At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

Thursday 9 January 2014

THE CATWOMAN OF THE AMERICAS

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...

No comments:

Post a Comment