An unreasonable fear of coconuts

Run away everyone! It's "El Coco!"

Mothers have been were scaring their kids on the Iberian peninsula with stories about brown hairy blob-shaped creatures since the middle ages. Strangely enough, when Portuguese sailors discovered the coconut, they named it after the creature (not the other way around).

There's a lovely lullaby that goes:

Duérmete niño,
duérmete ya,
que viene el coco
y te comerá.

Sleep child,
Sleep already,
Or the coco will come
and eat you