- El Naddaha is the name of an Egyptian siren who makes the Nile River both her home and the place she commits her crimes. This is an urban legend specifically directed at men, as El Naddaha only targets men. She is said to have a watery cavern somewhere in the Nile, and at night during a full moon cycle, she wanders along the riverbank, looking for her next victim. Men walking alone are usually the more common targets, but even if a group of men are walking together and spot her, she can send out her siren's call to just one of them, which will put the man into a trance-like state as he stops everything to follow her. El Naddaha's call is actually a compulsion spell of sorts, which compels the man to do nothing except answer her call and follow her to her home, where usually he will drown, either from attempting to swim to her home or from the frigid temperatures of the Nile. Men have little power to stop themselves from answering the call and people who try to keep someone else from answering the call are either cursed for getting in Naddaha's way and eventually driven to suicide, or they fail entirely, as the supernatural compulsion is too strong for anything a mortal can do. Looking Naddaha directly in the eyes is a guaranteed death sentence, so the few who were able to resist her call simply turned away from her and ran in the other direction without ever making eye contact with her. It is said that Naddaha mainly pulls her victims according to the lunar cycle, and waits for the next full moon to begin wandering the riverbank, looking for her next victim. If she finds a target but falls in love with him instead of just wishing to kill him, she'll kidnap him and take him to her home deep in the water, where they will do nothing but make love for months on end. After awhile though, her fears that he will someday escape always overcome her and she will kill him, burying his bones in her home. She will then wait for the next full moon to resume her normal spot by the Nile. Not all of her victims came by walking near the river, however, as she has been known to call men out of their homes with a loud, sad cry. They will enter a state of catatonia for three days, hearing and thinking of nothing except her call, until they finally meet their watery graves by trying to meet Naddaha. So basically, hide your husbands, hide your sons, and stay away from the Nile at night.
- There was a story I was really excited to include here but couldn't find any further information on it, so it seems like it's one of those things you only know if you grew up with Egyptian parents. Abu Regl Masloukha is the scary monster of many an Egyptian kid, as parents often conjure this creature to stop a misbehaving child with the threat that the monster, who was described as being partially mummified, with a leg unwrapped and clearly burnt to a crisp, would come and snatch the child for being disobedient. Sounds like Abu Regl Masloukha is the equivalent of "Cucuy" in Mexican culture, the oft-mentioned yet never seen monster of children's nightmares, come to steal them for misbehaving. Traumatizing but effective. lol
- La Llorona, or "The Crying Woman," is a centuries old urban legend infamous in both Texan and Mexican folklore stories. The story goes that a very long time ago in a small village, a snobby, beautiful young woman named Maria was the talk of the town. Tales of her beauty preceded her, and while many a young man wanted her, she wouldn't even deign to speak to them. This all changed when she met a young, handsome ranchero she felt was deserving of her beauty. She played hard to get at first, but eventually gave in and the two got married. After having a couple of children and living the quiet life for a time, the ranchero's cabin fever got the better of him and he walked out on his wife. He still came by to visit and spend time with the children, whom he loved very much, but the eagerness of long ago had since frozen into barely concealed disdain for Maria. He often threatened to replace her with another woman, younger and prettier than Maria, and during a walk with her children one afternoon, the ranchero approached Maria with just such a woman. He stopped the carriage to talk to his children for a few minutes, but ignored Maria's presence entirely. Enraged and humiliated at being tossed aside so callously, Maria directed all of her rage at the ones still receiving her husband's attention--their children. She had been resentful of them for some time, but on this day she lost control. Infuriated, she snatched up her children and tossed them into the nearby river, which had current too strong for their little bodies, and they were swept away immediately. At realizing what she had done, Maria ran alongside the riverbank, crying and calling out for them, holding out her arms to retrieve them but it was no use. The following morning, the village was led to the riverbank, where a young woman lay dead. Upon realizing that it was Maria, they had her buried in a beautiful white gown and that's where the story should have ended. Maria's soul, full of shame and longing for her children, continued to wander along that riverbank, crying and calling out for her children. She was seen crying at the river so often that she stopped being referred to as Maria and became La Llorona. If she happens across some children, she'll mistake them for her own and take them into the darkness with her, never to be seen again.
