Indigenous Americans Share Their Tribe's Best Ghost Stories And Legends
Reddit user A_KULT_KILLAH asked: 'Native Americans of Reddit, what are your or your tribes ghost stories, legends, or supernatural occurrences?'
People the world over develop their own specific folklore, heavily influenced by the natural world around them and their own culture.
The North American continent was no different.
Reddit user A_KULT_KILLAH wanted to know about the myths and legends of the Indigenous peoples of North America.
They asked:
"Native Americans of Reddit, what are your or your tribes ghost stories, legends, or supernatural occurrences?"
Here are some of the interesting legends and superstitions of North America's First Nations and Indigenous tribes.
Uktena
Brice Cooper on Unsplash
"Uktena. It's a legend about a horned snake in Tsalagi [Cherokee] legend. Uktena is said to be very large and round like a tree trunk, with horns on his head."
"The only way to wound him is to shoot at a singular spot on his forehead that emits bright light. It's similar to a diamond. If you defeat Uktena, you become a miracle worker—a great warrior."
"Yet, once you see the light on his forehead, you run toward it instead of trying to escape."
"Even to see Uktena sleeping is death. Not to the hunter, but to his family."
~ Faith-Hope-TacoBell
Dog Tails or Why They Sniff Each Other
gotdaflow on Unsplash
"Lenni Lenape story about why dogs sniff each other's butts."
"When the humans slept, dogs would get together and party, but not before taking their tails off. They'd dance the entire night, put their tails back on and return home."
"But one time a wolf found them and all the dogs had to scramble away to their homes for safety, but a lot of them grabbed the wrong tail."
"They never danced again at night because they were afraid of the wolf, so they were stuck with weird mismatched tails for the rest of their lives."
"This is the reason that dogs sniff each other's butts; to see if the other dog has their tail."
~ ChurroChick
Haida Raven Brings Light to the Earth
Cristina Glebova on Unsplash
"In the beginning there was no light in the world, because an old magician kept it hidden in a box inside his house. Raven, who was always hungry, didn't like the darkness because it was difficult to find food."
"One day he was looking for food near the old magician's house. He heard a voice saying, 'I have a box, and inside this box is another box, and inside this there is another box, and inside the smallest box is all the light in the world'."
"Raven decided to steal the light."
"Raven waited until the old man's daughter went down to the river to collect water. Just as she was dipping her basket into the river, he changed himself into a hemlock needle."
"The needle floated into her basket. When the girl drank some water, she swallowed Raven too."
"Inside the girl's belly Raven took the form of a human baby. He grew and grew, and in time she gave birth to a funny looking child with black eyes and a big nose."
"The old man loved his grandson so much that he gave in to the child's every wish. Raven became spoilt and greedy. He was bored with all his toys, and wanted to play with the box that held the light."
"Finally the grandfather opened the box and tossed the glowing ball of light to Raven."
"As soon as Raven caught the light, he immediately changed into his bird form. Holding the light in his beak, he flew up the chimney hole into the dark world."
"The magician was angry. He wanted to get the light back into his box."
"He flew after Raven."
"The light was heavy in Raven's beak, and he was getting tired. The magician was coming closer."
"Raven broke off some pieces of the light and threw them into the sky. They became the stars."
"The magician was still coming closer, so Raven broke off another piece of the light and threw it into the sky. It became the moon."
"Finally Raven became so tired that he tossed the last and biggest piece of the light into the sky. It became the sun; and that is how daylight came to the world."
~ deviety
Nakani
Oliver Roos on Unsplash
"Dené from northern British Columbia here, my mom used to always tell me stories of the Nehgunni [Nakani], or bushmen/wild-men when I was young."
"They were people who lived in the forest and took away people who wandered too far out, specifically children."
"I always figured these stories were created by my people to serve two purposes, first to teach young children to not wander far off, and second to give explanations to kidnappings or missing people."
~ spanishLION
See-at-coh
green trees near lake under blue sky during daytimePhoto by Jasper Gronewold on Unsplash"See-at-coh (don't know the translation in English) is a Cowlitz legend. Lived at this lake and it was his spot."
"We DO NOT go there or he will kill you. Used to have nightmares about him based on what I was taught as a kid."
"Like how you could stand at the edge of the water and be looking in and he would come out of it and just grab you. No whistling at night and keep windows covered."
"But then the mountain blew up [Mt. Saint Helen] and filled in the lake so don't know if he's still around or not."
