Yokai Myths: The Harionago or Barbed haired woman

 

 

                                             ---Harionago---

                       -- Barbed Haired OR Hook Haired woman--

                     ----------------------------------------------------------------
My first post of 2021, this month's posts will mostly be Yokai :)

============

Japan the Land of the rising sun, is full of fascinating  myths and legends with yokai of all shapes and sizes.

Today's post is about a long haired fem-fatal called the Harionago.

She's a Human like yokai that is considered very dangerous.

---------------
Alternative spellings...
 

Harionago, and in some areas  Harionna ...

This long haired vixen  is as dangerous as she is beautiful, those unfortunate enough to encounter her

often meet an unfortunate and painful end..

 

The Harionago is believed to resemble  a beautiful young woman with very long hair..

However, unbeknownst to her potential victims her hair is tipped with extremely sharp thorn-like barbs.

She has full control of her hair, and she can use it to lash out like a whip, wrap around a foot
to trip you or simply use it to ensnare her target.

She is believed to wander the roads of the Ehime prefecture in Japan on the island of Shikoku.
When she finds a young man to her liking, she will laugh at him, and if the man laugh back,
she will drop her barbed hair and quickly attack. 

                    
 

--------------------------

She is a fast and rather fearsome yokai, not only for the speed f her attack's but also for the
fact that at first glance she looks just like any other girl with long hair.

Her favorite haunts are the dark road of Shikoku late at night, She looks like young woman
with loose and somewhat disheveled hair.

However with a closer look, the tip of each of her hairs are  fitted with a needle-like
barbed hook , unfortunately  if you are close enough to her to to notice the hooks, it is
probably already too late for you.

==========
She wanders the streets always in searching of new victims, her favorite victim is usually young
single men walking home alone late at night.

If she takes an interest in a passerby, she smiles at him. (or sometimes giggle) If the smile
back or acknowledges her, she will attacks... she lets  her hair down, and the barbed ends
lash out with unimaginable speed and seemingly a will of their own though she can control them at will.
 

The barb's begin  sinking deep into her victim’s flesh.

Her hair strength is  said to be comparable to steel cables, it is so strong that even the
strongest man can be easily overpowered by her hooks.

Once her victim is ensnared and rendered helpless, she rips him into pieces with her hooks
and then eats the remains.

===

If you are relatively fit, and your home is VERY close to where you encounter the Haironago, you
may have a very slime chance to escape her.

If you do manage to somehow escape her grasp, she will still chance you and continue to try and break into your home.

Like most Yokai she will vanish at  sunrise, so if you can survive her attack until then you will be safe.

However you may need to buy a new front door as the old one will have large gouges and slashes taken out of it from  her vicious attack.
 
======

So the next time your out late be cautious of whom you interact with, and maybe don't try to pick up strange girls you just meet lol.

Christmas Mystery: The disappearance of Oliver Lerch.

 

 

 

 


One more short holiday related paranormal  post for the year.

...A Christmas Disappearance .....

Oliver Morton Lerch, The man who disappeared .

==============

Tragic events and mysterious disappearances can happen anytime of the year and too anyone.

Not even the most cheerful of seasons is immune to tragic or unexplained events.
===================

Those of you that have read David Paulides  the  Missing 411 Series knows how strange some of the
missing person cases can get, Footsteps suddenly ending for no apparent reason, people walking
just sightly ahead of a group and vanishing without a trace and if the people are ever found
it's days or sometimes even months or years later and in areas the had already been searched by
several people with no explanation as to how they got there or why they were never
found during the initial search?......

I highly recommend checking out The Missing 411 series, its a great read and full of fascinating
and down right strange case's!!
David also has a youtube page.
Link--- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChXKAI83IuqSneWe92F97jQ
==========================
=============================

Today we talk about the strange disappearance of Oliver Lerch.

In some versions the events take place on Christmas eve 1889.
others its December 24th 1890

There was also a news article detailing the events published in 1906.
 

=========

One cold night on December 24th of 1890, the Lyrch family was hosting there annual
Christmas gathering, aside from Mr and Mrs and their sons Jim and  Oliver,  other guest's included Oliver's girlfriend Lilian Hirsh the daughter of a prominent Chicago attorney as well as several other friends, extend family members and even Samuel Mallelieu the local reverend.

