Laura Wright 
Imagine waking in the middle of the night to the unmistakable sound of someone chopping down a tree.
The blows come slowly at first.
Chop. Chop. Chop.
Then they become louder. Eventually there is a tremendous crash as the tree apparently falls.
There is only one problem.
When morning comes, no tree has fallen.
Versions of this strange phenomenon have been recorded in places separated by thousands of miles. In Mexico, Sri Lanka and even the Galápagos Islands, old accounts describe mysterious sounds resembling an axe striking timber in the darkness.
In some traditions, the sound was more than unexplained.
It was an omen.
The Midnight Axe of Mexico
One of the oldest and strangest versions comes from Mexico.
The sixteenth-century Franciscan missionary Bernardino de Sahagún recorded an Aztec belief concerning a mysterious nocturnal sound known as youaltepuztli, rendered by later writers as the Midnight Hatchet or Midnight Axe.
The phenomenon was heard during the deepest part of the night, when people were asleep and the surrounding countryside was quiet.
It sounded like someone splitting or chopping wood.
Hearing it was considered an evil omen.
The sound was associated with Tezcatlipoca, one of the most important and formidable deities of the Aztec pantheon. According to the tradition preserved by Sahagún and later translated by folklorist Andrew Lang, the mysterious chopping was part of the supernatural terrors encountered by people traveling at night.
But the story becomes considerably stranger.
Follow the Sound
A courageous person was not necessarily supposed to run from the Midnight Axe.
He could pursue it.
According to the account, a brave warrior followed the mysterious chopping until he overtook the being responsible.
What he discovered was grotesque.
It resembled a man, but the creature had no heart. Openings in its chest apparently opened and closed, producing the strange noise that sounded from a distance like an axe striking wood.
The warrior could seize the apparition and demand a gift or favor from it. One desired reward was success in warfare and the ability to capture enemies.
Thus, the Midnight Axe wasn’t merely a ghostly lumberjack.
The chopping was itself part of the supernatural manifestation.
And remarkably, something rather similar was reported on the other side of the world.
The Mystery of Pezazi
During the nineteenth century, a story circulated concerning unexplained nighttime noises near a bungalow in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.
The occupants heard what seemed unmistakably to be trees being chopped down.
Blow after blow sounded in the darkness. The chopping would eventually be followed by the apparent crash of falling timber. Then the process would begin again.
These weren’t merely vague bumps in the night. The witnesses interpreted what they heard as the recognizable sounds of axes and falling trees.
Yet investigations reportedly failed to find the devastated trees that should have produced such tremendous noise.
Local people attributed the phenomenon to a supernatural being or spirit referred to in the English account as Pezazi. Andrew Lang later discussed the case in Custom and Myth and was struck by its similarity to Sahagún’s Mexican tradition.
The witnesses in Ceylon apparently had no knowledge of the Mexican story.
That made the coincidence considerably more interesting.
The Axe Appears Again
Lang subsequently discovered that the mysterious axe wasn’t limited to those two locations.
A similar story had been associated with the Galápagos Islands.
Thomas De Quincey described an account involving his brother and the terrifying sound of an invisible woodcutter. At night, the noise of an axe could supposedly be heard, followed after repeated chopping by the crash of a tree falling.
But daylight searches failed to reveal the mysterious tree.
As dawn approached, the chopping ceased.
Lang jokingly described the phenomenon as something resembling a poltergeist of the forests.
But he offered no real explanation.
Three Places, One Strange Sound
This is what makes the Midnight Axe particularly fascinating.
Mexico.
Sri Lanka.
The Galápagos Islands.
These are not neighboring cultures sharing an obvious local legend. Yet old accounts from all three describe some variation upon the same deeply unsettling experience:
Someone is chopping wood in the darkness.
The sound continues.
A tree crashes down.
Morning comes.
Nothing is there.
The meanings attached to the phenomenon weren’t necessarily identical. The Aztec tradition possessed its own elaborate religious and supernatural context. The Ceylon account was associated with a local spirit. The Galápagos version became a sailor’s or traveler’s mystery.
Andrew Lang did not believe this similarity demonstrated some forgotten historical connection between the cultures. Instead, he considered it an example of how remarkably similar supernatural ideas can arise independently among human beings.
Perhaps he was right.
What Causes the Midnight Axe?
There are plenty of possibilities.
Forests produce extraordinary noises at night. Trees crack as temperatures change. Branches fall. Animals make sounds that can be difficult to identify at a distance. Sound travels strangely through certain landscapes and atmospheric conditions.
An axe is also an extremely familiar sound.
Once someone interprets a repetitive noise as chopping, the mind may supply the rest.
That could explain some reports.
But the nineteenth-century Ceylon account remains intriguing because several people reportedly heard the sounds on repeated occasions, and investigation failed to reveal the expected source. The witnesses described not merely chopping but the apparent crashes of falling trees.
We cannot return to those nights and listen for ourselves.
Nor can we know precisely what the witnesses actually heard.
We are left with the accounts.
The Woodcutter Who Isn’t There
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the Midnight Axe is its simplicity.
There is no elaborate apparition required.
No phantom castle appears.
No dead king rides across the sky.
There is only a familiar sound coming from somewhere it shouldn’t.
An axe striking wood.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Then comes the crash.
And if you are sufficiently brave, perhaps you follow it.
The Aztec warrior did.
According to the old story, what waited for him at the end wasn’t a woodcutter at all.
Perhaps the rest of us would be wiser to remain in bed.
About the Author
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