A gaunt figure, impossibly tall — some accounts say six meters when it stands straight — that crosses the llanos at night carrying a sack of bones over its shoulder, whistling an ascending seven-note scale. The whistle is the entire early-warning system, and it lies: heard loud and near, the Whistler is far away. Heard faint, as if from the horizon, he is already at the fence line.
The legend gives him an origin as a son who murdered his father and was cursed to carry the bones forever; accordingly, he is said to single out drunkards, gamblers, and men who mistreat women — a folkloric enforcement mechanism the llanero culture built into its cattle-country nights.
Documented countermeasures: the bark of a dog (the one thing he fears, per every version), chili peppers, and a whip left by the door. Ranch dogs across two countries are kept partly for this reason.