The party had continued until long after sunset, and by 10:00pm the large gathering had finished
the house's supply of fresh water.

At this point Oliver was asked by his father Tom Lerch to go and fetch some more from the
outside well.

Oliver made his way outside to get the water taking 2 buckets with him.

But within as little as five minutes after he had left the house, guests were startled by what they
believed to be screaming, and several guest including Hirsh and Mallelieu quickly made
there way outside too see what was going on.

Reverend Mallelieu would later go on to testify that as he ran outside, he could clearly hear Oliver's
voice screaming for help as he was apparently being carried off by whatever had taken him.

Mallelieu stated that he could see Oliver's footprints in the snow heading in a straight line
to the well and then just suddenly stopping just short of the well itself, with one of the buckets lying next to the tracks, but no clear sign of a struggle was visible the foot prints just stopped there.

But as the group gathered around searching of him, suddenly Olivers voice could be heard from
above shouting, "Help, Help it's got Me" followed by a loud scream.

The pleas for help seemed to be coming from the clouds above them, Oliver's cries for help could be
heard for several minutes afterwords, becoming fainter and fainter as whatever had him moved
further away until the crowed could no longer hear him.

The following morning a full search was organized, but no trace of Oliver was found.

The Lerch family was offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to his whereabouts, but
To this day it is unknown what became of him, or what entity carried him off, and the case
remains unsolved.
===============
--------

This will by me last post for 2020!

I am truly thankful for all of you that read and hopefully enjoy my post's and
I hope to add a lot more entry's here in 2021 !

Thank you all, Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!!

🦇🎄❄️Merry Christmas❄️🎄🦇

🦉Mike.

Austraian Folklore: the Yowie

Australian Folklore

The Land Down under is full of fascinating myth's and Legends, today we talk  about The Yowie AKA  The Bigfoot of the Outback.....


The yowie is usually described as a hairy bypidl  ape-like creature standing upright at between 6 ft 11 and possibly  upward of 12 ft in height.

The yowie's feet are described as much larger than a human's, but alleged yowie tracks are inconsistent in shape and toe number, and the descriptions of yowie foot and footprints provided by witnesses are even more varied than those of the North American cryptid Bigfoot.

The yowie's Call's / Screams are often described as flat or wide.

The Yowie, like most other living things seems to vary in widly in both personality and behavior with  some report saying the creature is timid or shy,
and Others describe it as sometimes violent.

According to an articale published in The Sydney Morning Herald back in 1987, columnist Margaret Jones wrote that the first Australian yowie sighting that was said to have taken place as early as 1795. Though Aboriginal legend's date back hundreds of years earlier...


Rex Gilroy has been studing/ hunting the yowie since the mid-1970s.

Gilroy claims to have collected over 3000 reports over the years.

Mr Gilroy believes that the yowie is related to the North American Bigfoot. Rex Gilroy along with his partner Heather Gilroy,  have spent fifty years amassing his yowie collection, claiming to have  identified at least four different species of yowie, which he believes are a sub-species of Homo erectus.

Another well know yowie researcher called Tim the Yowie Man. Is a published author and claims to have seen a yowie in the Brindabella Ranges in 1994.

Since then, Tim  has investigated yowie sightings and other paranormal phenomena in varied fields. He also writes a regular column in Australian newspapers The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.

In 2004, Tim the Yowie Man won a legal case against Cadbury, a popular British confectionery company known for the (Cabbury Cream Egg's) popular arond Easter.
Cadbury had claimed that his moniker was too similar to their range of Yowie confectionery.


Yowie sightings in the 1800's......


In the 1870s, accounts of an "Indigenous Ape" appeared in the Australian Town and Country Journal.
The earliest account dating back to  November 1876 asked there readers; "Who has not heard, from the earliest settlement of the colony, the blacks (Aboriginals) speaking of some unearthly
animal or inhuman creature ... namely the Yahoo-Devil, or hairy man

In an article entitled "Australian Apes" appearing six years later, amateur naturalist Henry James McCooey claimed to have seen an "indigenous ape" on the south coast of New South Wales,
between Batemans Bay and Ulladulla.