~ kalimah1
Nahual of Mexico
Joshua Wilking on Unsplash
"I live in rural Mexico. There are many, many different Indigenous peoples in what's now Mexico."
"The ones who settled here speak Nahuatl—the language of the Aztecs. This legend took place in the early 1900's."
"One of my favourite Nahuatl myths is the Nahual."
"Some people were thought to be able to turn into an animal. Most of them could only turn into one, but the most powerful Nahual could turn into different animals."
"There was a man who owned a hacienda where my town is, and he had a sort of overseer that everyone was afraid of."
"Said overseer could take a message all the way to the next state (think hundreds of miles) and bring back a sealed response in a single day."
"He also seemed to know everything everyone did, all the time. He was rumoured to be a Nahual that could turn into a coyote and an eagle."
"His quarters were heavily warded in his absence, which only added fuel to the rumor. You can only kill a Nahual if you find the human skin he sheds to transform and burn said skin."
~ CTalina78
Yamǫ́rıa & Yamǫǫ̀zha
Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
"Yamǫ́rıa & Yamǫǫ̀zha—the giant twins [of the Dené]."
"There are landmarks all around the territory I live in that is exhibited as 'proof' they were alive."
"In the middle of the Mackenzie river( biggest river in the NorthWest Territories) there is a large stone sticking out of the river which looks like the petrified guts of a beaver, there is a giant branchless, leafless tree sticking out of the top of this stone."
"It is said that Yamǫǫ̀zha had hunted a giant beaver and gutted him there in the river. He used his spear to anchor down the cuts so fish may feed on them. They are still there to this day."
"Yamǫ́rıa's body can be seen laying down, it is essentially a mountain range that looks like a giant human laying on his back, completely with face and feet. This can be seen from the peak of the hill as you enter a town called Ft. Liard, the southwestern most town in the NWT."
Walking Sam of the Pine Ridge Reservation
Boston Public Library on Unsplash
"'Walking Sam' skulks in the shadows of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and convinces people to take their own lives, especially young people."
"He's 7 feet tall, very thin and has no mouth. When he stretches out his long arms, nooses hang down with Lakota children hanging from them."
"Walking Sam finds you when you're alone and puts thoughts in your head until you feel worthless and kill yourself.
"Sometimes Walking Sam is depicted looking like Abraham Lincoln, complete with the stovepipe hat. 'Walking Sam', 'Uncle Sam', I don't know if that's where the name came from."
"But Walking Sam is an evil infected upon the people when the Oceti Sakowin were forced onto the reservations; he isn't a legend of the people before Pine Ridge Reservation existed."
"Lincoln was President when the Lakota were being forced onto reservations. Lincoln also ordered the execution of 38 Lakota men the day after Christmas in 1862. It's the largest mass execution in U.S. history."
"I always thought Walking Sam was Lincoln. They carved his face onto Ŝa´kpe Tuŋkaŋŝi (Mount Rushmore was called Six Grandfathers) in the Paha Sa´pa (Black Hills)
"My Father attended Holy Rosary boarding school at Pine Ridge in the 1940s & 1950s, but our people didn't live on the reservation. My Grandmother said evil stalked the people there."
"My Father never wanted us to ever even visit any of our cousins or his Uncles there."
~ LakotaGrl
Este Lopocke or Este Lubutke
Morgane Perraud on Unsplash
"Miccosukee [Seminole] tribal member here (South Florida) and for us it's the little people."
"Essentially really small people (like barbie doll sized and smaller) that live in the trees. They play jokes and stuff mainly, unless you piss them off."
"Had family members get tricks played on them that couldn't be explained."
"And then we have our fair share of stories that circulate our reservation like a tribal member being taken by the little people."
"All on the reservation in the Everglades (like 40 mins west of Miami)."
~ SSBMBabyCakes
Haudenosaunee Rules
Chris Chow on Unsplash
"I know the Haudenosaunee [Iroquois Confederacy] rules."
"1. If you hear someone you know calling your name, but you also know they are not supposed to be there, DON'T respond. Especially if they are out of sight and insisting you come to them."
"2. Always play group games in counter-clockwise order, otherwise your playing with the dead."
"3. Also don't eat in the dark, this is considered inviting the dead to eat with you. If you can extend your hand all the way out and still see it clearly then your fine."
"4. Don't play card games past midnight. If you do, and someone knocks at the door, don't answer it."
"5. Try not to drop your cards, if you do then don't bend down to pick them up, or you will see hooves under the table. That's bad."
"6. Say thank you after meals, even if you're the one that made it. Even better if you say it in native tongue."
