…..As he had been walking along the lonely wet road homewards, he came across a long line of cats, like a procession – and as he said this, their own cat paced towards him. This procession seemed to be a funeral, since there were four cats at the front carrying a coffin draped in black – and here their own cat fixed his deep green eyes, fascinated, on the speaker. On top of the coffin there was a little cushion, and on that cushion a crown … and at this, their own cat swelled up to twice his size and hissed out the words ‘So! Old Tom’s dead and I’m King of the Cats!’ And he turned round and bolted up the chimney before either of them could stop him (Jacobs 1894:156; Briggs 1970:B1.294)…

 Liminal weasels

To serve as a vehicle of transformation, an animal has to be a borderline case – half-trusted, half-feared. The contrast between our Dorset witches and those of classical antiquity bears this out. The ancients never really took to cats, and in order to keep the house clear of mice they relied on other creatures – sacred snakes, and weasels. Passing in and out of the house through cracks in walls and doors, these were liminal animals…

Originally published in At the Edge No.6 1997.

(Image: Ben Harris with his white mare and his dog Jimmy Britt, ca.1916.)

The Man Who Could Dodge Lightning: Tall Tales of the Sierra as told by Ben Harris (1850-1933)

Collected by Joseph E. Doctor, edited by Mary Lou Lyon

From the Introduction:

I have been waiting for years for someone not as lazy as I to produce what I believe to be the classic folklore of the Sierra Nevada of California, the tales told by Ben Harris. Ben was a resident of the Three Rivers-Mineral King-Lemon Cove area of California for fifty years or more. By his own telling, he was a remarkable man. His eyesight was keener, his hearing the most acute, his dog the meanest, his horse the fastest, his gun the shootin’est…in short, in whatever category the competition was, he and his were the best.

His greatest boast was that he was “the biggest liar in the Sierra,” and by liar, he meant the best teller of tall tales. He resented any implication that he would lie for private gain or for devious reasons. He was, in his everyday life, an honest man. He would cheat no one.

Where did this strange relic of the Mountain Man come from? In their society, the teller of tall tales was a person of value who provided entertainment in the long nights at the rendezvous along the trail. Jim Bridger, probably the best known of the Mountain Men after he established his trading post on the Oregon-California Trail, was often mentioned in the correspondence of men who stopped by on their way west, as “the biggest liar I ever heard.” He delighted in feeding the tenderfeet who passed his way the most fantastic accounts of his exploits, including the famous story of the glass mountain, so clear that he took several shots at a grazing antelope before discovering that the animal was immune because it was on the opposite side of the perfectly clear glass mountain.

Another was his yarn about campling at the head of the “eight hour echo canyon,” where he shouted “time to get up boys” as he bedded down his brigade for the night only to have the waking message come back at the proper time in the morning.

Read more. (The entire book is available online).

Balbal - A Tagbanua ghoul with sharp curved nails and a long proboscis-like tongue. It glides in the night sky using the flaps of membranous flesh between its arms and the sides of its body like a flying squirrel . It uses its tongue to suck the blood of a fetus or the innards of a person. It licks a sick or dying person to suck the victim’s life force. It could steal corpses undetected, replacing them with banana stalks that resemble the deceased.

“Spriggans is the name given to a family of fairies in Cornish folklore, they are the closely related to the Piskies, but were generally believed to be darker and more dangerous than their mischievous cousins. Whereas Piskies are generally described as being cheerful and fun loving, Spriggans are more spiteful and full of malice, directed at humans in the form of evil tricks.”

oxford dictionary of english folklore, Simpson and Roud

244: Ozark Fairies

Fairy lore and beliefs here in the Ozarks has its origin in the folklore and traditions of the Scots-Irish settlers to the Appalachian Mountains. It was in these mountains and hills that the traditional European belief in the “Fair Folk,” “Good Folk,” “Gentry,” “Little People,” etc. mixed with the indigenous belief in the “Little People” called “Yunwi Tsunsdi” in Cherokee, and the “Nunnehi” who were considered immortal animistic spirits of the land. These beliefs fit well together, so well that it’s often hard to tell the origin of a lot of the stories of the Fair Folk and the Little People of the Cherokee. There was and still is a lot of crossover between the two beliefs. The Osage, who were in the Ozarks before settlers came to the area, also had traditional beliefs about spirits of the land called “mi-lo’n-shka” that likely also influenced Ozark beliefs.

