Rat King

admin — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:03:04 +0000

When several rat’s tails become entangled and bound together by blood, fecal matter and filth, a rat king is the result. The number of rats in a rat king varies from three to more than thirty. Supposedly the rats continue about their daily lives, eating pooping and breeding until they are killed by a horrified human and carried away to a museum. Often one large rat, sometimes wearing a crown, rides the mass of squirming vermin like a palanquin. Documentation of an actual living rat king is hard to find. Because rat kings are harbingers of plague, humans it seems, are unable to look upon a them without beating them with a shovel. Some believe the rat king to be a myth.

The Zemu

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:15:02 +0000

The Zemu is a Moldavian spirit that appears to widows in the form of a flame before it transforms into a man.

Some believe the Zemu is an incubus that drains away the widow’s life force.

Others believe the Zemu is conjured by a murdered husband to exact revenge.

My story “The Arrangement” features a zemu. You can read it in the M is for Monster anthology available on Amazon

The Busaw: A Ghoul with an Ulterior Motive

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:40:11 +0000

The busaw looks and behaves like an ordinary human being — until night falls. You’ll know you’ve found a busaw posing as a human if you see someone cocking their ear to listen for sounds of death as the sun goes down. Another give away is that the busaw likes to climb trees by cemeteries.

In his ghoulish demon form, the busaw has pointed teeth, hooked nails and a long tongue. He creeps around in the dark and steals corpses out of their coffins. He replaces the bodies with banana tree trunks. The busaw’s greatest talent is his ability to turn human corpses into pork. Once back in human form he often prepares feasts for his neighbors. If humans eat the busaw’s ‘pork’ they too become demons.

To keep the busaw away make sure that all corpses are washed thoroughly with vinegar and rubbed with strong-smelling herbs. A liberal application of salt will also deter the busaw.

Although, vinegar, herbs, salt… mmm.

Who Wants to be Lord of Misrule?

admin — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 03:59:50 +0000

Late in December (the equivalent of the 17th on the modern calendar) Romans honored Saturnus, the god of seed and sowing, with a festival. During the holiday, class distinctions were set aside and the restraints of law and morality were ignored.

For the seven days of Saturnalia the community selected a “Lord of Misrule.” This mock king directed the drinking dancing and general lewdness, carousing and debauchery.

At the close of the festival, the Lord of Misrule was expected to cut his own throat on Saturn’s altar which would restore order throughout the land.

Saturnalia was celebrated throughout Europe into the 16th Century when The Christian Reformation replaced the bacchanal with the more demure celebration of Christmas.

How to Shrink a Head

admin — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 04:54:09 +0000

Shrunken heads are almost a necessity in a respectable cabinet of curiosities. While very few people still produce these strange items, the recipe is still around. (for entertainment purposes only)

Prep time: one week

Once the victim has been killed, decapitate immediately. Make sure to take a flap of skin from the chest and back.

Pass a woven headband through the mouth and neck of the head. This makes a sling for easy transport. If no headband is available, substitute vines.

Make a slit up the back of the head and peel the scalp from the skull. The skull should be thrown in a river as a gift for the anacondas residing there.

Sew the eyes shut with fiber and skewer the lips shut with small wooden pegs.

Simmer the head 1 to 2 hours in a sacred boiling pot until the skin is rubbery and the head is 1/3 its original size.

Turn head inside out and scrape. When head is free of… scrapings, turn it right side out and sew it up leaving only an opening at the neck.

Fill the head with hot stones and sand. Rotate constantly until head is desired size. Singe off excess hair and apply heated machete to the lips to dry them.

Make a hole in the top of the head and tie a kumai to a stick of chonta palm inside the head.(note: insert stick before sewing shut)

Your shrunken head is now ready to wear

Halloween Spirits

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:40:20 +0000

Spirits for Halloween. Enjoy.

Salem Witch

1.0 fill Club Soda
1.0 splash Grenadine
1.0 splash Lime juice
0.5 oz Melon liqueur
0.5 fill Sweet and Sour mix
0.5 oz Vodka
0.5 oz Raspberry Schnapps

How to Make It:

In a collins glass pour vodka, midori, and raspberry schnapps over ice. Add a splash of lime juice. Fill 2/3 with sour mix and the rest with seltzer. Stir gently. Top with a splash of grenadine.

__________________________________________________________

Green Ghost

1.0 oz Blue Curacao
1.0 oz Citrus Gin
3.0 oz Orange juice
1.0 oz Peach Schnapps
2.0 oz Vodka

How To Make It

Pour orange juice over ice, then mix in the other ingredients.

__________________________________________________________

Witch’s Brew

1/2 oz (splash) Cranberry juice
1/2 oz (splash) Sour mix
1 oz. Vodka
1 oz Chambord

How To Make it:
Fill a glass with ice. Add vodka and chambord with a splash of cranberry and sour mix. Stir and enjoy!