"7. If someone finishes their meal and says thank you, you say 'you're welcome', even if you didn't give it to them. Even better in native tongue."
"8. After someone dies, you should gather family as quickly as possible to have feasts for 10 days. The first dinner is large, then every meal after that is a smaller feast meant for portions of the family to come at different times to help.
"The last feast on the 10th day is the closing dinner, which is the largest, with the entire family expected to show up and help. For every meal of these 10 days, put out a plate of the deceased's favorite foods first."
"Contrary to rule 6, you do not say thank you at any time during these 10 days. This is because it is believed that it takes the dead 10 days to relive their lives before they pass on, so this is your last chance to eat with them."
"Saying 'Thank you' during this time will make them stop before they're done because you're saying you're done. This will have bad consequences."
"9. Don't try to contact spirits, especially with board games. This is not a tribe custom, it's more of an unspoken common sense among the Rez people."
"10. If a bird flies into your house, someone's going to die."
"11. Pregnant woman should not hold any child that isn't theirs."
"12. It's accepted that if you actually try to curse someone, literally going through all of the steps with the intention of harm, not accidentally wishing them bad luck, then your family will also be cursed horribly."
"13. If you play with fire you'll wet the bed."
~ kinda-always-hungry
To learn more general information about Indigenous mythology of the United States, visit the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian website.
For Canada, visit the First Nations in Canada website.
For information about specific tribes, visit their tribal government website for recommended resources.
The UFO crash art Area 51.
Marisa Tomei didn't actually win the Oscar.
QAnon.
These are only a handful of outrageous, some might even say ridiculous, conspiracy theories which continue to be spread across America, and which people continue to believe.
Though some of these cases have been debunked by scientific evidence, people still continue to believe them, and will simply refuse to hear otherwise.
Redditor reddituser1234543216 was curious to learn which far out conspiracy theories people still continue to believe, leading them to ask:
"What is the weirdest conspiracy theory that you believe in?"
The truth about fossil fuels
"The fossil fuels industry caused the historic and current fear mongering surrounding nuclear energy."
"Then they blamed it on 'liberal hippies' so future leftists would look back and think nuclear energy wasn't a good idea."
"Agents of the fossil fuels industry caused the Three-Mile Island incident and the poor government handling following the incident so Americans would forever be overly concerned about the nuclear energy industry."- DairyNurse
It all just seems too convenient.
"I am really partial to the alleged connection between mattress sales shops and money laundering."
"There are far too many than seems rational."- Cambridgecoffeepot
Theft of intellectual property!
"Oreo stopped selling their Thins mint flavor because the girls couts put the squeeze on them for making a better version of their most popular cookie."- DevilsDrumbum
Girl Scouts Cookie GIF by Girl Scouts of the USAGiphyDid he really think he'd make it in the Major League?
"Jordan played minor league baseball to serve a suspension from NBA for gambling."- WastedKnowledge
The epitome of "smooth criminal".
"DB Cooper got his money and went back to work on Monday morning as if nothing happened."
"And the guy was such a milquetoast nondescript blank of a man in real life that no one noticed."- Gemmabeta
How many are out there?
"I just find it odd I haven't heard a peep about human cloning since we cloned a sheep, internationally agreed it was a bad idea to clone humans, and then never talked about it again."- ronintalken
Animation Character GIF by Greg GunnGiphyAn interesting point to ponder...
"When was the last time you bought tin foil?"
"Not aluminum foil, actual tin foil."
"I bet it's been quite some time."
"It's somewhat difficult to find without special looking for it, and costs substantially more than tin foil."
"WHY is it harder and more costly to get? "
"Because if you can't buy tin foil, you can't make tin foil hats."
"And if you can't make tin foil hats, the government can get into your head and know what you looked at in incognito mode..."- stryph42
Even more exciting than the MCU!
"The theory of the Schurverse basically it proposes that: 'The Office', 'Parks and Rec', 'Brooklyn 99', and 'The Good Place' all exist in the same universe because they were all worked on by Michael Schur."
"It also states that all the reoccurring actors between the shows are people living out their lives to become good enough to get into the good place."- buffkirby
It's all a government cover up!
"I think the government is responsible for some of the wilder conspiracy theories so that some of the marginally less wild but true ones are discounted equally."- bigsim
Always Sunny Reaction GIFGiphyThink twice before mailing it off!
"Those DNA Ancestry companies are just a front for the FBI to store bio history on everyone."- unassum1ng
They're everywhere!
