Will-o'-the-Wisp in the Americas — Feu Follet and Luz Mala

Will-o'-the-wisp traditions crossed the Atlantic with European colonizers and merged with indigenous beliefs to create distinctly American variants. In Louisiana's Cajun country, the feu follet (crazy fire) is a well-known element of folklore, described as a flickering blue or white light that hovers over the bayous and swamps, luring travelers off safe paths and into the treacherous marshlands. Cajun tradition identifies the feu follet as the soul of a person who has not received proper burial rites, or a baby who died before baptism. In Latin America, the luz mala (evil light) is feared across Argentina, Uruguay, and other regions as a malevolent phosphorescent glow that appears over fields and grasslands, believed to mark buried treasure or the resting place of the damned. Similar traditions exist among many indigenous peoples of the Americas who independently developed explanations for the mysterious lights that appeared over their own wetlands and prairies.