MaCooey-- A few days ago I saw one of these strange creatures ... on the coast between Batemans Bay and Ulladulla ... I should think that if it were standing perfectly upright it would
be nearly 5 feet high. It was tailless and covered with very long black hair, which was of a dirty red or snuff-colour about the throat and breast.
Its eyes, which were small and restless, were partly hidden by matted hair that covered its head ... I threw a stone at the animal, whereupon it immediately rushed off ..

McCooey offered to capture an ape for the Australian Museum for £40. According to Robert Holden, a second outbreak of reported ape sightings appeared in 1912.
, The Yowie

the yowie appeared in Donald Friend's Hillendiana,  a collection of writings about the goldfields near Hill End in New South Wales. Friend refers to the yowie as a species of bunyip.

Holden also cites the appearance of the yowie in a number of Australian tall tales in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.




Other Yowie Sightings .....

In 2010, a Canberra man said he saw an animal described as "a juvenile covered in hair, with long arms that almost touched the ground" in his garage.
A friend later told him it could be a yowie.

A few Accounts of  yowie sightings in the New South Wales area

In 1977, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald reported that residents on Oxley Island near Taree recently heard screaming noises made by an animal at night.
Cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy was mentioned in the article as soon to arrive in the area in search of the mythological yowie.
   
In 1994, Tim the Yowie Man claimed to have seen a yowie in the Brindabella Ranges.
   
In 1996, while on vacation a couple from Newcastle claim to have seen a yowie between Braidwood and the coast. They said it was a shaggy creature, walking upright, standing at a height of at least 2.1 meters tall, with disproportionately long arms and no neck. similar to a lot of Bigfoot sightings..

   
In August 2000, a Canberra bushwalker described seeing an unknown bipedal beast in the Brindabella Mountains. The bushwalker, Steve Piper, caught the incident on videotape.
That film is known as the 'Piper Film'.
   
In March 2011, a witness reported to Ne South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service seeing a yowie in the Blue Mountains at Springwood, west of Sydney.
The witness had filmed the creature, and taken photographs of its footprints.

   
In May 2012, a United States television crew claimed it had recorded audio of a yowie in a remote region on the NSW-Queensland border.
   
In June 2013, a Lismore resident and music videographer claimed to have seen a yowie just north of Bexhill.

In the mid-1970s, the Queanbeyan Festival Board and 2CA together offered a AU$200,000 reward to anyone who could capture and present a yowie: the reward is yet to be claimed.



Australia, Northern Territory..

In the late 1990s, there were several reports of yowie sightings in the area around Acacia Hills. One such sighting was by a mango farmer named Katrina Tucker who reported in 1997 having been just meters away from a hairy humanoid creature on her property.  Photographs of the footprint were collected at the time.

Sightings in Queensland

The Springbrook region in south-east Queensland has had more yowie reports than anywhere else in Australia.

In 1977, former Queensland Senator Bill O'Chee reported to the Gold Coast Bulletin he had seen a yowie while on a school trip in Springbrook. O'Chee compared the creature he saw as looking similar to Chewbacca from Star Wars.  He told reporters that the creature he saw had been over 3 meters tall.

Reports in the 2000's

A more resent account is that of the Mulgowie Yowie, which was last reported around  2001.

In March 2014, two yowie searchers claimed to have filmed the yowie in South Queensland using an infrared tree camera, collected fur samples, and found large footprints.
Later that year, a Gympie man told media he had encountered yowies on several occasions, including conversing with, and teaching some English to, a very large male yowie
in the bush north east of Gympie,  and several people in Port Douglas claimed to have seen yowies, near Mowbray and at the Rocky Point range.


Other names for the Yowie......


Wawee, Yaroma, Jimbra, Noocoonah, pangkarlangu,  and tjangara.

......

More cryptid post's coming soon...

Have a great day.

The Yeti...

The Abominable Snowman --Yeti...

The search to find the Yeti can be traced back to the time of Alexander the Great, who in 326 BC set out to conquer the Indus Valley.

Having heard stories of the Yeti he demanded to see one for himself, but local people told him they were unable to present one because the creatures could not survive at that low an altitude.

In the 1950s the Nepali government cashed in on the increasingly popular Yeti myth by issuing Yeti-hunting licenses priced at £400 per Yeti. To date no-one has succeeded in capturing a specimen dead, or alive.



Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan is a national park officially dedicated to preserving the Yeti.



The name ‘Abominable Snowman’ was coined in 1921 by journalist Henry Newman who mis-translated the Tibetan label Metoh-Kangmi, “dirty men in the snow”.



Mystery primates are reported from every continent except Antarctica. They include the Sasquatch of North America, the Yowie in Australia, the Yeren of China, the Hibagon in Japan, the Orang Pendek in Sumatra, the Almasty of Russia, the Ferles Mor in Scotland, and the Mapinguari of Brazil.



It is suggested that the Yeti myth originated in Tibet, and reached Nepal via the Sherpa, descendants of families who emigrated from the Khams region of Tibet across the Himalayan range in the middle of the sixteenth century.



Possible explanations for the unusually large footprints found over the years include the effect of evaporation and melting snow, the ‘overstepping’ phenomenon in which the longer tracks of an animal’s hind feet overlap and obscure the tracks of the shorter forefeet, and even the prints left by nomadic mountain men wearing roughly-woven snow sandals.



The first scientist to investigate the Yeti was German Professor Ernst Schaefer. Allegedly, he was employed by the head of the SS Heinrich Himmler to search for the Yeti in 1938 in the hope that it would turn out to be the progenitor of the Aryan race. Schaefer reached the conclusion that the Yeti was in fact the Tibetan bear.



The Yeti is big business in Nepal. Visitors can stay at the luxurious Yak and Yeti hotel in Kathmandu and even travel with Yeti airlines.



The Himalaya mountain range is both remote and vast with a length of about 2,400 km and a width of 200-400 km. The range includes Mount Everest, the highest peak on earth, standing at 29,028 feet high. The Yeti is said to roam between the treeline and permanent snow at 14,000 to 20,000 feet.



The annual Mani Rimdu Festival is celebrated in Nepal during the full moon of October/November. During the festival, monks wear masks to portray divine beings and perform ritual dances. Traditionally, one of the dancers will take on the role of the Yeti.



Sherpa tradition holds that the Yeti will only show itself to those who believe in it.



In 1969, the Board of County Commissioners of Skamania County, Oregon, introduced a bill stating that any person found to have slain a Bigfoot creature would be punishable by law by a fine of up to ten thousand dollars or imprisoned for up to five years. The board did not, however, claim that such a creature definitely existed.



Bigfoot sightings have been reported in every US state except Hawaii.



The most famous Bigfoot sighting is the creature filmed by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in the Bluff Creek region of northern California. Despite much investigation since the footage was captured in 1967, it is still uncertain whether this was the product of a hoax or a genuine sighting.



Before 1847 the gorilla was unnamed and known only through rumor. Believed to be a myth in the west and a supernatural being by African tribespeople, it was only when a missionary in West Africa was shown a gorilla skull that the animal was accepted as real.

The Bell Witch, A haunting Tennessee legend

The Bell Witch or Bell Witch Haunting is a poltergeist legend from the 19th-century Bell family of Adams, Tennessee.

John Bell Sr., who made his living as a farmer, resided with his family in Adams, Tennessee in the early 1800s. According to folklore in 1817, his family came under attack by a witch.

In the 1894 book An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch, author Martin Van Buren Ingram claims that the poltergeist's name was Kate, and that she frequently cursed the Bell family out loud. The activity centered on the Bells' youngest daughter, Betsy, and worsened after she became engaged to one Joshua Gardner.

Several accounts report that during his military career, Andrew Jackson was intrigued with the story and was frightened away after traveling to investigate.

Other stories relate that the family was haunted by scratching noises outside their door after Bell found a half-dog, half-rabbit creature. Some stories end up with Bell being poisoned by the witch


Theory's vary about the witch being someone who had been cheated by Bell or a male slave whom Bell had killed

All of the above accounts of the legend are drawn from two sources.

 In part, the Goodspeed article was a source, but newspaper publisher Martin Van Buren Ingram provided most of the material. Seventy-five years after the Bell Witch events, he wrote An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch. Ingram states that he based his book on the diary of Richard Bell, who was a son of John Bell, Sr. The events happened when Richard Bell was 6–10 years old, but he didn't write the diary until he was 30. According to Brian Dunning no one has ever seen this diary, and there is no evidence that it ever existed:

"Conveniently, every person with firsthand knowledge of the Bell Witch hauntings was already dead when Ingram started his book; in fact, every person with secondhand knowledge was even dead." Dunning also concluded that Ingram was guilty of falsifying another statement, that the Saturday Evening Post had published a story in 1849 accusing the Bells' daughter Elizabeth of creating the witch. That article does not exist either.

