Month of Spooks #4 - Mammoth

Th bones and frozen cadavres of wooly mammoths have been regularly found in Siberia for centuries, especially often after they were laid bare by rivers.
As a result it was believed by the indigenous people of Siberia that the mammoth was an aquatic animal, sometimes subterranean, which would die as soon as it got into contact with the surface air.
When the ice cracks and bursts during winter it was said that the mammoth swims underneath and splits it with it's big 'horns'.
Black coal, washed ashore, was believed to be the petrified liver of the mammoth.

The Khanty call the mammoth 'jəŋk-ves' (water-ves) or 'ma:-χa:r' (land reindeer bull) while the Mansi call it vitkəś (water lord/demon).

The mammoth was not thought to be one single being but it's origin was actually seen in a whole range of different animals, mostly oxen, reindeer bulls, stags, pikes and even beetles.
Any sufficiently old animal could turn into a mammoth if it laid down to die at a river bank.
The Khanty said that a stag of 25 years would have horns grow out of his nostrils and walk into the river to live there.

Where a mammoth lived one could not fish as it would capsize any boat and cause the river bank to collapse. One could even fall ill just by finding the carcass of a mammoth
On the other hand sacrifices to the mammoth would bring plenty of fish for the catch.
One could even take a vow by the mammoth, but such an oath did not mean much as the mammoth would forget about it after seven years.

Through the ivory trade these stories would find their way to China where the mammoth turned into a giant subterranean creature called an 'ice-rat' or 'mountain-stream rat'.

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source:
-Karjalainen, K.F., (1927) Die Religion der Jugra-Völker III; Folklore Fellows' Communications vol. 63, Helsinki pp.29-32
-Pfizenmayer, E.W., (1926) Mammutleichen und Urwaldmenschen in Nordost-Sibirien; Leinen (translated in: (1939) Siberian Man and Mammoth; Glasgow)
-Räsänen, M., (1952) Das Wort Mammut; Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie vol. 21:2, Heidelberg pp.293-295

Month of Spooks #3 - South Slavic Vampires

Just like other Slavic people the South Slavs had elaborate beliefs about the vampiric undead. These beliefs were also shared among the Balkan Romani people.

Anyone, even 'quite just persons and creatures of God' could turn into a vampire after death if the shadow of a four-legged animals was cast upon their body.
Originally it was believed that a human has two souls, a permanent one and a transitory one, which would leave the body at night during sleep.
If both souls left a body the person would die, but if they didn't leave it at the same time the person would return as an undead vampire. The devil would take possession of their body.

The spirit of the dead person would return from the grave in the form of a small animal, like a mouse or a moth and then form a new spiritual vampire body.
The body itself would stay in the grave and consequently vampires were believed to be just spirits or to have no bones.

The Muslim Romani of Prizrenski Podgor believed that a vampire was like a living shadow, breathing fire instead of air because the soul had been sent by the devil from hell.

According to other Romani in the Kosovo a vampire is watery and jelly-like, a boneless sack of skin filled with blood and of a filmy appearance. It's long hair reaches the ground and on the outside it looks like mist, while on the inside it is clear like a picture 'just as you paint it'.
Such a vampire was very strong a few days after burial but could easily burst open when pricked by a magician or bitten by a dog, spilling it's contents.

On the Dalmatian peninsula of Pelješac such a being was known as a 'Kosac', it haunted ruined chapels and looked like a human skin filled with blood, it's hand and feet covered in thorns.
If one met a Kosac on the road at night it was advised to beat it up immediately or to hit it on the left side, where it's weakspot was. The Kosac would burst open and release a storm wind.

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source:
-Vukanović, T.P., (1958) The Vampire; Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society vol. 37, pp.21-26
-Hovorka von Zderas, O.(1897) Aus dem Volksglauben von Sabbioncello; Zeitschrift für österreichische Volkskunde vol.3:1, Wien pp.84-86

Month of Spooks #2 - Näkki

The Näkki is a Finnish water spirit, called Näkk in Esthonia. Just like elsewhere it's a dangerous shapeshifting sprite who awaits an annual sacrifice and drowns people in the deep rivers and lakes it inhabits.

It can appear in human form, combing it's long yellow hair while sitting on a rock, but it can just as well appear in the form of animals or even inanimate objects. So it is that the Näkki has been seen as half-human half-horse, as a bearded dog or as a giant buck with a net tangled in it's horns.

But the Näkki can also be rather inconspicious, looking like a tree trunk only identifiable by a single plate-like eye and a long mane on the back.
As a tree floating in the water it waits for a hepless person to sit down on it pulls them with it into the water's depth.
It may also look like a fine piece of silk or other desirable object floating on the water and waiting for children to pick it up, tangling around them and reeling them in.
To a miller the Näkki once appeared as a bag which fell into the water and cried like a pig as he opened the floodgates.

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source:
-Holmberg, U., (1913) Die Wassergottheiten der Finnisch-Ugrischen Völker; Mémoires de la Société finno-ougrienne vol. 32, pp.191-196
-______, (1927) Finno-Ugric Mythology; Mythology of All Races vol. 4, University of Finland, Helsingfors

Month of Spooks #1 - Il spirito del scaldino

Women in Northern Italy used to carry a scaldino, a little earthenware pot containing charcoal and ashes, under their garments to warm themselves during the cold winter months.

In the Etruscan regions it was said that the fumes of these little stoves would impregnate the women and result in them unwittingly bearing and birthing an aerial spirit.

To see their supernatural offspring a woman would have to sing a chant:

Spirit! Spirit! Spirit!
Airy Fairy Light!
Fleeter than the wind,
Thou keepest from my sight,
And from all; but now
Come unto my spell,
Truly I am one
Of all who loves thee well,
Thy mother, too, I am,
And that I may see
What my child is like,
Come, I pray, to met!  

The spirit child was said to then appear to the woman in a dream.

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source:
-Leyland, C.G., (1892) Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition; London: T.F.Unwin

With this begins the Month of Spooks, where I will post througout October twenty different creatures from folklore all around the world, including illustrations of each as well as literary sources.

Updated bi-daily as well as every day on weekends.