Local Flavours of Monster

Whilst attempting to answer spacemunkey's question, I was inspired to start this thread. Here in Australia, we have very specific, localised tales of quite unique monsters. The one that all Australians know is the Drop Bear, which is essentially like an aggressive koala bear, but much larger, with a bushy tail and enormous claws that drops out of trees to snare unsuspecting bushwalkers. It's a story we tell to frighten tourists, but nobody actually believes it. My grandfather also told me stories of the Hoop Snake, which travels like a hula hoop, with its tail in its mouth.

So I was wondering, what unique, 'local' flavours of monster do other people have? Stories you've heard, local myths and legends, that kind of thing. I'd be interested to hear about region-specific monsters from other people here. So, let's hear it.

[edit on 1-8-2005 by Jeremiah25]

LOL...

I think every large lake has it's own version of a 'Nessie' type creature associated with it. Most are just fabricated by the local business community to add color to the tourist trade. I know ours is.

All over the U.S. are some interesting Native American folklore. We have a lot of lava tubes locally -- caves created by flowing lava that hardens. Too many to count. Native folklore had one cave that was a portal to the underworld, and at night evil spirits exited the cave to wreak their havoc on the surface world. Lots of tales revolve around that theme. But this particular cave was different -- it was wierd. People described a sense of foreboding and apprehension when in or around the cave. Hikers who explored other caves with glee and excitement became frightened in this one. Around the entrance magnetic compasses pointed away from north to various other directions with no consistency. Even GPS signals went awry. But a few feet away everything was normal. No one had any natural explanation. The Winter of 1997 was unusually wet, and the cave ceiling finally gave up that year after millennia of existence. It is now caved in and inaccessible. It appears a natural collapse, no intentional or supernatural forces caused it. All the strange phenomena have stopped.

Oh well. It was fun while it lasted...

Cool, dave_54, thanks for sharing. Don't know if anyone's interested, but here are some more 'Aussie-specific' stories my grandfather told me about monsters and spooky things that live in the bush:

The Min Min light (which I have actually seen) is a bright light about the size of a full moon that moves lazily along roads at night. People mistake it for car headlights at a distance until it gets closer and slowly passes them. When I saw it, it was meandering on the side of a mountain. My uncle is convinced that it's something awful and actually shot at it, but to no effect. I suspect it's some form of either marsh gas (although there aren't many marshes in the bush) or perhaps quartz deposits underground flexing and rubbing together, although my brother swears that it moves off as you approach it and leads you away into the bush.

The bunyip is, according to my grandad, a terrifying monster that lives in billabongs (a billabong is a muddy lake). He said it had an eerie cry it used before it attacked. Now, in the bush there are these birds whose cry sounds like children screaming (seriously) and at night he would tell me that it was the bunyip coming to get me. Although the Aborigines have numerous bunyip tales and despite the discovery of some strange carcasses, I'd be surprised if there has been a credible bunyip sighting in a long time.

This next one's not technically a crypto, but thought you'd be interested anyway. My grandad's property contains numerous sites sacred to the local Aborigines. He would tell me that if I didn't show respect or ask an elder permission to visit the sites, then the Kadaicha Man would get me. Kadaicha Man is part shaman, part avenging policeman for the Aborigines. Grandad said he wore feathers on his feet to cover his tracks. If you violated Aboriginal law, he would point the bone at you. This involved taking a kangaroo bone and pointing it at you with evil intent. You are supposed to die several days later through his powerful magic. I believe there have actually been cases of this occurring, although I'm sure it has as much to do with the power of suggestibility as it does with the Kadaicha Man's magic.

Hope you enjoyed reading about the weirdness Down Under.

I'm pretty sure everyone knows this one, but i'll tell it anyways. It's about this creature that lives in Mexico called , bum bum bum, La Chupacabra. It terrorizes farms by killing and eating all the live stock such as goat. also it screams like a banshee(????) before it kills kind of like the bunyip
sounds a little similar.

IN British Columbia, Canada, there is a beautiful area called the Okanagan. Within this place is a lake called Lake Okanagan, which reputedly contains sea monsters called the Ogopogo. It's pretty much the 'Nessie tourist trap' that dave_54 was talking about. I've been there, since I live 'next door' in Alberta. Very nice place, though I never saw any cryptids in the lake

en.wikipedia.org...

I've also heard of something called the New Jersey Devil (guess where that story comes from ) I don't know much about it, though.

Also, the Mongolian Death Worm (from... wait for it... Mongolia!) This has been done on a few ATS threads already, do an ATS search if you're interested.

Well in Korea, theres supposed to exist a creature named tokebi (Its pronounced something like that) And its essentially and very large muscular demon with horns. I think its mostley a story to scare children from going out at night and such. There are also things associated with this such as one some hills/ mountains in korea, things will go uphill without anyforce. Like in places if you take a car to the botem of a hill and turn the engins and everything off, the car will roll uphill like its on a downhill slope. Its said that the demon is dragging you off when that heppens.

However that expericance is creepy. I was on a tour bus and they showed us that wven with everything off, the bus went uphill. Some people spilled water and the water flowed uphill, balls rolled uphill, and running uphill was really easy while runnig downhill was hard. Its a pretty neat experiance.

Of course theres the little fox are bad luck legends but i wont get into that

that's kind of creepy that uphill downhill thing...wonder how it happens

In the Southern US (probably elsewhere I'm guessing), there is the Bogeyman.

I live in New York, USA near a place called Montauk Point. There is an abandoned airbase there called Camp Hero. The site has mostly been turned into a state park now, but there are large underground complexes there that are sealed off from the public. Back in the old days when there was activity there, there were supposedly experiments going on that had to do with, among other things, time travel and mind control.