"Scam syndicate."
"Last year a family friend was scammed out of a large amount of money."
"I decided to investigate."
"In doing so, I allegedly uncovered a crime syndicate run by the world's largest Christian doomsday cult."
"The cult recruits members in foreign countries under the guise of missionary work, trains them through American-based online computer training programs and lavishes them in cars, clothes and cash."
"Meanwhile, in the US, they use a large network of members to data mine, collect money from victims and launder money through LLC's and current businesses."
"After discovering this operation, and while using family tracking apps, I noticed forced IMEI microcell interactions and numerous newly established microcells that tether to and geo-locate my phone."
"The suspicion is members have surveillance on my travels, internet activity and home life to intercept any communication with law enforcement or outside organizations."
"The community in which I live has a large enclave of members and businesses within the cult."
"I have reported to the FBI and local police."
"It has gone no further."
"Right now, informing as many investigators is my only recourse."
"As crazy as this reads, and as serious the allegations, it's as real as things get."
"I'm glad to stumble upon this if it stops folks from being scammed, but I do not know how long me or my family stay safe with this knowledge."
"It's as close and imminent as across the street."- HELLEREDDIT·
Vibing Red Alert GIF by VibeheadsGiphyDon't believe everything you see.
"The moon landing really happened...but the photos are fake."
"I don't 100% believe this, I just feel it's the most likely to be true."
"If you go through security now in 2022, there will still be a sign advising anyone with rolls of film to let security know, because the minor radiation from the x-ray machine will damage the film."
"Scott Kelley the astronaut wrote in his book that he got the equivalent of 10 chest x-rays a day while on the ISS."
"The theory is that after 8 days of exposure to solar radiation, the film used by Apollo 11 was ruined and unusable, so NASA had, Or as a precaution, already had, fake photos produced in their place."- FLICKGEEK1
They start so young.
"I believe that my brother steals money from me when i sleep."
'Most evidence i got is from my mom."- Xcross8769
Why else would it spread so quickly?
"Viruses and some of the illnesses are human made and purposefully spread."
'The pharmaceutical and medical fields have stay in business somehow."
"Also if the Universe is infinite, there have to be aliens somewhere.'
"We can't be the only inhabited planet."- grumpycoffeee
We are not alone...
"That we are a big sh*t show for alien tv."- AndreMichel
x files GIF by The X-FilesGiphyThe "cloud" is bigger than we think...
"That my data is save using Facebook."- IIITysonIII
The Lost City will be found one day!
"I believe in lots of what can be called conspiracy theories, but my craziest is that I kinda think Atlantis was real in some way."- skarodegradation
Some would say it makes more sense...
"I don't believe in it but I think it doesn't sound too far-fetched."
"The many children Elon Musk has with many women are clones of him."- throwaway220408
Elon Musk Reaction GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphyThe truth is out there...
And yet people still choose to believe all this!
Myths or legends are usually a collection of stories that have been recorded in some way after being passed down orally for centuries. Sometimes they are related to the relgions, sometimes it's folklore that has no connection to the rituals of the area they originate.
Stories passed down by generations through word of mouth can now be recorded and shared on the internet for people to read across the world. It's exciting, but also easy to get lost in translation as things shift away from their original mythology.
Some of these myths are quite strange but have stood the test of time and continue to be shared in their local communities over the years.
Reddit users shared some of the strangest they've heard from their own home countries.
Redditor adwiwon asked:
"What is the weirdest story/myth your country/religion has?"
Here's some bizarre myths and legends from all corners of the world.
Struwwelpeter, or "Shockheaded Peter."
"One of the weirdest is the one of the guy that chops off a kid's thumbs because it still sucks them."
"Who has no thumbs and don't care? ...him, I guess."
"Even weirder is, that this is from a book with several of such weird stories yet parents f*cking love reading them to their children."
"We truly are a weird bunch."
"Think about favorite nursery rhymes. Jack and Jill, Hansel and Gretel, etc. Most of them are about harm coming to children. I've always found it odd."
"If the point of the stories was to make children feel all warm and fuzzy, then yeah, it would be weird. But if the point is to warn children against potential dangers, like going to a stranger's house, walking through the woods alone, climbing hills alone, or to prevent undesirable behaviors like thumb sucking, it makes sense."
"My mom always told me that putting shoes on the table was bad luck. Turned out, she just didn't want shoes on her f*cking table."
The dog eating cereal with a spoon.
