Cherufe

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The Cherufe is a gigantic, anthropophagous life form supposed to live in the coastal, South American nation of Chile. It is supposed to inhabit the magma-rich pools found deep within Chilean volcanoes, and it is purported to be the source of numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The only way to abate the Cherufe's appetite for destruction was to satiate the beast's taste for human flesh by throwing a sacrificial victim into the bowels of its volcanic home. Much like the European dragon, the Cherufe's preferred delicacy came in the form of virginal maidens.

Legend has it that once the Cherufe was finished consuming the more delicate portions of its victims, it would delight in a macabre game in which it would ignite the disembodied heads of the young girls who were sacrificed to it, and hurtle them from the mouth of its volcanic home.

According to South American Mythology, the Cherufe was immobilized by the daughters of the sun god, who utilized magical swords, which were capable of freezing the creature.

While it is easy to trace the mythological origins of this beast to a prehistoric need to explain anomalous geological events such as volcanic eruptions, there has been some consideration given by cryptozoological investigators to the possibility that - much like the strange animals who thrive in the tremendous heat found in the mineral rich exhaust of hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor - the legends of the Cherufe maybe be based, albeit loosely, on sightings of an actual biological entity, which would have to be capable not only of surviving, but flourishing, in the incredible heat of molten rock.