Luz Mala

The luz mala, or ‘evil light’, is one of the best-known rural legends of the River Plate countries. People describe a bright glow that hangs close to the ground at night, sometimes still and sometimes drifting from side to side, and in some tales chasing the viewer. It is also nicknamed the farol del Diablo, the Devil’s lantern.

In folk belief the light is the soul of a dead person looking for its grave, or the marker of buried treasure. Country people say that on seeing it you should pray, look away or bite the sheath of your knife, and that those who dig where it appeared find old pottery and silver or gold.

Scientists explain it as a form of will-o’-the-wisp: gases from decaying organic matter, such as methane and phosphine, or phosphorescence from decomposing remains and bones, can produce a faint glow. Fear, darkness and lack of reference points make a fixed light seem to move.

The same lights are known in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay, where they are tied to hidden Jesuit or war-time treasure.

A bright, pale ball of light floating a few inches to a few feet above the ground, still or swaying, sometimes following.

Open fields, marshy ground and old burial or farming sites at night in rural Uruguay and Argentina.

The luz mala belongs to gaucho folklore and is told in school books, songs and rural storytelling in Uruguay and Argentina.