Ahuízotl

The ahuízotl is a large, black, otter-like monster that inhabits lakes and rivers. Its fur is waterproof, and whenever the Ahuizotl comes out of the water and shakes itself, it clumps up like spikes. At the end of this tail is a hand, very much like a person’s.

Florentine Codex. It has small, pointed ears, just like a small dog. It is black, like rubber; smooth, slippery, very smooth, long tailed. And its tail is provided with a hand at the end; just like a human hand is the point of its tail. And its hands are like a raccoon’s hands or like a monkey’s hands. It lives, it is a dweller in watery caverns, in watery depths. And if anyone arrives there at its entrance, or there in the water where it is, it then grabs him there. It is said that it sinks him, it plunges him into the water; it carries him to its home, it introduces him to the depths; so its tail goes holding him, so it goes seizing him …[When the body is retrieved] the one it has drowned no longer has his eyes, his teeth, and his nails; it has taken them all from him. But his body is completely unblemished, his skin uninjured. Only his body comes out all slippery-wet; as if one had pounded it with a stone; as if it had inflicted small bruises

Lake Guardian. The ahuízotl is a guardian of the fish that inhabit the rivers and lakes where these creatures make their homes. This naturally brings them into conflict with local fishermen who are attacked while fishing.

Peculiar Taste. The Ahuizotl is said to have a peculiar taste for a person’s eyes, teeth, and nails, hence the corpses of its victims are found without these body parts.