According to Radford, the Bell Witch story is an important one for all paranormal researchers: "It shows how easily legend and myth can be mistaken for fact and real events and how easily the lines are blurred" when sources are not checked.

Dunning wrote that there was no need to discuss the supposed paranormal activity until there was evidence that the story was true. "Vague stories indicate that there was a witch in the area. All the significant facts of the story have been falsified, and the others come from a source of dubious credibility. Since no reliable documentation of any actual events exists, there is nothing worth looking into.

Dunning concludes, "I chalk up the Bell Witch as nothing more than one of many unsubstantiated folk legends, vastly embellished and popularized by an opportunistic author of historical fiction. Radford reminds readers that "the burden of proof is not on skeptics to disprove anything but rather for the proponents to prove... claims".

Joe Nickell has written that many of those who knew Betsy suspected her of fraud and the Bell Witch story "sounds suspiciously like an example of “the poltergeist-faking syndrome” in which someone, typically a child, causes the mischief."

There have been several movies based, at least in part, on the Bell Witch legend, including The Blair Witch Project in 1999, Bell Witch Haunting in 2004, An American Haunting in 2005, Bell Witch: The Movie in 2007, and The Bell Witch Haunting in 2013.

The Danish metal band Mercyful Fate have a song titled "The Bell Witch" on their 1993 album In the Shadows.

Seattle-based doom metal band Bell Witch took their name from this legend.
The American television series Ghost Adventures filmed an episode at the Bell Witch Cave.
There is a new series - "Cursed: The Bell Witch" - based on the latest members of the Bell family trying to end the curse. It aired October 2015 on the A&E Network.

Tennessee author William Gay wrote a novel, published posthumously in 2015, entitled Little Sister Death, about the Bell Witch.

Paranormal enthusiasts can still visit The Bell Witch Cave ..

La Befana... The Christmas Witch

La Befana: The Christmas Witch





In Italian folklore, Befana is an old woman who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve (the night of January 5) in a similar way to St Nicholas or Santa Claus.

A popular belief is that her name comes from the Feast of Epiphany or in Italian La Festa dell'Epifania. Epiphania (Epiphany in English) is a Latin word with Greek origins. "Epiphany" means either the "Feast of the Epiphany" (January 6) or "manifestation (of the divinity) Some also suggest that Befana is descended from the Sabine/Roman goddess named Strina.


In popular folklore Befana visits all the children of Italy on the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany to fill their shoes with candy and presents if they are good. Or a lump of coal or dark candy if they are bad. In many poorer parts of Italy and in particular rural Sicily, a stick in a stocking was placed instead of coal. Being a good housekeeper, many say she will sweep the floor before she leaves.

To some the sweeping meant the sweeping away of the problems of the year. The child's family typically leaves a small glass of wine and a plate with a few morsels of food, often regional or local, for the Befana.

She is usually portrayed as an old lady riding a broomstick through the air wearing a black shawl and is covered in soot because she enters the children's houses through the chimney. She is often smiling and carries a bag or hamper filled with candy, gifts, or both.

She is also referred to as the Christmas Witch.

Christian Legends....
Christian legend had it that Befana was approached by the biblical magi, also known as the Three Wise Men (or the three kings) a few days before the birth of the Infant Jesus. They asked for directions to where the Son of God was, as they had seen his star in the sky, but she did not know. She provided them with shelter for a night, as she was considered the best housekeeper in the village, with the most pleasant home. The magi invited her to join them on the journey to find the baby Jesus, but she declined, stating she was too busy with her housework. Later, La Befana had a change of heart, and tried to search out the astrologers and Jesus. That night she was not able to find them, so to this day, La Befana is searching for the little baby.

Like Santa, She leaves all the good children toys and candy chocolate or fruit, while the bad children get coal.

La Befana’s broom is for more than just transportation - she also willclean up a messy house, and sweep the floors before she leaves for her next stop.