"In Monterrey, México, there's a creepy urban legend about a dog eating cereal with a spoon, and believe it or not, a lot of people are afraid of [it]."
Essentially what happened is a family came home and a little boy found a dog that has disappeared sitting at the table eating cereal with a spoon.
"It's so absurd that the sight of it drove a man mad. Now that's a story with a twist. It wasn't scary but so weird that it's depicted having the same effect as witnessing a Lovecraftian horror. Seeing the un-seeable, a dog eating cereal with a spoon."
This story was first seen on Facebook but was translated to English and posted on the Creepypasta Reddit page.
Johnny Appleseed.
"Johnny Appleseed is a trip.
"He wandered around planting apple seeds and the story talks about how he fed westward expansion. Except... apples from seeds? You're almost certainly not going to get an edible apple. You can make fermented hard apple cider from them, though..."
"He didn't feed expansion, he boozed it up. And this is a children's story!"
Astramancer_
"You forgot the part about how he wore a metal pot for a hat. While it sounds like a weird folksy embellishment, he really did wear one!"
PocketBuckle
"Appleseed was a die-hard Swedenborgian, a Christian offshoot that preached about living in harmony with nature, and a reason for why he never planted grafted trees -- essentially, it was forbidden to mess with nature. I recently read an account in a book that claimed that he once destroyed a pair of shoes because he inadvertently stepped on a living creature."
"The guy seemed to be a pretty genuinely good dude for the most part. He was pretty successful as a businessman (he often acquired the land he was planting his trees on as he traveled, but still tried to remain true to his ideals and certainly didn't travel in luxury."
"Well, he got apples for cider. He also did help spawn some of the more American varieties because he didn't graft but insisted on planting from seed, so the apple trees that survived were the ones better suited for the local climate. Most were crabapples, but there were enough sports/mutants with more desirable traits for edibility that were spread around with grafting."
Fragrant water.
"I grew up pretty close to this small town whose name means 'fragrant water' in my local language. How did that come to be, you say? Well well well I'm glad you asked."
"Apparently long long ago there's a king who's suspicious of his wife. He's all like gurl you're cheating, you gotta be! And the queen was like nooooo I'm not! I swear! But the king was not convinced, and kept accusing her. Eventually he decided that the queen is to be sentenced to death. Exasperated, the queen said, 'Fine, kill me. But then throw my body into this water right here and if I'm innocent the water will become fragrant.'"
"The king was like LOL yea right, go die now. /stab."
"Well, she died. But they humored her and threw her body into the, uh… river or lake or whatever. It's a body of water. Anyway, lo and behold, a strong flower fragrant starts wafting in the air, just as the queen said it would if she was innocent. The king fell to his knees, probably waving his fists to the clouds yelling a dramatic NoOoOooOoOO!!!"
"And then they named the town Fragrant Water. After this legend of a lady who died of sh*ttyhusbanditis, an extremely common disease back in the day. I'll let yall decide what message / lesson they're trying to convey by naming their town after this legend. Think before you stab your wives, I guess?"
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing smells is no basis for a system of government."
Harold Holt swept out to sea.
"In 1967, the then Prime Minister of Australia, Harold Holt, swam out to sea and was swept away. It was said that he was caught in a 'rip', and dragged out by the current. One of the biggest search operations took place in order to locate him, but was unsuccessful."
"His body has never been found, and this has generated a whole bunch of theories. But yeah, pretty weird. You can read more about it here."
"I want to emphasize that the fact Harold Holt went into the ocean and never came back is true, but the many theories on how he went missing range from plausible to pretty bloody unlikely and we will never really know what happened to old mate Harold. I also want to add that one of the ways we chose to honour our late leader was to name a f*cking swimming pool after him."
Groundhogs Day.
"Some groundhog crawls out of a hole and predicts the seasons."
"The Nacerima sure have weird rituals, huh?"
The original Maui.
"Not a local to New Zealand, but read about the myths the Maori use to tell that explained how things were. In particular, some revolved around a demi-god named Maui. Not Maui from Moana, the historical Maui. There's a lot of odd stories about him, but I'll recap my favourites. Of which I have 2 to mention."
"First, the story follows the villagers of Maui's group(?) to become mad, because according to the myth, a full day took 12 hours, instead of 24. Understandably, the villagers were pretty pissed off about it. So, Maui and his companions, including his brothers; set out to cross the ocean to find where the sun rises. They then PULL THE ENTIRE F*CKING SUN DOWN with hooks on ropes. Maui yells at the sun god to give his people longer days, or they'll keep him down forever. The sun complies and the gang leaves, now with 24 hour days."
