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Huaychivo
The Huay Chivo () is a legendary Maya beast. It is a half-man, half-beast creature, with burning red eyes, and is specific to the Yucatán Peninsula. It is reputed to be an evil sorcerer who can transform himself into a supernatural animal, usually a goat, dog or deer, in order to prey upon livestock. In recent times, it has become associated with the chupacabras. The Huay Chivo is specific to the southeastern Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche and Quintana Roo. Alleged Huay Chivo activity is sporadically reported in the regional press. Local Maya near the town of Valladolid, in Yucatán, believe the Huay Chivo is an evil sorcerer that is capable of transforming into a goat to do mischief and eat livestock. The ''Huay Chivo'' is a local variation of the Mesoamerican ''Nahual''. Etymology The name Huay Chivo combines Spanish and Yucatec Mayan terms. ''Huay'' or ''Uay'' comes from ''Waay'' in Yucatec Maya, meaning sorcerer, spirit or animal familiar, while ''Chivo'' is Spanis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Dog (ghost)
The black dog is a supernatural, spectral, or demonic entity originating from English folklore that has also been seen throughout Europe and the Americas. It is usually unnaturally large with glowing red or yellow eyes, is often connected with the Devil (as an English incarnation of the Hellhound), and is sometimes an omen of death.Simpson & Roud 2000, 2003, p.25. It is sometimes associated with electrical storms (such as Black Shuck's appearance at Bungay, Suffolk), and also with crossroads, barrows (as a type of fairy hound), places of execution and ancient pathways. Black dogs are generally regarded as sinister or malevolent, and a few (such as the Barghest and Shuck) are said to be directly harmful.Briggs 1977, pp. 135–40. Some black dogs, however, such as the Gurt Dog in Somerset, are said to behave benevolently as guardian black dogs, guiding travellers at night onto the right path or protecting them from danger.Rickard & Michell 2000, pp. 286–7.Briggs 1976, pp. 207 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skin-walker
In Navajo culture, a skin-walker ( nv, yee naaldlooshii) is a type of harmful witch who has the ability to turn into, possess, or disguise themselves as an animal. The term is never used for healers. Background In the Navajo language, ' translates to "by means of it, it goes on all fours".Wall, Leon and William Morgan, ''Navajo–English Dictionary''. Hippocrene Books, New York, 1998. . While perhaps the most common variety seen in horror fiction by non-Navajo people, the ' is one of several varieties of skin-walkers in Navajo culture; specifically, they are a type of '. Navajo witches, including skin-walkers, represent the antithesis of Navajo cultural values. While community healers and cultural workers are known as medicine men and women, or by other positive, nurturing terms in the local, indigenous language, witches are seen as evil, performing twisted ceremonies and manipulating magic in a perversion of the good works medicine people traditionally perform. In order to pra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nahual
In Mesoamerican folk religion, a nagual (pronounced a'wal is a human being who has the power to shapeshift into their tonal animal counterpart. Nagualism is tied to the belief one can access power and spiritual insight by connecting with the tonal animal within. Etymology The word ''nagual'' derives from the Nahuatl word ''nāhualli'' , an indigenous religious practitioner, identified by the Spanish as a 'magician'. In English, the word is often translated as "transforming witch," but translations without negative connotations include "transforming trickster" or "shape shifter." Beliefs Naguals use their powers for good or evil according to their personality. The general concept of nagualism is pan-Mesoamerican. Nagualism is linked with pre-Columbian shamanistic practices through Pre-classic Olmec and Toltec depictions that are interpreted as human beings transforming themselves into animals. The system is linked with the Mesoamerican calendrical system, used for di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude (literature), verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time to keep them fresh and vital. Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being entirely believed by the participants, but also never being resolutely doubted. Legends are sometimes distinguished from myths in that they concern human beings as the main characters rather than gods, and sometimes in that they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths generally do not. The Brothers Grimm defined ''legend'' as "Folklore, folktale historically grounded". A by-product of the "concern with human beings" is the long list o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yucatec Maya Language
Yucatec Maya (; referred to by its speakers simply as Maya or as , is one of the 32 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family. Yucatec Maya is spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic community of Yucatec Maya speakers in San Francisco, though most Mayan Americans are speakers of other Mayan languages from Guatemala and Chiapas. Etymology According to the Hocabá dictionary, compiled by American anthropologist Victoria Bricker, there is a variant name , literally "flat speech"). A popular, yet false, alternative etymology of Mayab is "ma ya'ab" or "not many," "the few" which derives from New Age spiritualist interpretations of the Maya. The use of "Mayab" as the name of the language seems to be unique to the town of Hocabá, as indicated by the Hocabá dictionary and is not employed elsewhere in the region or in Mexico, by either Spanish or Maya speakers. As used in Hocabá, "Mayab" is not the recognized name of the la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya Legendary Creatures
Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a population native to the old Wej province in Ethiopia Places * Maya (river), a river in Yakutia, Russia * Maya (Uda), a river in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia * Maya, Uganda, a town * Maya, Western Australia, a town * Maya Karimata, an island in West Borneo, Indonesia * Maya Mountains, a mountain range in Guatemala and Belize ** Maya Biosphere Reserve, a nature reservation in Guatemala * Mount Maya, a mountain in Kobe, Japan ** Maya Station, a railway station in Kobe, Japan * La Maya (mountain), an alp in Switzerland * Al Maya or Maya, a town in Libya Religion and mythology * Maya religion, the religious practices of the Maya peoples of parts of Mexico and Central America ** Maya mythology, the myths and legends of the Maya civilization * Maya (r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ijiraq (mythology)