Fairy beliefs in the Ozarks gave rise to many traditions and practices. Some beliefs include stories of fairy brides and grooms, mortal men and women who marry (and sometimes have children with) one of the Fair Folk giving rise to many family seers and healers. I’ve also heard stories of healers who got their “gift” from the Fair Folk, hunters who received good or bad luck from pleasing or offending the spirits of the land, and also the many cases of livestock falling victim to certain fairy influenced illnesses.

Here are a few beliefs collected by Mary Parler’s folklore students in the 50’s and published in “Folk Beliefs from Arkansas”:

“If a crowded room becomes deathly quiet at 20 til or 20 after the hour, it means the angels are passing through the room.”

“If you find a circle of toadstools, you can be sure fairies have danced there.”

“If you see a circle of toadstools, you can stand in it and make a wish and it will come true.”

“When I was about eight or nine my mother would have me look for rings of mushrooms (clusters). This ring was supposedly left by a fairy and it was a good luck sign. You stand near the ring, close your eyes, make your wish, then turn away. I always looked for these when playing or visiting my grandparents in the country.”

“…a fairy ring is a ring of grass with no dew on it on a lawn covered in dew. This ring is where the fairies danced the night before. I can remember many mornings when my father pointed ‘fairy rings’ out to me. Have heard this all my life.”

“If logs in a fire burn with blue flame, good fairies are watching you.”

“After dark you never throw out water, sweepings, and etc. for you might accidently hit one of the ‘little people’ and make them angry. My mother told me this; she said she could remember her grandmother saying and practicing this. She came from Ireland.”

There are also stories of fairy brides and grooms, mortal men and women who marry (and sometimes have children with) one of the Fair Folk giving rise to many family seers and healers. I’ve also heard stories of healers who got their “gift” from the Fair Folk.  

Cù Sìth / Cú Sídhe

The Cù-Sìth (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [kuː ʃiː]), plural Coin-Sìth (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [kɔːn ʃiː]) is a mythological hound found in Scotland and the Hebrides. A similar creature exists in Irish folklore (spelled Cú Sídhe), and it also bears some resemblance to the Welsh Cŵn Annwn.

According to Scottish folklore, the Cù-Sìth is said to be the size of a young bull with the appearance of a wolf. Its fur is shaggy, and usually cited as being dark green though sometimes white. Its tail is described as being long and either coiled up or plaited (braided). Its paws are described as being the width of a man’s hand.

The Cù-Sìth is thought to make its home in the clefts of rocks in the Highlands,and also to roam the moors and highlands.

The Cù-Sìth was feared as a harbinger of death and would appear to bear away the soul of a person to the afterlife, similar to the manner of the Grim Reaper. In this role the Cù-Sìth holds in Scottish folklore a function similar to that of the Bean Sidhe, or banshee, in Irish folklore.

According to legend, the creature was capable of hunting silently, but would occasionally let out three terrifying bays, and only three, that could be heard for miles by those listening for it, even far out at sea. Those who hear the baying of the Cù-Sìth must reach safety by the third bark or be overcome with terror to the point of death.

It was also said the baying was a warning to lock up nursing women lest the beast abduct them and take them to a fairy mound (Scottish Gaelic: sìthean, pl. sìtheanan) to supply milk for the children of the fae (daoine sìth).