The Pontianak

admin — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:03:49 +0000

According to Malaysian folklore, a women who dies in childbirth is in danger of becoming Pontianak. (Pontianak means child-bearing ghost). The Pontianak haunts graveyards or old trees. She lures her victims by crying like a baby. At first she appears as a beautiful woman or a lost child, but once her victims are close she transforms into an ugly crone with fangs. Sometimes only her head appears, with entrails dangling from her neck.

The Pontianak is one of the most violent spirits in folklore. Motivated by jealousy, she tears her victims apart with her sharp claws and devours their entrails. Her favorite prey is pregnant women or babies, but she occasionally takes her revenge out on men. When attacking men she rips out their sex organs with her hands before slashing them open.

The spirit announces her presence with a cloud of fragrance from the kemboja flower followed by the stench of the grave. She can be tricky though. If her cry is loud she is far away, but if it’s soft she is close by. Pontianak locate their prey by sniffing laundry left outside to dry. Some Malaysians refuse to leave clothing outside for this reason.

A sharp nail helps to fend off Pontianak attacks. When a nail is plunged into the back of a Pontianak’s neck, she turn into a beautiful woman. She stays this way until the nail is pulled out.

With the Pontianak, prevention is often the best medicine. When a woman dies in childbirth, some Malaysians believe in taking precautionary measures to prevent her from turning. Glass beads are placed in the corpse’s mouth to prevent shrieking. Eggs are placed under her armpits and needles in her palms to prevent her from flying.

Should you ever find yourself faced with a Pontianak and all else fails, try reciting this charm.

O Pontianak the Stillborn,

May you be struck dead by the soil from the grave-mound.

Thus cut the bamboo-joints,

the long and the short,

To cook therein the liver of the Jin Pontianak.

By the grace of ‘There is no god but God,…etc.

note: I find the etc. at the end of the charm a little troubling and can’t guarantee it’s effectiveness.

Night Terrors: The Alp

admin — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 23:59:17 +0000

Alps are nasty little fellows who torture people in their sleep. When someone wakes up with a sensation of pressure on their chest only to find they are unable to move or make a sound, they have experienced the dirty tricks of an alp.

Even when the door is closed, Alps can enter a bedroom. They slip in through keyholes or tiny cracks in the wall. Once they’re inside, they can only leave through the same hole they entered. Plugging up the holes is not advised or the alp will stay around forever.

Alps enter dreams by transforming into a mist and seeping into the sleeping person. Sometime they transform into a snake and slither in through the nostrils and mouth. Working from inside inside the person, the alp creates horrible dreams. The German word for nightmare, Alpdrucke, means ‘alp pressure.’

Like elves, alps play other dirty tricks while people are sleeping. They often ride horses all night and bring them back in the morning exhausted. They tangle people’s hair by sucking on it and they put dirty diapers back on babies.

Supposedly, people whose eyebrows join in the middle of their forehead have the power to send alps to plague their enemies. Getting rid of an alp can be tricky. Alps are incredibly persistent and will travel great distances to torture their victims. A horse head supposedly repels them. This may be a case, however, of the cure being worse than the affliction. Sleepers who feel the alp pressure on their chest can call out “come tomorrow and drink with me.” This should force the alp to leave and compel the uni-browed person who sent him to visit the next day.

La Llorona

admin — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 03:48:37 +0000

In Mexico and the Southwestern U.S. parents warn their children not to misbehave or wander off because La Llorona (Spanish for crying woman) will mistake them for her own children and snatch them up. La Llorona is the ghost of a woman who is doomed to search for all eternity for her drowned children.

One version of the story tells of a young woman who wants to attract the man of her dreams but can’t because she has children. After she drowns her children the man rejects her anyway. Horrified by what she has done, La Llorona kills herself. She spends the rest of eternity searching the river for her children.

People tell many variations of the story. In one, the man is the children’s father who leaves La Llorona for a rich woman. In the version told in Honduras, the children drown when the woman is doing laundry and not paying attention to her kids. This horrible fear, shared by many parents, is terrifying if perhaps a little less romantic.

Medieval Bestiary

admin — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 03:45:35 +0000

A bestiary is a (usually) illustrated compendium of beasts. People have a natural curiosity about the creatures with which they share the planet. Often, survival depended on hunting or cultivating animals. The study of animals has been with mankind for as long as humans have been around.

The Medieval bestiary that became popular in 12th Century England and France was unlike other texts, however. Scholars believed that animals were put on Earth to teach humans moral lessons. The authors of the magnificently illuminated manuscripts borrowed the basic knowledge of animals from ancient texts then liberally modified and adjusted the information so it would fit with their purposes.

Especially Interesting Beasts

Leopard The offspring of a mating between a lion and a pard
Bee Bees are the smallest of birds, and are born from the bodies of oxen
Spider The spider is an aerial worm that takes its nourishment from the air

Medieval Bestiary Online