One of the most interesting creatures in American folklore, at least as far as I am concerned, is the Wampus Cat. There seems to have been only a single one, yet it turns up in a number of states: Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. According to one tale told among whites, it was a witch who turned herself into a cat, but the spell to turn her back into a human didn't work properly and she ended up as a cat that walked on its hind legs. The Cherokee had a somewhat different story of her origins. They called her the ewah. They claimed a woman dressed herself in a puma skin to spy on her husband. As a punishment for this she was turned into a cat that was bipedal and, when she died, she continued to hang around as a ghost. Just what she looked like is perhaps not always clear. Apart from walking on two legs, she seems to have some human female characteristics. Her wailing is absolutely horrible. Just seeing her may prove fatal.
Slave owners used to make sure their slaves would not run away by telling them the Wampus Cat was out there and would get them if they did. They were even known to go into the bushes and give tongue to Wampus Cat wails, to increase the fear that their hapless bondsmen already felt.
The following story contains an interesting account of just how the Wampus Cat is said to have come into being.now read on...
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