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{{Short description|Spanish name for a bogeyman or criminal that kills for human fat}}
[[File:Albarelli Axung Hominis.jpg|thumb|Apothecary containers for ''[[Axungia]] hominis'' (human fat), 17th-18th centuries.]]
'''Sacamantecas''' ("Fat extractor" in Spanish) or '''mantequero'''<ref name="Brenan">''Al Sur de Granada'', pages 190-193, [[Gerald Brenan]], 1997, Fábula - Tusquets Editores. Originally ''[[South from Granada (book)|South from Granada]]'', 1957</ref> ("Fat seller/maker") is the Spanish name for a kind of [[bogeyman]]<ref name="DRAE">[http://buscon.rae.es/drae/?type=3&val=Sacamantecas Sacamantecas] in the [[Diccionario de la Real Academia Española]]</ref> or criminal<ref name="DRAE"/> characterized by killing for [[human fat]].
==Anthropology==
[[Julian A. Pitt-Rivers|Julian Pitt-Rivers]] reports<ref name="Pitt-Rivers">''[https://archive.org/stream/peopleofthesierr001911mbp/peopleofthesierr001911mbp_djvu.txt The People of the Sierra]'', [[J. A. Pitt-Rivers]], page 205, 1954, [[Criterion Books]], New York.</ref> in his study of [[Alcalá de la Sierra]], the belief that village children can be stolen by an outsider, called ''el sacamantecas'', disguised as a beggar or a trader, who is hired by a rich man whose ill child can only be cured with the blood of healthy babies. The practice of [[blood donation]] lent credence to the myth.
[[Gerald Brenan]]<ref name="Brenan"/> describes the ''mantequero'' as a monster in human form who lives in deserted areas and feeds on ''manteca''<ref name="DRAEmanteca">[http://buscon.rae.es/drae/srv/search?val=manteca&submit.x=0&submit.y=0 manteca] in the DRAE</ref> ("[[human]] [[adipose tissue|fat]]"). Upon capture, he shouts in a high-pitched voice and, unless just fed, looks thin.
Brenan found the myth alive during his stays in the [[Alpujarra]] (Andalusia). In 1927 or 1928, he had sublet his [[Yegen]] home to the British writer [[Dick Strachey]], nephew of [[Lytton Strachey]]. One day, Strachey was walking on rough terrain where he saw three [[Gitanos|Romani]] men, of whom he was suspicious. Fearing that they were bandits, he ran away, but the three men chased him and drew their knives, shouting at him. They believed him to be a ''mantequero'' and wanted to kill him and to [[Blood ritual|use his blood]] for magical remedies. However, the eldest man, a convict, judged it safer to bring Strachey to the mayor. They offered to slit his throat themselves, but Strachey claimed in rudimentary Spanish to be a relative of the British [[King George V]] and convinced the mayor that he wasn't a monster.
A friend of Brenan found that in [[Torremolinos]] all the girls believed in ''mantequeros''. In the urban version of the legend,<ref name="Brenan" /> an old evil marquis needs
==Real sacamantecas==
*[[Manuel Blanco Romasanta]] (1809-1863) was the first serial killer documented in Spain. He operated in [[Galicia, Spain|Galicia]]. With the fat of his victims he [[soap made from human corpses|made soap]] for sale. During his trial, he alleged to be cursed with [[lycanthropy]].
*[[Juan Díaz de Garayo]] (1821-1881) was a Spanish serial killer operating in Northern Spain. He was nicknamed ''el Sacamantecas'', which became used to scare children into behaving.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.salvatierra-agurain.es/garayo_el_sacamentecas.html | title=Garayo "The Sacamentecas" | publisher=www.salvatierra-agurain.es | access-date=2014-05-13 | archive-date=2014-05-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140515151353/http://www.salvatierra-agurain.es/garayo_el_sacamentecas.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>
* In 1910 [[Francisco Leona]] and Julio ''Tonto'' Hernández kidnapped and killed a boy of seven years for his blood and fat to treat the tuberculosis of Francisco Ortega, a wealthy farmer who hired the men for that purpose in what is known as the [[Crime of Gádor]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Ayala Sörense |first=Federico |title=El verdadero "Hombre del Saco" |url=http://www.abc.es/abcfoto/revelado/20140925/abci-crimen-hombre-saco-201409242057.html |editor-last=Expósiot |editor-first=Ángel |date=September 25, 2014 |access-date=March 27, 2018 |newspaper=[[ABC (Spain)|ABC]] |language=es |publisher=Diario ABC, S.L. |archive-date=April 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404155023/https://www.abc.es/abcfoto/revelado/20140925/abci-crimen-hombre-saco-201409242057.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Similar beliefs==
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*Urban legends about [[organ trafficking]] show similar fears in modern contexts.
*[[Vampire]]s in European folklore draw blood from humans.
*Brenan<ref name="Brenan"/> finds a similarity between the ''mantequero'' and the Persian ''[[manticore]]'' (a [[Man-eating animal|man-eating]] chimera cited by [[H.J. Tarry]], [[Ctesias]]' ''[[Persica (Ctesias)|Persica]]'' and [[Aristotle]]'s ''[[History of Animals]]'').▼
[[File:Manticore - British Library Royal 12 F xiii f24v (detail).jpg|thumb|A manticore in a 13th-century manuscript.]]▼
▲*Brenan<ref name="Brenan"/> finds a similarity between the ''mantequero'' and the Persian ''[[manticore]]'' (a [[man-eating]] chimera cited by [[H.J. Tarry]], [[Ctesias]]' ''[[Persica (Ctesias)|Persica]]'' and [[Aristotle]]'s ''[[History of Animals]]'').
*Other bogeymen in Hispanic culture are the [[coco (folklore)|coco]], the [[Sack Man]] and the [[Tío del Saín]] ([[Region of Murcia|Murcia]]).
▲[[File:Manticore - British Library Royal 12 F xiii f24v (detail).jpg|thumb|A manticore in a 13th-century manuscript.]]
==In popular culture==
*[[Bernardo Atxaga]]'s ''[[Obabakoak]]'' includes a chapter on the Sacamantecas, stating that it was believed that baby fat was what made railways so fast.
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==References==
<References/>
{{Urban legends}}
[[Category:Urban legends]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Cannibalism in Europe]]
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Galician mythology]]
[[Category:
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