Traditional taboos and incantations for protection against Inguma

Traditional taboos and incantations for protection against Inguma form a domestic defense against a demon said to enter at night and suffocate sleeping people. Their logic is both practical and ritual: shut out every possible entrance, then bind the threat with words that set it an impossible task.

Inguma and the Night

In the account given during the investigation, Inguma is an ancient, malign spirit that appears in houses after their inhabitants have fallen asleep. It is said to climb onto a sleeper’s chest, constrict the throat, and make breathing difficult, bringing intense anguish and terrible nightmares. The explanation links this folkloric figure to nocturnal choking and to what is now known as sleep apnea, in which breathing stops temporarily during sleep and may, in some cases, stop long enough to cause death. It also identifies Inguma as a traditional explanation for sudden infant deaths during sleep; these are presented as beliefs attributed to the demon, not as a supernatural finding established by the investigation.

Closing the House

The associated taboo concerns the home’s openings. Sleeping with windows open was considered dangerous because it gave Inguma easy entry. People thought to be vulnerable to breathing problems therefore closed doors and windows and sealed even the smallest cracks, since the demon was believed able to slip through the narrowest gap. The rule makes the house’s boundary part of the defense: protection depends not on confronting the demon, but on denying it an entrance.

The Protective Formula

Before sleep, people recited a charm beginning, “Inguma, no te temo”—“Inguma, I do not fear you.” The account stresses the importance of beginning with defiance: as with witches, the speaker acknowledges the being’s existence while refusing to grant it power through fear. The fuller formula invokes God and Mary as protectors, then sets the demon to count every star in the sky, every herb on earth, and every grain of sand on the coast before it may appear. Its wording is: “Inguma, no te temo. A Dios, a madre María tomó por protectores. En el cielo estrellas, en la tierra hierbas, en la costa arenas, hasta haberlas contado todas, no te me presentes.”

Ritual Logic and Folkloric Parallels

The charm works by imposing an endless count: the demon must complete a task whose scale keeps it occupied until morning. The speaker compares this mechanism to the eguzkilore, whose thorns a witch must count before entering a house; dawn arrives before the counting can be completed, forcing the witch to hide. The parallel gives the Inguma formula a precise ritual logic—delay the threat rather than fight it—and places it within a broader set of protective traditions. The account also notes that Inguma is among the less-studied spirits of the night and that closely similar characteristics appear in other cultures, while offering no further detail about those parallels.