"The next one isn't as mind blowing as the last, but still ridiculous. One day, Maui and his brothers go out on a waka (Wah-ka, basically; it's a polynesian canoe.) And head north, in search of fish. As according to my memory, there wasn't enough fish near the mainland. So they travelled out to sea, for a long while. Eventually, they came to a nice fishing spot and Maui used his hook to fish. (It should be noted at this point, Maui's trusty hook is actually made out of one of his grandfather's bones.) Eventually, Maui catches a stingray, but not just any stingray. The stingray was the size of the entire north island of New Zealand. Using only his hook and strength mind you. (Although, he was a demi-god, still that's pretty impressive.)"
"He pulls it up to the surface and admires his catch, he warns his brothers not kill the fish as he had to go and do something. (can't remember the something he had to do.) Of course, his brothers give into temptation and kill the gigantic stingray. Causing it's body to transform into an island, sprouting trees and forming mountains. Maui comes back and is pretty pissed off with his brothers. He then returns back home with his brothers and they argue a bunch (I think.) And according to Maori mythology. That's why the north island is shaped like a stingray. (For those who don't see it, Wellington is the head, New Plymouth is one of the fins, and Kaitaia is the tip of the barbed tail."
"Sorry for the long story, but I just found these two interesting enough to talk about. If you wanna hear more stories like this about Maui, do some googling. There are plenty more stories than those two."
These are some strange and some hilarious myths and legends that have been around for decades. They've stood the test of time and generations of story telling.
We don't think anyone who originally shared these myths expected to see them talked about on Reddit one day.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
The internet can bring together people from the most distant corners of the globe. And each of those vastly different regions brings its own history, legends, and mythology.
One Reddit thread took a very focused approach to shared cultural norms, asking for the creepiest old legends that abound in each place.
Some common themes cropped up: animals are NOT to be tampered with, night time is extremely dangerous, especially if you're a child, and things shift their shape almost constantly.
In fact, as one reads the rapid-fire list of all these different legends, the convenient functional elements of such stories began to show clearer. Scary myths are apparently a heck of a way to encourage people to obey certain rules and expectations.
isuwiq asked, "What are some creepy stories from your culture?"
Mandatory Nap Time
"From Paraguay:"
J"asy Jatere: he's a blond, beautiful dwarf that goes around naked in the woods. He owns a golden stick that provides him with magical powers. He kidnaps the kids that don't sleep in the afternoon (around 2 PM to 4 PM here) and IF he returns them, they're often deaf or mute."
For Those Excited Christmas Eve Nights
"Maran: A woman born on Friday the 25th of December, she sneaks in to your room at night and kills you, but she has some OCD of sorts and you can fend her of if by leaving a pile of cow hair on your window sill, she'll have to count them all which hopefully leaves you with enough time to wake up."
"Näcken: A man that sits by a body of water (usually rivers) and plays his violin to lure children in to the water."
-- FelixRaberg
Frats: Listen Up!
"Don't look up trees when you are out walking at night. A virgin ghost that will suck the life out of you sits up there waiting for you to look up."
"When a person is asleep, their soul leaves their body. If you paint or draw on a sleeping person's face, their soul will not recognize them and be unable to jump back into the body."
A Mythological Solution to a Nuisance
"People in my town spoke of Deer Woman. Origin story differs but I was told a woman was killed and buried on top of a deer. She would chase people at night and was known to harass motorcycle riders, even going so far as to jump onto the back and ride along while laughing hysterically."
"There's an old bridge on the outside of town and she was especially known to haunt the area around it."
Search in Silence
"Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies. Some Caribbean folklore:"
"Douens- the souls of children who have died before they were baptized. They are doomed to roam the earth forever. They are seen playing in forests and near rivers and they have no faces and their feet are turned backwards."
"They may approach children and lead them astray in the forest until they are lost, or they may come near people's houses at night, crying and whimpering."
"To prevent the Douens from calling your children into the forest at dusk, never shout their names in open places, as the Douens will take their names, call them and lure them away."
-- supahsokah
Beware of Whale
"化鯨 (Bake-Kujira) - or "Ghost Whale" a huge ghost-like whale skeleton that is followed by a flock of birds or fish. They appear on rainy nights near the coastal whale villages. Scaring and placing a curse on anyone who sees it. The curse would bring Famine, Plague fire and all various kinds of disasters to the village that sees it.
