Cadejo traditions documented in Central American folklore

Record summary

The Cadejo is a Central American doglike spirit tradition, commonly divided in later accounts into a protective white Cadejo and a dangerous black Cadejo. Early twentieth-century folklore writing and regional oral-history collections treated encounters as part of local belief, night-travel warnings and Catholic or Indigenous cultural blending. This is a comparative lead rather than one uniquely dated sighting. Researchers should identify the earliest local attestations in each country and track whether the two-color opposition was traditional, editorially standardized or popularized by later retellings.