A condensed version of my teacher's story was that Maria and her two children lived by the river and the kids liked to run off and play, usually out of Maria's sight, causing her to go look for them. One day, Maria turned around for just a moment and when she turned back, her children were gone. They'd fallen into the Rio Grande (which goes right through my city) and drowned. Maria died of heartbreak at the riverbank, where even in death she was unable to stop looking for them. La Llorona now haunts the Rio Grande, stealing any children who wander too far away from their parents and taking them into the night with her. The howling of the wind was really La Llorona's cries, and on those nights, it was especially important for children to stay inside and stay close to their parents if they went out.
The gist of my teacher's story was, "Don't wander away from your parents or you'll get snatched," which was logical for the times as there'd been a string of kidnapping stories going around, and a good way to make a story appropriate for a bunch of 10-year-olds. There'd been a couple of mothers in the news for killing their children, some by drowning, so this was a good way to warn us about Stranger Danger but not cause lasting damage by making us afraid of our parents. I notice we heeded the warnings not to be taken by a ghost much faster than we heeded not walking home alone or talking to strangers. LOL
- La Lechuza (Lechusa), or "The Owl Woman," is another urban legend commonly heard in Texan and Mexican folklore stories, but admittedly its one I've never heard. The stories differ again, so I'm going to combine them. Legend has it that long ago when practicing witchcraft still carried an active punishment, a witch was exposed for practicing magic. It was said that she was only practicing white magic, but it was magic all the same and the townsfolk murdered her in a rage. She returned from the dead as a shapeshifter to exact revenge, but the story differs on whom. While one story says that she returned to exact revenge on the townsfolk who killed her and just continued taking victims to sate her rage over the years, others say she was just vengeful and wanted to take out her anger on anyone she could. Legend would have it that lechuzas sold their souls to the devil in order to receive their magical gifts, which included shapeshifting. After La Lechuza came back, she disguised her appearance during the day to look like a siren, but at night shifted into a bird-monster, with a human head and bird-like body. When she is out on the prowl, she perches somewhere high and out of sight, then lures her victims by mimicking the sound of a baby crying. She has been said to focus her attention on cars driving alone on deserted roads or intoxicated citizens on foot. When the victim begins to approach, she swoops down and letting out a banshee cry, carries her victim off to parts unknown, where they are never seen again and their bodies never found. Some stories note that one of Lechuza's supernatural powers is the ability to invoke thunderstorms, and during these storms is when she is most often spotted. It is said that hearing a strange whistle or the call of a bird at night is a warning sign that Lechuza is out and looking for fresh prey.
- Leanan Sidhe (also spelled as lianhan sidhe, liannan shith, or leanhaun shee) is a faery mistress who focuses her attentions on young male writers and artists. If you prefer a darker spin on your urban legends, her interest is often described as being 'vampiric' in the sense that she sucks the life out of her 'charges,' but others find it to be more of a reciprocal relationship in the sense that she inspires her charges in exchange for them allowing her to experience emotional depth. Let's start with the darker version of this legend. The faery mistress finds an artist or writer worth her attention, and attracts him with her otherworldly beauty. The man has the opportunity to refuse the faery's advances and she would become his slave in return, but if he accepts her advances, he then belongs to her, mind, body and soul. If they wish to leave, they can only do so if they are able to find a suitable replacement for the faery. If the person wishes to stay, it is at his own peril as while the faery inspires the artist's genius and allows them to reach new heights in their career, she slowly sucks life out of them. Legend says that the faery would take them as lovers, when she would inspire them the most, but then leave some time later, which started the path of obsession and depression and eventually led to the artist's death. The price of the faery retaining her beauty and ability to inspire was blood--an entire cauldron of it--which was filled with the blood of her dead former lovers, who she would drain dry upon their deaths. The all-consuming nature of Leanan Sidhe means her targets often aren't long for the world and soon die after going mad or being physically/emotionally consumed by the faery. The slightly more forgiving version of the tale goes that in exchange for inspiration, the artists allow the faery to experience depth of feeling. What happens to the artist, a spiral into obsession, madness and a constant, deep sense of sorrow or heartbreak after she leaves, is simply the price they pay for receiving the faery's gift, which can be avoided if the artist is unafraid of her and resists idolizing or obsessing over her. The faery's purpose is more to invoke the necessary emotions in her charges to create art and pieces of work that have deep emotional meaning, making her a muse of sorts to all kinds of creatives. The descent into madness and numbers of those who killed themselves lend to the theory that Leanan Sidhe was responsible, but as the tamer version of the tale goes, it is simply the self-destructive pattern of creatives and mortals in general that is responsible.
