), the Andean carbunco () and the teiniaguá of the missionaries are the same creature by different names was held by Spanish philologist Daniel Granada, but his insistence on equating the three has faced criticism. A connection between the carbúnculo and the mythical Tupi-Guarani serpent mboitatá has also been proposed by Granada and , but refuted by Câmara Cascudo who didn't think the serpent was connected with gold (thus pointing out that there was no valid common motif relating to "hidden treasure"). In addition, Granada or Teschauer had thought the golden lizard () from the Mãe-do-Ouro cycle could be connected to the carbunco. == Algerian attestation ==

According to a letter from Oran, Algeria dated 29 August 1736, a Spanish soldier who was stationed there at the fort (of Castillo de San Gregorio) claimed to have caught a carbuncle (, annotated as what the Greeks call "") with a shining gem lodged in its forehead. It was initially witnessed nightly by a number of men around 12 midnight, a short distance away from this fort, as a dazzling glow at Cubo de San Roque (apparently a hole or cave). The soldier came off duty one midnight and encountered the dazzling creature emerging from the said cave. It was a "small animal like a weasel (), with dark brown fur that was very soft and smooth, a short tail a little less bushier than a squirrel's, its front or back paws and body like a weasel, its head long, its eyes large and beautiful, and between them, in the middle of the forehead, a singular Stone like a hazelnut in the shape of a diamond point, which is covered with a little cap, or hood of skin". This cap had to be peeled back forcibly in order to see the stone while it was alive. It wouldn't take food so it was slaughtered and skinned after two days. ==Rational explanations==

According to some, the carbuncle is explainable as a bivalve mollusk which glows because of bioluminescence from the "" (Noctiluca scintillans) or from fireflies. == In games ==

Carbuncle is a recurring character in the Final Fantasy series of role-playing games, and "appears as a small creature, fox-, cat-, rabbit- or squirrel-like, with green or blue fur, depending on the game". It also appeared in the game Madō Monogatari and Puyo Puyo, the latter having reused many of the monster characters from the former. Carbuncles also appear as a common enemy in the game Reverse: 1999, depicted as black cat-like critters who love dust. The Pokémon Carbink and Diancie are inspired by the Carbuncle. == See also ==