Friday, November 20, 2020

WAKANDAGI

 WAKANDAGI
"This is the name of a water monster in the traditions and beliefs of the Omaha and Mohawk Native American people of the United States. This massive being has a long serpentine body with horns on its head and legs with hooves, all of which resemble those of a deer."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons


Thursday, November 19, 2020

AIGAMUXA


AIGAMUXA
"In the mythology of Khoisin people of South Africa, the Aigamuxa are man-eating monsters that inhabit the dunes of the Kalahari Desert. These curious humanoids are described as having their eyes placed in the instep of their feet so that they are obliged to stop and lift a foot in order to see where they are going. Although they otherwise look relatively like humans, their huge bodies and heads make them fearsome adversaries, mainly because of their enormous fanglike teeth."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons


Wednesday, November 18, 2020

MOKÊLE-MBÊMBE

 

MOKÊLE-MBÊMBE
"This is the name of a marine monster in the early travelers' lore of the West African coast. The Mokêle-Mbêmbe was said to be a monster resembling an elephant but having a single horn from its head and a tail resembling that of a crocodile or a scaly serpent."
Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons


Tuesday, November 17, 2020

ROKUROKUBI

ROKUROKUBI
By day, rokurokubi appear to be ordinary women. By night, however, their bodies sleep while their necks stretch to an incredible length and roam around freely. Sometimes their heads attack small animals, sometime they lick up lamp oil with their long tongue, and sometimes they just cause mischief by scaring nearby people.

Matthew Meyer, Yokai.com


Among them are famous yuirei (ghosts), teenage (supernatural beings with both human and bird-like characteristics) and rokurokubi (phantoms with impossibly stretching necks, or heads that come off and fly around), all of which appear in 

Laficadio Hearn, Japanese Ghost Stories


“A rokuro-kubi is ordinarily conceived as a goblin whose neck stretches out to great lengths, but which nevertheless always remains attached to its body.”

Lafcadio Hearn, Kwaidan: Stories and Studies Of Strange Things


Monday, November 16, 2020

HELLHEAD

HELLHEAD
"It is a creature with a face that is human-like but with an opening on the top of its head from which the righteous exit Hell. We call this creature “Hellhead.” We have found what we think is the source for this creature in a medieval Russian novel about Alexander the Great, called Александрия (Aleksandriya)."


Hell is portrayed in two ways in these icons. Firstly, as a large black, seemingly empty cave, and secondly, it is ‘personified’ as a red creature, looking like a human in many ways but with two or more eyes and an opening in its head out of which the righteous arise. We have called this creature 'Hellhead.'"


"Based on this representation of Hell as having a head from which the righteous rise from the mouth in the top of its head and the fact that representations of headless creatures similar to

Hellhead existed in a much copied novel29 known in Russia, we feel that it is this fanciful representation of Blemmyes in the Alexander novel that was the source for Hellhead."

Henry A. Hundt & Raoul N. Smith, A Teratological Source of Hellhead


*This demon is inspired by the painting Resurrection and Descent (1650).




Friday, November 13, 2020

SPIRIT OF PREY

 
SPIRIT OF PREY
"As we sat down under this tree and were thinking about that night's danger, there we saw a "Spirit of Prey", he was big as a hippopotamus, but he was walking upright as a human-being; his both legs had two feet and tripled his body, his head was just like a lion's head and every part of his body was covered with hard scales, each of these scales was the same in size as a shovel or hoe, and all curved towards his body. If this "Spirit of Prey" wanted to catch his prey, he would simply be looking at it and stand in one place, he was not chasing his prey about, and when he focused the prey well, then he would close his large eyes, but before he would open his eyes, the prey would already be dead and drag itself to him at the place that he stood."
Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard


Thursday, November 12, 2020

LONG-WHITE CREATURE

LONG-WHITE CREATURE
"We slept in the bush, but when it was about two o'clock in the night, there we we saw a creature, either he was a spirit or other harmful creature, we could not say, he was coming towards us, he was white as if painted with white paint, he was white from foot to the topmost of his body, but he had no head or feet and hands like human-beings and he got on large eye on his topmost. He was long about 1/4 of a mile and his diameter was about six feet, he resembled a white pillar."
Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard

"Also all the terrible-creatures sent their representatives as "Skulls", "Long-white creatures", "Invincible and invisible Pawn" or Give and take" who fought and won the Red people in the Red-town for the "Palm-Wine Drinker";
Amos Tutuola, My Life In the Bush Of Ghosts


Wednesday, November 11, 2020

RED-BIRD

 
RED-BIRD
"After that I loaded the gun for the second red creature (red-bird) and within 5 minutes it appeared out again, then I got ready for it. I saw that it was a red-bird, but its head could weigh one ton or more and it had six long teeth of about half a foot long and very thick, which appeared out with its beak."
Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard


Tuesday, November 10, 2020

TERRIBLE CREATURE OF WRAITH ISLAND

TERRIBLE CREATURE OF WRAITH ISLAND
"I could not approach him as he was as big as an elephant. His figernails were long to about two feet, his head was bigger than his body ten times. He had a large mouth which was full of long teeth, these teeth were about one foot long and as thick as a cow's horns, his body was almost covered with black long hair like a horse's tail hair. He was very dirty. There were five horns on his head and curved and levelled to the head, his four feet were as big as a log of wood."
Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard


Monday, November 9, 2020

RED-FISH

RED-FISH 
"But when these two red creatures were coming out from the hole, they did not walk side by side but following each other and when the one at the front appeared and was coming towards me, it was red-fish in form."

"At the same tim that the red-fish appeared out, its head was just like a tortoise's head, but it was as big as an elephant's head and it had over 30 horns and large eyes which surrounded the head. All these horns were spread out as an umbrella. It could not walk but was only gliding on the ground like a snake and its body was just like a bat's body and covered with long red hair like strings. It could only fly to a short distance, and if it shouted a person who was four miles away would hear."
Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard