Pishtako

A mythological figure in the Andes region of South America, particularly in Peru and Bolivia. In some parts of the Andes, pishtako is called harisiri, or nakak, or Likichiri in the Aymara language. Pishtako comes from the word in the local Quechua language "pishtai", which means "to behead, cut the throat or cut into slices".

This is an evil man who looks like a monster, often a stranger, and often a white man who is looking for unsuspecting Indians to kill them and insult them in various ways (first of all, it is stealing their body fat for various cannibalistic purposes or selling their meat).

Concern about body fat in the Andes region has a long tradition. The natives of pre-Hispanic origin valued fat so much that there was a deity for it Viracocha (meaning sea of fat). It is also natural for the peasant rural poor to look at flesh and excess fat as the very sign of life, good health, strength and beauty. It is believed that the cause of many diseases is the loss of body fat, and the thinness of the skeleton is disgusting. Thus, the practice of the conquistadors to treat their wounds with fat from the corpses of enemies terrified the Indians. It was also believed that the Spaniards killed Indians and boiled their corpses to get fat to lubricate their metal muskets and cannons, which quickly rusted in the humid Amazon.

Andean aborigines feared Spanish missionaries as pishtaks, believing that missionaries kill people for the sake of fat, and then lubricate church bells with oil to make them especially sonorous.

In our time, similar ideas believed that the machinery of a sugar factory needed human fat as a lubricant, or that jet engines could not be started without a drop of human fat.

Thus, the pishtako can be described as a creature that meets the Indians mainly at night. It looks like a white man or a half-breed. He is well dressed, maybe on horseback or in a car. He can gently talk to an Indian or attract him with something, but then somehow stupefy him, and then extract fat from the Indian's body using unknown tools or just a knife. The traces of this operation are often invisible, but after meeting with pishtako, a person begins to lose weight, lose vitality and soon dies.​‌​​​‌ ​​‌‌​‌ ​​‌‌‌‌ ​​‌‌​‌ ​‌​​​‌ ​​‌‌​‌ ​​‌​​‌ ​‌​​​‌ ​​‌‌‌​ ​​‌‌‌​ ​​​‌‌​ ​‌​​‌‌ ​‌​‌​‌​ ​‌‌​‌‌​ ​‌‌‌​‌‌ ​​‌‌‌‌