- Caorthannach (pronounced queer-hawn-nock) is a fire-spitting demon, often referred to the devil's mother, who was successfully defeated by St.Patrick in his efforts to drive all of the snakes from Ireland. Patrick is said to have received a message from God, who told him where Caorthannach lived, which also happened to be a portal between Earth and Hell. By destroying that, Patrick would also rid Ireland of her children, which had taken on the form of snakes in order to wreck havoc on the land. Patrick stood on what is now known as Croagh Patrick and banished all of the snakes and demons from the land, but Caorthannach was able to escape. The two fought atop the mountain for days, until Caorthannach was able to extricate herself and run down the mountain, knowing Patrick would chase her. The goal was to make him die of thirst while in pursuit, so she purposely spit fire in his path and poisoned all the drinking wells she passed. Patrick did get thirsty, but just as he was about to collapse from thirst, he prayed for guidance and a cool drink of water. He was thrown off his horse and directly in front of him sprang the answer to his prayer, which gave him the energy he needed to continue pursuing Caorthannach. The story differs as to exactly how Caorthannach was defeated--some stories say Patrick caught up to her at what is now called Lough Derg (Dark Lake) and banished her to her cave with a word, causing her to fall into the lake and drown, creating the swell of the lake that is now referred to as Hawk's Well. Other stories say that Caorthannach reached Lough Derg and thinking she'd won, began to enter the water, but Patrick attacked her and they fought underwater for a time until Caorthannach swallowed Patrick whole. He cut his way out of her, spilling the venom from her insides out into the water and giving it its name of Dark Lake. Legend would have it that if you believe the first version of the story, that Caorthannach is simply trapped in her underwater cave or simply hiding from sight until she gathers enough strength, it is only a matter of time before she rises again.
- Ancient senator Pliny the Younger, who was also an accomplished author, wrote a story once about a ghost who haunted a home in Athens. Upon a person entering the home, they would hear the sounds of chains rattling off in the distance, which would gradually grow closer to the person before manifesting in a skeletal, unkempt man who would rattle the chains on his wrists and ankles. Night terrors commonly afflicted the inhabitants of the house, the sights of their nightmares often following them into their waking lives the next day. As you can imagine, tenants were unable to remain in the house for an extended period of time and the house was eventually deemed uninhabitable. The price was dropped with the goal to possibly lure in a buyer who hadn't heard of the legend surrounding the home. A scholar expressed interest in buying the home not long after, but knew that something fishy was about when he saw the price. After being told about the home's past, he bought it anyway and decided to get a glimpse of the ghost for himself. He stayed up all night, writing, until the ghost paid him a visit while beckoning the man to follow him. The ghost slowly led the man to a specific spot in the courtyard of the house before vanishing. The man had the spot dug up the following morning, where a skeleton, complete with chains, was discovered. After giving the bones a proper burial and giving the man's spirit some peace, the home was no longer considered haunted.
- Der Freischütz ("The Marksman") is a horror story/cautionary tale about a marksman and not allowing yourself to become greedy by the too good to be true promises of another. One day, a marksman finds himself unable to shoot any of his intended targets, a rare off day for him. Between shots, a mysterious man approaches him and offers him a set of seven special bullets. He tells the marksman that the first six shots will hit their mark with perfect accuracy, but tells the marksman that he reserves the accuracy of the seventh shot. The marksman takes the bullets and true to the man's word, the first six shots hit their marks and he gains local notoriety again as he continues to bring animal after animal back to the town. A young woman in the town catches the marksman's eye and they marry, but he ignores the man's final warning and shoots the seventh bullet. It pierces his bride's chest and she dies immediately. The marksman is visited by the mysterious man, who reveals himself to be the Devil, and gives him a list of things to do in order to be reunited with his bride after he dies. Instead of heeding the Devil's instructions, the marksman becomes distracted with another young woman and marries her instead. On the one year anniversary of his first wife's death, the marksman comes across a clearing of skeletons dancing around flames, one of whom is his first wife. She waltzes with him and the following day, villagers discover the corpses of both the marksman and his horse.
