April 22, 2018

Many of the oral narratives of the Tehuelche—indigenous people from South America (Argentina and Chile)—are filled with creatures, both real and mythical. One of the most interesting mythical creatures contained in the Tehuelche’s bestiaries is the Okpe.

  

The Okpe is a massive, quadrupedal ogre that looks like a pig made of solid rock. As hunters, the Tehuelche were very well aware of the fact that the rock exterior of the Okpe didn’t have any soft spots or weaknesses, so it was virtually i...

April 11, 2018

A duppy is a type of ghost or spirit native to Jamaican folklore. Duppies, while ghosts, have much in common with European shapeshifters and roadside tricksters. They have a physical body, like to hide in dark places to then jump on their unsuspecting victims, like to play tricks on people. However, instead of crossroads and woods, Jamaican duppies preferred to hide in bamboo thickets and cottonwood groves, as many of them also feed on bamboo.

Duppies are nocturnal beings, appearing from se...

July 9, 2017

Nundá, is a gigantic and ferocious nocturnal feline, said to live in Tanzania.

Legend has it that Nundá was once the cat of Sultan Majnún. Old tales say that as a cub, Majnún’s cat was unusually fierce and strong. The cat liked to roam the fields, and despite being well fed, one day it killed a calf. The Sultan was not worried, for it loved his cat, and dismissed the event saying, “The cat is mine, and the calf is also mine,” hence the beast had committed no crime. Soon enough, however, the cat k...

December 8, 2016

The Manananggal is a mythical beast of the Philippines, an evil, man-eating and blood-sucking monster. It is described as hideous, scary, and -usually- female. It has the ability of severing its upper torso and sprouting huge bat-like wings to fly into the night in search of its victims.

The word manananggal comes from the Tagalog word tanggal (cognate of Malay tanggal), which means "to remove" or "to separate", which literally translates as "remover" or "separator." In this case, "one who separa...

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