As promised: THE LIZARD! Actual folklore in Spain and Mesoamerica (I'm not making this up):
The lizard is thought of to be the most dangerous of all animals. (Think about hell and where a lizard lives, there is a high-low continuim in animals, like birds are super cool.) They attack women more than men. Here is a direct quote from an an anthropologist's informant: "No, the lizard is bad, it's worse than accursed; it's much more dangerous because it disapears. But it's revolting with women; they say it chases a lot of women and jumps...up there, and whips around and sticks in its tail, they say, but that's never happened here. They say it goes much more after women [on their periods]" (In their culture sex on periods is a no no.) Yet another anthropologist records what happens when its in there. "The victim swelled as if pregnant, and the axolotl (lizard) sucked the blood from the woman until she turned a deathly pale. The curandera (medicine lady) knew 2 remedies. In one the afflicted woman crouched over a bowl of hot goat milk and the vapors killed the lizard.. [the second method] required a courageous man to have sexual intercourse with the victim. The infuriated axolotl will seize the penis, and unless its fangs can be withdrawn, amputation must be preformed...But if there is a skillful doctor present, he can remain in the room with the young couple, holding a lighted blessed candle in his hand. When the lizard emerges, the flame of the candle burning its eyes causes it to precipitately let go its hold."