- The Lady in White is a centuries old urban legend that is quite long, so I'll try to condense it for you. In Sao Paulo, a cobbler struggled to allow his eldest daughter to marry. She had never expressed a desire to marry but tons of young men in the village had asked for her hand, and every time the cobbler refused. She was his favorite child and he wanted to keep her around, so he turned down every potential suitor she had. A rich, ugly and unusually cruel slaveowner from another town arrived in Sao Paulo one day on business and came into the cobbler's shop to fix a gash in his boot. Like most men of the time, he was entranced by the cobbler's daughter and for nearly a month, attempted to woo her and her father with extravagant gifts. She never budged, but her father's longtime dream of having a larger shop in the city would finally be realized by allowing his daughter to marry the man, so he relented. She was miserable in the marriage, especially upon seeing his true cruel nature, but it was too late for her to leave, not that he would allow her to do so. She stopped interacting with him, going as far as to starve herself and pretend to be asleep the entire time he was home just to avoid him. Only when he left would the young woman come downstairs, where the slaves had thoughtfully prepared food and drink for her. One day, the slaves were drinking water out of a bucket and the young woman brought them some out some pastries to eat. In exchange for her kindness, which they'd never received from her husband, one of the slaves gave the young woman some of their sugarcane juice. Her husband, who had long since grown to resent her kind spirit, was watching from afar and the following day when she thought her husband had left the home, she assumed her regular routine but he was waiting for her at the table. After chaining her to a chair, he brought her the slave's head on a platter. He cooked the rest of the man's flesh and told his wife she would be eating that, nothing else, if she got hungry. She refused and eventually starved to death. The husband callously dressed her in her wedding gown and sent her emaciated body back to her father's shop in Sao Paolo, on the opening day of his new shop. The same shop he'd gotten by marrying her daughter off to this man. Now, the young woman's spirit is bent on revenge and several men have since gone missing after leaving somewhere with a beautiful lady. People see her leading the man out of the place, which is usually a bar, but nobody ever sees the man again.
- Loira do Banheiro, or the "Blonde in the Bathroom," is the Brazilian version of the Bloody Mary urban legend here in the States. Basically, she haunts school restrooms, toilets more specifically, and terrorizes the children who happen upon the stall where she resides. Most of the variations I've heard on this story go into much more detail than the story I was told in elementary, but I'll run you through a couple of them. One legend has a young, rebellious student meeting her untimely end in the stall she would later haunt, hitting her head on a toilet and bleeding to death. Another variation says that the blonde is a teacher rather than a student, and falls in love with a student, leading to her murder by her jealous husband. He dismembers her and stuffs her head down the school's toilet, which would explain why her spirit would haunt the bathroom. Yet another variation of the Brazilian legend has a young woman named Maria who was trapped in an unhappy marriage, but after having an affair and running off to Europe with her lover, she dies and it is said that at that exact moment, a mirror falls and shatters in her parents' home. This would explain the mirror part of the Bloody Mary legend. I don't know how you learned the Bloody Mary call, but for us it was to turn out the bathroom lights, say "Bloody Mary" three times in the mirror while turning in circles, then flush the toilet once. In retrospect, it wasn't very different from the "Candyman" legend. The Loira do Banheiro call has the summoner go into the last stall in the bathroom, kick the door 3 times, flush 3 times, turn one of the faucets on and off 3 times and finally, say a curse word 3 times. The second link will take you to where I got this legend from; at the bottom of the page are some stories from people who've supposedly come in contact with the Blonde.