This is probably a good thing, since Befana gets a bit sooty from coming down chimneys, and it’s only polite to clean up after oneself. She may wrap up her visit by indulging in the glass of wine or plate of food left by parents as thanks.

North American Monster Sightings, Werewolf's.

Do Werewolf's stalk the wood's of rural Kentucky....


For about seventy years a tall biped wolf like creature has been making regular appearances in rural Kentucky.

This creature is known as the Bearilla. The name Bearilla comes from a description given by the first witness to go public with his sighting, in 1972. While being interviewed by the media, he stated the creature looked like a cross between a bear and a gorilla. It was dubbed the Bearilla by the press.
It is most often seen in the Gateway region of the state.

The Gateway is the area located between the flat lands of the Bluegrass region and the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. For this reason it is also referred to as the Gateway Werewolf.

Most witnesses describe it as being basically the same type creature that has been spotted in the Northern states, except the Bearilla is always described as having a white or a silvery grey coat. It is close to the height of an average man, with its arms and legs being similar in proportion to that of a human. The hands, or fore-paws, are said to have long curving, sharp claws. The feet, judging by footprints, are said to be elongated and somewhat human like, but with shorter toes and a configuration more like that of a canine. The most striking feature, according to witness accounts, is the elongated muzzle with large, protruding canine teeth and pointed incisors. This wolf-like creature also has a tendency to be much more aggressive than its Northern cousins.

There have been several instances of aggressive behavior, toward humans. from this creature. Two involved actual attacks; both required treatment at local hospitals.

The first attack and first report of this creature, in Kentucky, occurred in Johnson County in 1944. Here a teenage boy almost had a fight to the death, with the beast, over a string of fish. The boy reported he had been fishing along a small stream and had a considerable number of fish on his stringer. He stated that as he was preparing to leave when a wolf like creature ran up from the creek bank and attempted to take his fish. It was described as being silvery-grey and standing about six feet tall. The boy attempted to keep the fish, but he was overpowered and the creature made of with his catch. The boy stated that as the creature walked off, it turned and smiled at him. The boy was treated at a local hospital for deep lacerations and shock.

The story was never made public, but information of the incident was leaked out by one of the attending medical personnel on duty at the time
The second attack occurred in 1972, along Hinkston Creek in Bourbon County. Here an early morning squirrel hunter was attacked and suffered several deep lacerations across the back and legs. The unfortunate hunter stated he was attacked from the rear and was pushed down on the ground. The hunter did not get a good look at the creature.

 He only saw its hands and a few brief flashes of the rest of the body. He described it as white or silver with hands that were basically like a humans, only with much longer fingernails and they were covered in white hair. The creature then proceeded to basically “bounced” him up and down. The hunter credits his escape from a possible real death, to playing dead. The horrified victim could not think of any possible way he could have provoked the attack. He stated “ It just came out of no where and jumped me”

This werewolf like creature also seems to have an uncanny ability to escape pursuers. After the attack on the hunter, a local group of men formed an old fashioned posse and went in search of the attacker. Around dusk, the group, with assistance from hunting dogs, seemed to have corned the creature in an old barn When the men and dogs attempted to enter the barn, the dogs cowered down and whimpered in fear. The posse then decided to surround the barn and wait for daylight. The next morning the dogs rushed in without showing any fear. To everyone’s surprise the barn was empty.

Whatever frightened the dogs the night before, was now gone. None of the hunters reported seeing anything leave the barn. The only signs anything had been in the barn, were what appeared to be claw marks on the wall of the barn. It appears the creature had climbed to the top of barn and simply vanished,
The last known sightings, in the Gateway Area, occurred in 1999, near Morehead, Ky. A couple observed two of these creatures standing in a clearing near Highway 60. When they attempted to photograph the unusual duo, both creatures bared their fangs and emitted low growls. Needless to say the couple fled the area immediately.

These creatures also seem to inhabit the areas around Ashland, Kentucky. Like their northern counter parts, these entities seem to enjoy hanging out in graveyards. In the 1980’s, the Ashland Cemetery was a hot bed for sightings of a this werewolf like creature.
It was most often seen running between headstones and jumping the wall surrounding the cemetery. The witnesses all commented that the creature had incredible leaping power. It is said to have thad a habit of chasing humans and at one point actually cornered two lawmen, sent to investigate a sighting. The officers stated that the creature came within thirty feet of them and paced back and forth between headstones growling. The creature eventually got bored with harassing the officers and wandered back into the cemetery.

