ORIGINALS:

DARWINS FOX - 6.5x6.5 inches $175.00 (SOLD)
Fox I - 3.5x4 inches $50.00 (SOLD)
Fox II - 3.5x4 inches $35.00 (SOLD)

Status: Endangered

Highlighted species: Lycalopex fulvipes

Range: Chile

The Nguruvilu "fox snake" legend was first written of in the 1880s by a Jesuit priest Filpe Gomez de Vidaurre. The Nguruvilu of Mapuche looks like a fox, with a long snake-like body, clawed fingernails, and a long tail. It lives in rivers and lakes, and entices passersby to their death by creating an illusion of shallow and safe waters when in reality it awaits in a whirlpool that spells doom to the poor traveler. A safe crossing can be made via boat, and a nguruvilu can only be expunched by a sorceror. "GURUVILU. Fox-snake, monstrous animal of some lakes in the kingdom [Chile in the colonial period was the kingdom or Reino de Chile]. The Araucanian [Mapuche] say that it swallows men. They do not agree upon its shape. Some make it long like a serpent with the head of a vixen; others nearly circular like an extended cow hide. I doubt that such an animal exists." - Filpe Gomez de vidaurre in Historia geographica, natural y civil del Reino de Chile

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Size: 6 x 6 inches
Medium: Ink
©2019, Stephanie Law

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