- The Chinese jiangshi, or zombie, is another urban legend that has haunted China for awhile, with some saying the first sighting came around the 15th century. The word 'jiangshi' translates to 'rigid body' or 'stiff/rigid corpse' because of their stiff composition. The jiangshi have rigor mortis in all of their limbs, preventing them from walking normally, so they are known to hop after their victims. This stiffness extends to their arms, so they hop after their prey, arms outstretched, with the inability to see, speak or think. Their primary method of successfully luring their prey is by their hearing or sense of smell, which enables them to hear their victim breathing and follow the sound, or track the victim by their scent. Jiangshi are also referred to as vampires but rather than draining their victims of their blood, they drain their victims of their life forces instead. I know, draining the blood has the same effect, but you know what I mean. lol It is said that hearing a threefold thumping sound when out walking at night, especially alone, means that a jiangshi is nearby, as the 'thumps' are the sound the creatures feet make when pursuing their victims. Some stories say that there are levels of jiangshi, with white jiangshi being the least harmful and flying jiangshi being the most harmful. These creatures are near demi-god/dess status, can fly, shapeshift and infect mass amounts of people with plagues. The rare final form of a jiangshi is a Demon King, whom possesses a nearly unlimited amount of magical abilities and is practically invincible. Multiple things could result in the creation of a jiangshi, but their manner of "walking" came from the practice of using bamboo rods in order to 'hop' one's corpse back to its home, which was supposed to allow the soul to rest somewhere familiar. In the event that something happened to disturb the person's soul, the practice was meaningless as the person became a zombie anyway, but it retained this ability to 'hop' its way around. As for ways to get rid of a jiangshi without losing your life in the process, they are said to be afraid of both the brightness and reflections in mirrors (although they're blind so I'm not sure about this one),
- The Midnight Bus is a ghost story about a woman riding a bus home at midnight along with 5 other passengers when the bus stopped to pick up three men, two of whom were carrying the third. At some point during the ride, 2 of the passengers get off, leaving the woman, young man, conductor, driver and the three new passengers. Not long after the other two get off the bus, the woman has a sudden outburst directed at the young man who'd been on the bus with her before the three new passengers. The young man has no idea what the woman is going on about and argues in his defense, but the woman is unswayed. The bus driver eventually makes both of them get off the bus and go their separate ways. Once safely off the bus, the woman apologizes to the young man and tells him the reason for her behavior was because she had a bad feeling about the three passengers; she felt two of them were ghosts and were going to do something bad to the bus so she wanted to get off. The following morning, it was revealed that the bus had been found buried in a reservoir with only three bodies inside, which belonged to the driver, conductor and third man who'd boarded the bus the night prior. Looks like the woman's outburst saved hers and the young man's lives.
- Baobhan sith is a figure from Scottish mythology, who can be compared to Ireland's Leanan sidhe, and is known as a blood-sucking faery. Unlike Leanan sidhe, however, Baobhan siths are often seductresses who prey on travelers who happen to be on the roads at night. Those who aren't aware of their surroundings make for more appealing prey for the Baobhan sith, and are usually successfully lured off of their path by the faery. The faery would lure the prey somewhere secluded, invite them to dance and while the man was off guard, then bite them in the neck or scratch them with their talons to open the skin. Throughout the night, the faery would suck either the man's blood, life force or sexual vitality from him, leaving a drained corpse behind, before departing for their coffins before sunrise. Some stories note that while these faeries are often extremely beautiful and shapely, they also have hoofed feet, which they keep concealed underneath their long green gowns. Their fear of horses, which sounds abnormal at first, is actually about their extreme dislike of iron, which is what the horseshoes are usually made of. Similar to the harmful effects of garlic on traditional vampires, Baobhan siths are intolerant of iron and will die if in contact with it for too long. A small story about a young man who was able to get away from a group of Baobhan siths was that while partying with his friends in a cottage, they expressed the desire to have female companions. Four faeries showed up and the men began to sing as they danced with the faeries, who'd heard the mens' wishes via telepathy and were dancing them into trances. As the faeries' true intention became obvious as they started to feed, one of the men was able to get away and hid between two horses. He remained there for the night and due to both the impending sunrise and the iron on the horses' hooves, the faery was unable to kill the man. The following morning, he was safe and in the clear, but his friends had all been murdered by the faeries.
- The Headless Drummer of Edinburgh Castle is another long-lived urban legend of Scotland and while still creepy, is now largely a urban legend mainly relegated to stories like these, but at one time was regarded as a reliable warning of bad things to come. Edinburgh Castle is said to be one of the most haunted castles in the world, and the ghost of the drummer boy is not alone in haunting the castle. A piper and a dog are two of the other more commonly spotted figures on the castle grounds, but the identity of the piper has since been identified. Those of the dog and the drummer boy remain mysteries, even today. The faint sound of drums have been reported being heard at the castle for hundreds of years now and came to be relied upon to warn the castle's inhabitants of impending danger or trouble, as the boy's ghost and drums only appeared shortly before the castle came under attack. The piper can sometimes still be heard off in the distance and the dog is sometimes still spotted, but the drummer boy has faded away. No pun intended but its a relevant pun so it stays. lol
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