This creatures jumping ability was demonstrated again on a Greenup County back road in 2001. A couple, driving separate cars, encountered this creature running down the road toward them. Instead of going around both cars, it simply leaped over both and continued its journey down the middle of the road.

The last Bearilla sighting occurred in Eastern Kentucky in 2005. A homeowner turned on his porch light, to investigate a strange noise. He was startled to see what he first thought was a child, but after he got a better look, he decide this was no child …. at least not a human one! He described it as being about three feet tall, covered with hair and having a ’dog face”. Whatever it was made a hasty retreat when it realized it had been discovered.


The sighting in 2005 was the last reported werewolf encounter in Kentucky. Did they die, move away or are they still lurking in the woods? Only time will tell!

Is there a Werewolf in Virginia...

The Werewolf of Henrico Conty

The year's there have been several Werewolf sightings in and around Virginia, A large number of them seem to be in  one location in particular....

Henrico County Virginia.

These sighting's are  known as the Werewolf of Henrico County.

Though the story is now somewhat of an of urban legend, sightings continue …

Still it’s hard to find real first-hand accounts, every thing said about this creatur is ether  something that a friend said.  or a friend of a friend had a sighting a few day's / weeks ago...

All  accounts of the werewolf sightings seem to describe a similar beast, a large grayish white creature covered in fur that stands upright  on it's hind leg's and has the face of an animal.

The majority of these sightings seem to be  focused in Henrico County Virginia in and around the Confederate Hills Recreation Center.

But it's still unclear how often the werewolf appears or what its appearances coincide with....

A possible explanations for these werewolf sightings could be a hoax by one or more of the locals.

It's not out of the question to assume  a few  local teen's would be able to fake the sighting's  with a well crafted  Halloween costume and  play prank on the local community. Though that would be very stupid to a attempt, as your likely to get shot doing something like that!

There are also those that deny all the sighting's could be nothing more then a prank.

There are a few other explanation's floating around One such explanation to the sightings  have been offered are actually  bigfoot, and since this area is also a huge spot for bigfoot sightings.

If that's true, this would not be the first time a bigfoot has been mistaken for a werewolf. From a distance, both bigfoot and werewolves can look similar. In the darkness, a large bipedal creature covered in fur looking vaguely human like could be mistaken as either.

Unless you have a close-up encounter, it could be very difficult to determine which creature it actually is.


You would think a real werewolves would steer clear of public places and try to stay hidden, in an area like a park the  chances of being spotted and identified are extremely high.


So..

What do you think, is it real of fake?

Australia Floklore The Bunyip..

Cryptid's of Australia. The Bunyip

Today we visit the land down under a vast continent full of dangerous creatures some of myth and legend others very much real...

From Snake's and Croc's to The Yowie and the Bunyip there are many interesting  things too talk about when discussing Australia, however this post will be focused primarily on the legend of the bunyip one of Australia's most well know and feared cryptids.

When you mention Australia most people immediately think of The iconic Sydney Opera House or the vast area of land that make up the Australian Outback but this country has so much more to see from pristine National Parks to rain forests and even Opel Mines...however like most thing's in life it also has a darker side beneath the beautiful  landscape and city's there may be monster's just around the corner waiting to pounce...

Most myths and legend's have a real life inspiration somewhere in the distant past at least to some extent,and i like to believe the same holds true for most cryptids as well. For instance Dracula by Bram Stoker was inspired in part by  Vlad Tempest AKA Vlad the impaler Or Vlad Dracula ..a fierce 15th century Romanian king that fought of the invading Turkish army or Bigfoot the mythical forest giant that has been seen by thousands of people from all over the world but can be linked back 
to gigantopithecus the largest know now "extinct" member of the great ape's.