"絡新婦 (Jorougumo) - in Japanese Folklore, this is a magical, 400 year old giant spider. That can change its appearance into a beautiful women. She will seduce young handsome men, wrap them up in her web and eats them!"
-- KichiEndo
More Forest Issues
"Spearfinger, would kill anyone who wondered into the forest alone, by stabbing them through the neck with her spear shaped finger (whodathunkit?) and then eat their livers. She would then shape-shift into her victim's likeness to gain access to the village and would then kill the family of her original victim, also eating their livers."
-- SmokyJett
Can't Tell if This One Keeps People Away or Draws Them In
"The drummer boy (Edinburgh). The story says one the government found a tunnel that was too small for a fully grown man to go down, so they sent a boy with drums and told him to walk down the tunnel and keep drumming. They followed the sound of the drums and at one point it stopped."
"The boy never returned. Some people say that if you stand in the right place you can still hear the drums."
"Crazy Long Arms"
"There is a Hmong ghost story about an old couple where the old woman thought that her husband was stroking her hair at night."
NOPE. It was a weird a** creature with CRAZY long arms that was reaching through their window at night. They never saw the whole creature, JUST the long ass arm reaching through the window and stretching waaaaaaay off into the forest."
"That's why you shouldn't put the head of your bed near the window."
A Ghastly Blob
"In Oxfordshire (UK) there's a fairly obscure creature of legend called the Boneless. It's purported to be a sort of protoplasmic blob that ambushes and suffocates travelers on lonely paths."
"Damn thing made me scared to walk to and from the bus stop (it was a rural area by British standards; I had to walk across a few fields and through a woodland to get there from home), for nigh on a decade of my childhood."
Ghost Train
"Small town in upstate NY. There used to be a train station there, back when people actually took passenger trains anywhere in rural areas. Fairly well-off guy, well-known in town, comes racing into the station, right before midnight."
"Seconds later, a huge, old-fashioned, jet-black train with nobody aboard - I mean nobody - rolls into the station. No schedule shows a train arriving for another hour, but there it is. Guy runs through the booth and jumps onto the train. Train rolls off into the night."
"Nobody ever saw him again."
Beware the Old Lady
"Soucouyant - a person (typically an old lady, also heard lots of stores about this growing up) who has made a pact with the devil to be able to change herself into all kinds of different forms."
"At night she sheds her human skin and changes into a ball of fire and quickly flies around, sitting on tree branches, burning singular trees in fields and leaving others untouched."
"She has to slip back into that skin before dawn breaks and the cock crows, otherwise she will not be able to get back into it."
"When people suspect that an old woman neighbour of theirs is a soucouyant, they go to her house at night and rub salt on her human skin so that it will shrink and she will not be able to get back into it and thus die."
-- supahsokah
THE TONGUE
"There is a mythical creature here in the Philippines called the "mananangal" which is said to be like a normal person during day and a terrifying creature with bat wings and a long tongue whose upper torso is split from its lower torso and is said to eat the fetus from a pregnant lady using said long tongue."
"The only way to kill it is to find its lower half that vanishes during the night."
-- Mac_Mac_07
A Different Kind of Hell
"The Jewish conception of hell isn't punishment based, it's more like a celestial car wash for your soul. You are purified until your soul is fresh and new, and then you go to heaven."
"But there are some people who are so evil, no amount of scraping will ever remove the black stuff. THEN there are those who are even denied the chance at hell."
"They get sent to earth in a spiritual form, chased and tormented by angels for all eternity. Unless they possess someone. This is what's known as a dybbuk."
-- UltraBeads
Choking Humidity
"The Choking Ghost. If you visit a graveyard or sacred site, you're liable to be followed home by a spirit. Maybe you were being disrespectful, or maybe you just crossed paths with a bad spirit. They follow you, stay with you, and wait for you to sleep."
"That night, they'll choke you in your sleep. You'll be awakened in the night, paralyzed and suffocating. But it's just a warning, they'll let you breath after you've gotten the message. You'll find red hand and finger marks on your throat where the ghost held you."
"I've personally never been visited, but I have several friends who have. Hawaii can get pretty humid, so the "ghost" is generally dismissed as a form of humidity-induced sleep paralysis. But the hand marks on their necks in the mirror are hard to explain."
-- blinkymach12
One Cultural, One Familial
"Not exactly a story but in many Asian cultures you are never allowed to put chopsticks in your tea because it looks like incense and symbolizes death. Also avoid the number 4 at all costs but that might just be my grandfather being weird..."