The Sluagh

In Irish and Scottish folklore, the Sluagh (Irish pronunciation: [sɫuə], Scottish Gaelic: [slˠ̪uaɣ], modern Irish spelling Slua, English: “horde, crowd”) were the spirits of the restless dead. Sometimes they were seen as sinners, or generally evil people who were welcome in neither heaven nor hell, nor in the Otherworld, who had also been rejected by the Celtic deities and by the earth itself. Whichever the underlying belief, they are almost always depicted as troublesome and destructive. They were seen to fly in groups like flocks of birds, coming from the west, and were known to try to enter the house of a dying person in an effort to carry the soul away with them. West-facing windows were sometimes kept closed to keep them out. Some consider the Sluagh to also carry with them the souls of innocent people who were kidnapped by these destructive spirits.

Lewis Spence writes in ‘The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain’:

“In the Western Isles of Scotland the Sluagh, or fairy host, was regarded as composed of the souls of the dead flying through the air, and the feast of the dead at Hallowe'en was likewise the festival of the fairies.”

Red Caps

A red cap or redcap, also known as a powrie or dunter, is a type of malevolent murderous dwarf, goblin, elf or fairy found in Border Folklore. They are said to inhabit ruined castles found along the border between England and Scotland. Redcaps are said to murder travellers who stray into their homes and dye their hats with their victims’ blood (from which they get their name). Redcaps must kill regularly, for if the blood staining their hats dries out, they die. Redcaps are very fast in spite of the heavy iron pikes they wield and the iron-shod boots they wear. (which also proves not all ‘fae’ have the same reaction to iron) Outrunning a redcap is supposedly impossible.They are depicted as sturdy old men with red eyes, taloned hands and large teeth, wearing a red cap and bearing a pikestaff in the left hand. The tale of one in Perthshire depicts him as more benign; living in a room in Grantully Castle, he bestows good fortune on those who see or hear him. The Kabouter, or redcaps of Dutch folklore, are very different, and more akin to brownies.

From the Museum of Appalachia: “She went out West, but her coffin stayed in Tennessee.”

In the spring of 1986, Museum founder, John Rice Irwin, was rummaging through an old barn on Bull Run Creek in Union County, Tennessee with the barn’s owner, Bruce Wallace. It was in the loft of that barn that John Rice came across a coffin—half covered with hay and fodder. He asked Bruce why he owned such a peculiar item—knowing that there would likely be an interesting story behind it. Bruce smiled, and recounted the following story of how the coffin and its intended recipient were forever separated:

Keep reading

Houska Castle – Gates to Hell

This 800 year old castle is located in the mountains north of Prague. In the Czech Republic it is refered to as the Gates of Hell due to its haunting reputation.

It is said that the giant pit this castle was built on top of is the gateway to hell. The castle was constructed to seal away the evil. The structure of the castle itself is designed to keep people in rather than keep people out.

There are tales about half human - half beast like creatures emerging from the bottomless pit and strange moaning can be heard throughout the castle. There is one story about a duke who would pardon any criminal if they would be lowered into the pit using a rope and report back what they saw. One criminal was lowered into the pit and started to scream in terror. When they pulled him up they saw that his hair had turned all white and the man had gone mad.

Gamayun

The blasting-root, known in Germany as spring wurzel, and by us as spring-wort, possesses similar virtues, for whatever lock is touched by it must yield.

Harionago- Japanese myth: a beautiful young woman with barbed hair that she can completely control. She wanders the roadways and laughs at on coming men. If he dares laugh back she would release her hair and ensnare the poor man.

(Source)

A nice entry on Horrorpedia for Spring-heeled Jack (linked above) * If this falls in your area of interest, you might also check out the MonsterTalk episode, Hop Springs Eternal (via Skeptic Magazine), as well. 

Daily Monster 154: Khyah

Region of origin: Nepal

A class of household luck spirits, the ape-like khyah will live in homes hiding in attics or storerooms away from electric lighting. White-haired khyah provide good luck and wealth to the household while black-haired ones bring misfortune. They are also depicted as attendants to Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity, and their likenesses decorate temples as shrine guardians.