The Bunyip is a carnivorous semi-aquatic cryptid that has been spotted in river's lakes and even creeks all over Australia  the word bunyip means devil or evil spirit according to the  aboriginal tribes

The modern Bunyip legend seems to have originated in south eastern Australian in  New South Wales (then just a colony) in 1818  when a group of explorers discover unusual skeletal remains on the shore of Lake Bathurst two members of the group James Meehan and Hamilton Hume described the remains as a hippopotamus or possibly a manatee but that there as something very different about them The PESA (Philosophy of Education Society of Australia) offered to  pay for a small expedition with the hope of returning  with a bunyip specimen for further study. Unfortunately mister hume was unable to find the location again and the bones were never recovered.

There are many different descriptions of the bunyip's appearance, the overall body is said too resemble a strange combination of a hippo, seal and dinosaur , others say it is covered in fur with a head like a dog, some say it has smooth  reptilian like skin and there are even some sightings describing the creature with a more avian appearance I.E  covered in feathers

In his book Bunyip's Australia's folklore of fear author Robert Holden describes 9 different aboriginal variants  of this criptid each differing slightly from one region to the next.


According to aboriginal lore the bunyip is said to have a loud bellowing scream/roar and is very formidable in a fight this combined with it's short tempered nature and propensity for hunting in or near water sources make this creature truly terrifying


As European settlements spread across the continent bunyip sightings increased, allegedly in 1845 bunyip fossils were discovered and later reported in  the Geelong Advertiser that same article recounted other run ins  with the bunyip one unfortunate case was of woman being killed another was of  a man that was allegedly attacked still baring scars from the bunyips claws, the man described the bunyip as having  a head like an emu and a long bill with stingray like protrusions on ether side of the bill and a body resembling  that of an alligator but with thick back legs and somewhat longer front legs each having long claws at the end.

Aside from Biting, Clawing or Drowning it's prey the bunyip has also been said to "hug" it's victims to death with it's longer front legs similar to a python suffocating it's prey..

In some variations the bunyip is smaller in stature in other's it is around 10 to 13 feet in height/length and semi aquatint swimming like a large frog in the water and  bipedal well on land.

A escaped convict by the  named of William Buckley claimed to have encountered the bunyip on several occasions well living among the Wathaurong people an aboriginal tribe in the outback for many years, he said the animal was covered in grey feathers and could be found in inland lakes and even had supernatural powers capable of causing sickness or famine if angered.

One day in January 1846 a strange skull was found near the Murrumbidgee River that same year a bunyip or possibly a giant platypus was spotted on the banks of the Uriarra River.

The Murrumbidgee Skull is supposedly nothing more then the deformed skull of a calf, but many still argue in favor of it's authenticity and proof of the bunyip.

1851 A bunyip allegedly burst out of the water and killed a man in  passing bout on the Challicum Staion creek near  Ararat Victoria the bunyip in turn was killed by another man on the boat and its  body was outlined on the shore the outline was retraced every year at least as late as 1867 when the site was visited by a man from Moonambel a  Mr R.E. John The clerk of petty sessions, who made a messurment and sketch of the outline butting the size of the creature at 21 feet  for the main body and 28ft in overall length. He also made a map of the location. the area was eventually turned into grazing land for sheep farmers and the outline is now  unfortunately lost to history.









In 1857 Edwin Stockqueler a British artist sketched what he said has a bunyip, stating that the animal was mostly submerged in the water with only it's neck back and shoulders visible.

Sighting still persist to this day, could the bunyip be a supernatural creature haunting the outback or possible  a of pre-ice age or even prehistoric animal long since thought to be extinct..

Keep in mind that the Coelacanth a pre historic specials of fish was classified as extinct until a fisherman off the of south Africa caught on in 1938, and other animals like the platypus and silver-back gorilla were thought to be nothing more then local folklore until a live specimen was captured/ observed.

There are undauntedly many new species out there that we have yet to discover, and sadly thousands that have already gone extinct before discovery, and with the rate of human expansion into once untouched land's i think the odds of discovering a creature once thought to be nothing more the  myth, still alive and well are pretty high.

So... what are your thought's are these creatures real or imagined? Are there really monsters in the shadows or are  cryptids just a manifestation of human fears given form through mythology and legends?


Thank you for reading..

Also you can pick up a copy or Robert Holden the bunyip Australia's folklore of fear on Amazon. though it is very expensive! $200 +



Other reading scores....
The Journal of Cryptozoology Volume 1 -4 ..