In the Inuit religion an ijiraq ( or ) is a shapeshifting creature that is said to kidnap children, hide them away and abandon them. The '' inuksugaq'' (or ''inukshuk'') of stone allow these children to find their way back if they can convince the ijiraq to let them go. Description In North Baffin dialects ''ijiraq'' means Shape Shifter. While '' Tariaksuq'' appear like a half-man-half-caribou monster, an ijiraq can appear in any form it chooses, making it particularly deceptive. Their eyes will always stay red, no matter what they shapeshift into. Their real form is just like a human, but their eyes and mouth are sideways. ''(The book of Dutch writer Floortje Zwigtman says only the shaman knows the real form of the Ijiraq).'' When you are hunting somewhere that Ijirait (plural) inhabit, you will see them in the corner of your eye for a fleeting moment (like tariaksuq, shadow people) ''(following another reference, you see a strange caribou in the corner of your eye instead of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wayob
Wayob is the plural form of (or ), a Maya word with a basic meaning of 'sleep(ing)', but which in Yucatec Maya is a term specifically denoting the Mesoamerican nagual, that is, a person who can transform into an animal while asleep in order to do harm, or else the resulting animal transformation itself. Already in Classic Maya belief, ''way'' animals, identifiable by a special hieroglyph, had an important role to play. In Maya ethnography In Yucatec ethnography, the animal transformation involved is usually a common domestic or domesticated animal, but may also be a ghost or apparition, for example 'a creature with wings of straw mats'. Moreover, in the 16th century, wild animals such as jaguar and grey fox are mentioned as animal shapes of the sorcerer, together with the or 'underworld transformer'. Some sort of 'devil's pact' seems to be implied. The Yucatec has its counterparts among other Maya groups. In Tzotzil ethnography, the (here called or ''chanul'') is more often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Therianthropy
Therianthropy is the mythological ability of human beings to metamorphose into animals or hybrids by means of shapeshifting. It is possible that cave drawings found at Les Trois Frères, in France, depict ancient beliefs in the concept. The best-known form of therianthropy, called lycanthropy, is found in stories of werewolves. Etymology The term ''therianthropy'' comes from the Greek ''thēríon'' ηρίον meaning "wild animal" or "beast" (implicitly mammalian), and ''anthrōpos'' νθρωπος meaning "human being". It was used to refer to animal transformation folklore of Europe as early as 1901. Sometimes the term " zoanthropy" is used instead. Therianthropy was used to describe spiritual beliefs in animal transformation in a 1915 Japanese publication, ''A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era''. One source, ''The Human Predator'', raises the possibility the term may have been used as early as the 16th century in crim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soucouyant
The soucouyant or soucriant in Dominica, St. Lucian, Trinidadian, Guadeloupean folklore (also known as Loogaroo or Lougarou) in Haiti, Louisiana, Grenada and elsewhere in the Caribbean or Ole-Higue (also Ole Haig) in Guyana, Belize and Jamaica or Asema in Suriname), in The Bahamas and Barbados it is known as Hag. It is a kind of blood-sucking hag. Legend The ''soucouyant'' is a shapeshifting Caribbean folklore character who appears as a reclusive old woman by day. By night, she strips off her wrinkled skin and puts it in a mortar. In her true form, as a fireball she flies across the dark sky in search of a victim. The soucouyant can enter the home of her victim through any sized hole like cracks, crevices and keyholes. Soucouyants suck people's blood from their arms, necks, legs and soft parts while they sleep leaving blue-black marks on the body in the morning.Courtesy The Heritage Library via the Trinidad Guardian If the soucouyant draws too much blood, it is believed that t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chupacabra
The chupacabra or chupacabras (, literally 'goat-sucker'; from es, chupar, 'to suck', and , 'goats') is a legendary creature in the folklore of parts of the Americas, with its first purported sightings reported in Puerto Rico in 1995. The name comes from the animal's reported vampirism—the chupacabra is said to attack and drink the blood of livestock, including goats. Physical descriptions of the creature vary, some describe it as reptilian and alien-like (in Puerto Rico and Latin America), generally as a heavy creature the size of a small bear with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail. Others depict it as more dog-like (particularly in Southwestern United States). Sightings have been reported in Puerto Rico since the 1970s, and this creature has since been reported as far north as Maine, as far south as Chile, and even outside the Americas in countries like Russia and Philippines. All of the reports are anecdotal and have been disregarded as u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chonchon
The Chonchon ( es, chonchón from arn, chonchon) is a mythical bird from Mapuche religion also present in Chilean and southern Argentine folk myth. Legend The Chonchon is the magical transformation of a kalku (Mapuche sorcerer). It is said only the most powerful kalkus can aspire to master the secret of becoming this feared creature. The kalku or sorcerer would carry out the transformation into a Chonchon by an act of will and being anointed by a magical cream in the throat that eases the removal of the head from the rest of the body, with the removed head then becoming the creature. The Chonchon has the shape of a human head with feathers and talons; its ears, which are extremely large, serve as wings for its flight on moonless nights. Chonchons are supposed to be endowed with all the magic powers of, and can only be seen by, other kalkus, or by wizards that want this power. Sorcerers take the form of the chonchon to better carry out their wicked activities, and the transfo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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