This guy Duncan Cameron supposedly was able to use his mind to create a creature called Junior, that once it came to life it ran amuk on the base. Allegedly they sealed up the bunkers because of this monster, trapping it underground.

Thats the mythos, however I am very skeptical of it, based on my personal experiences.

Well, my grandma awho was from spain and my mom would talk about the "Tuto", which is basically the spanish bogyman, and parents tell there kids if there not good they'll call the tuto to come and get them, as for what its suppose to look like, I've never heard a sharewd description of what it's suppose to look like, it depends on the person, when I was little I always imagined it to look like a gian brown-black furred gorilla with two incisors that came out of its mouth and curved up.

When I first moved into the area I live now, alot of the kids held the belief that a werewolf lived in the wooded area around the houses.

Thats about it for me, oh by the way this is a good thread Jeremiah.

Thanks iori, it certainly is interesting seeing people's local myths. I had never heard of the Tuto - just goes to show the diversity with which parents the world over will terrify their children into obedience.

William - were you ever tempted to explore the base for yourself?

Well, here's a few more from down here in Oz:

My brother works on a huge cattle property waaay up in the north of the country, in an area known as the Never-Never. He told me that local Aborigines have legends of giant humans that used to live in the area before white men came, as well as some kind of enormous, dinosaur-like monster that kills wildlife and leaves huge tracks in the ground. Now, I looked into this a bit and found this quote from Wullagun, a tribal elder of the Yabuduruwa people of the region:

"When Giant fellas alive, them big animals still bin walkabout this country. Ground shake when he walk. He eat peoples".

I thought about it and thought it might be tribal memory of Megalania prisca, which was a real-life enormous goanna (lizard) that lived in Australia as recently as 20 000 years ago. Since the date for Aboriginal occupation of the continent stands at about 60 000 years, it is conceivable that sightings of this creature may have persisted through legend and story-telling. Of course, there are those who claim that Megalania prisca still exists and sightings persist in deep caves.

what you call hoop snakes my great grandfather called coachwhip snakes, and supposedly they could put there tail in their mouth and roll down hills etc. i just thought it was weird you said your grandfather had similiar storys. As for local legends there are several around where i live in indiana,
one is in a secluded place all of our locals have dubbed "little africa". supposedly there is supposed to be some kind of mutant man or monkey that frequents the area. I have never seen anything fitting that description. there are also sightings of bigfoots in our state parks, and where are all the french immigrants are is a creature called loup-garou, basically a werewolf.

Well, in my section of Indiana there isn't many legends of that sort around, or at lest none that I have heard before. There were about 3 sightings of Bigfoot up in Milford which is close(When compared to very other cryptid sightings) to my town. My interest in this stuff used to make me really jealous of people who live closer to such creatures and I would of given my first born child(when/if I get married) to see one. Now that I know Bigfoot is just around the block I'm not so eager.

Originally posted by Jeremiah25

William - were you ever tempted to explore the base for yourself?

I have been over the base with a fine tooth comb, on at least 5 or 6 occassions. Both after and before it was opened to the public.

In Britain, we have as said Nessie and Morag, we had a report in the 70's of a giant owl-man attacking a couple in Cornwall. We had Lucy Lightfoot who supposedly time-travelled a long time ago.
In the Manchester area (Man Utd!), a gent suddenly appeared on a motorway, fell from a bridge and died. His pockets were empty except for a vial of tablets that chemists had never heard of!
A favourite was the Cumbrian Spaceman, that showed up behind a little girl being photographed on a grassy hill!
A couple of years ago, we had reports of our own Bigfoot! a creature that wandered a lake area in the Nort-East of England.
Phew!

Originally posted by IronMan
In Britain, we have as said Nessie and Morag, Phew!

I recall reading a story from late 19th century (it was called Victoria's devil, or something like that, so it was during her reign). A single night's observation of a creature (in Cornwall?) that left hoof tracks like a pig, but was bipedal. Lept over tall stone walls and the tracks continued across the countryside. The tracks continued for hundreds of kilometers, too far for a single hoaxer to cover in one night. Any links to this story?

Originally posted by dave_54
The tracks continued for hundreds of kilometers, too far for a single hoaxer to cover in one night. Any links to this story?

The Devil's Footprints

This is more of a commonly known ghost story a my camp.

THere was a boy left at camp back in the 50's. He had no parents so te camp took him in. He was always picked on by everybody there. Even the counilors made snyde comments by a mistake. He went down to a certain lake. (this lake had ALOT of methane trapped in the bottom, and it still does.) He was lighting a cigarette and a councilor came walking by. He quickly threw the cigarette into the lake before he could see anything. The lake exploded and the 2 people were never seen again.

It's said that there is an old man with giant glowing red eyes that takes visits to cabins at night now. He peers into the window for hours to make sure everybody stays asleep.

Well hear in Scotland we have Nessie (duu) we have Haggis of both bird and ground kinds (they have longer out side legs so they can run round mountains fast).

And in a loch near were I live (about 100m) there is a story of a car sized pike. Though I might have made that one up last I was still a member of the sailing club because I was board I can’t remember.

There is also the “Lurgee”(sp) that hangs around the Auchengillan scout camp(don’t ask me what it is).

But only Nessie has people who really believe in it.


A nice list can be found hear.

[edit on 7-8-2005 by Elfwood]

Originally posted by William One Sac

Originally posted by dave_54
The tracks continued for hundreds of kilometers, too far for a single hoaxer to cover in one night. Any links to this story?

The Devil's Footprints

thanks.

interesting story.