-- EastPangolin
Craving Windigos
"The Wendigo. Life for the First Nations was tough dealing with disease, European settlers, and much more but the winter is the toughest for them because they cant grow any food so families without any food would starve."
"That is when Wendigos make their moves possessing one of the starving people and making them satisfy its craving for human flesh but it is always hungry once a human has eaten another human they turn into Wendigos they are normal during the spring summer and fall but once winter arrives that's when the craving begins."
-- Dabombfan
Folks love a good urban legend. A scary story to tell in the dark.
There are whole collections of urban legends. There are webpages dedicated to finding out whether or not urban legends are true or false.
Society loves them.
u/Milfhuntersplash asked:
What's your Favorite Cryptid or Urban Legends?
Here were some of those answers.
Choo Choo
One urban legend that really sticks to me for whatever reason is the Baby Train. Basically, the story tells of a town with an abnormally high birth rate. The reason for this is because the town is located near a railroad where a train passes by at 5 AM and its whistle wakes up all of the residents. Because its too early to get up but too late to go back to sleep, couples will "do it" to pass the time.
2 Spoopy
I grew up in Hawaii hearing stories about the Night Marchers as a kid. You would always hear stories about seeing the band of worries at night or the beat of their drums. It was some seriously spooky stuff as a kid.
Awooooooo
Dogmen. Basically werewolves, but there is an entire podcast with 200+ episodes where people talk about their actual encounters with them, aptly called Dogman Encounters.
There is also a midieval religious treatise called "do the dog headed men have souls?" That discusses in length whether the dog headed men have souls, talking about them very matter-of-factly.
And That's A No From Me
The native American legend of the skinwalkers has always fascinated me. I believe I had an encounter with one when my Dad and I were camping. Ever since then I've never felt completely safe outdoors. That was the last time my dad went outside without a gun.
Onryo Or Nah Bro
I've always liked Mexican and Japanese urban legends. One is a japanese legend called Teke Teke. How she came to be differs, but it all ends up in her turning into a ghost. The one I first heard about was that she was a very shy girl and got scared very easily. So one night heading home with her friends going to the train tracks, they decided to pull a prank on her and put a bug on her shoulder. She then fell onto the train tracks and was cut in half horizontally.
She now became a vengeful spirit and roams the train tracks/railroads in Japan at night, wielding a scythe or another weapon that she can use to cut you the same way she was cut in half. It is said she is now as fast as the train that killed her and if you somehow escape from her and she notices you, you will die within 3 days. She is called Teke Teke because she travels on her elbows and they make a "teke teke" sound.
Wee Ones
In far northern Canada some small villages that have seasons of 24/7 darkness have stories of "the little people". Basically small humanoid creatures that will kidnap children in the dark. I believe the stories were created to keep children from wondering into the cold and dark and getting lost.
Whoosh
The Jersey Devil.
I know he's supposed to be in south Jersey, but I had an experience in Sussex County. There is an abandoned town called Walpack that my wife and I were exploring at night. There is one part with a meadow/clearing that has a tree that looks like Rafiki's tree from the Lion King right in the center. Well, we were by that tree when suddenly something the size of a damn horse swooped down and flew over us. It was not an owl. We ran as fast as we could outta there.
Jersey Devil is real folks.
These Are All Terrifying
There's a few
Skinwalkers
The SCP Foundation (Love the toaster, the Vending Machine, and the Monster that teleports you to the ocean to eat you SCP:1128).
The Psycho Banging the boyfriend's severed head on the car roof
The Shivering Cactus
Human's can lick too/Drip Drip Drip I've heard them together and as separate stories
Goatman of Anansi I think its called
Cocoman
The cocoman/el cuco/the boogeyman is an awesome urban legend that takes place in multiple countries and cultures across the planet. Stephen King recently wrote a cool book about it that was made into an amazing HBO show. I heard about "the cocoman" from my parents and grandparents growing up so it was really cool and eerie seeing it on TV.
Not Candyman
I am brasilian and in some states there is a urban legend called The Matuto, he isn't that scary but the story is kinda cool.
If you go to a place with a mirror at 3:00 am, turns off all the lights nearby, stand backward to the mirror and count the seconds until one minute pass (3:00 to 3:01, 3:01 to 3:02 or 3:02 to 3:03 don't work after this) and exactly when the minute pass you turn on the light and turn yourself around. Then you will see yourself turning around 1 or 2 seconds late the one you will see at the mirror won't be you will be the Matuto then he will be behind you until the end of your life.