Sazae-Oni

 

These pretty sea creatures, gastropods, or turbo snails, are also the stuff of Japanese nightmares! Called Sazae-Oni, these innocent animals may be hidden shape-shifters who transform into beautiful maidens, and lure men at sea. The Sazae-Oni are a type of Yokai (spirits) found in Japanese folklore and mythology. Sazae-Oni are large sea snails, that turn into women, so that they can entice seamen, pirates and fishermen to their graves. 

Often nocturnal, the Sazae-Oni have been seen dancing in the waters on moonlit nights. One of the creepiest stories about the Sazae-Oni happened on the Kii Peninsula. It describes a bunch of pirates finding a woman, and then raping her, but little did they know she was a Sazae-Oni, so while they slept, she had her revenge. She crept into their cabin and bit off their testicles.  

Eek!

      

Marine knights

 

Let us go to the sea. In Flemish mythology, probably from the Medieval time period, is a curious species of merfolk called Zitiron. They had the tails of fish, but human upper bodies, heavily armoured and wearing helmets. Those helmets look like those worn by knights. The zitiron's have physical functions of gills, baleen traits, and metallic scales on their bodies. Such creatures are often in groups called Tables. What else is interesting is the codes of chivalry among the Zitiron kind. These marine knights are tough and have a strong defence. Existing descriptions of the Zitiron are found in Der Naturen Bloeme by Jacob van Maerlant, published in 1350. 

What seems also incredible is that, many people today assume that everyone who lived centuries ago were thick! Modern people guess that the Zitiron were really turtles. While the myth sounds weird enough, people who lived during the Middle Ages were not that stupid to mistake turtles for knights! It's more likely that they were telling stories and hallucinating. 

Now onto a slightly different topic but keeping with marine knights. The heikegani are a species of crab from Japan, with shells that look like human faces. It was believed that souls of angry Samurai warriors who were killed at sea in the 12th century appear on Heike crab shells. Fishermen refuse to keep the shells with human faces out of respect for the dead warriors and toss them back into the sea.  

More: Heike crab

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She-wolves of Jülich

 

This is a legend in history. Three hundred or so women lycanthropes appeared in the duchy region of  Jülich in Germany. These werewolves attacked men and boys but many of their victims were businessmen such as traders and butchers. It was said that these women lycanthropes sucked brains! The she-wolves attacked cattle, horses and also children. They also committed acts of cannibalism, infanticide and making communications with demons. Once these wolves transformed back into their human shapes, they were quickly executed. About 85 of the werewolves were killed by burning at the stake in Ostmilich on 6th May 1591. George Kress made a woodcut showing the horrors of the werewolf women. This was around the same time that many were being executed for witchcraft and lycanthropy. Its believed that this tale is highly exaggerated and just based on a report about one female lycanthrope who was punished after being caught out turning into a wolf. Kress made a broadsheet telling this horror story of the massive pack of werewolf women but how much of it was true? There was never any names to pin on each of the werewolves. But Kress aimed the story at a female readership to serve as a "warning" against dealing with the occult. 

Links: Broadside of Werewolves of Jülich, Germany at Wikipedia HERE.

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Rougarou

The Rougarou is a werewolf creature found in many parts of north America and in France. In the Laurentian French region of Quebec is the tradition of rougarou. It looks like the body of a man but the head of a wolf, with red bloodshot eyes. It can run on two feet and crawl on all fours. It searches the countryside, especially the woods and swamps of Greater New Orleans, looking for prey. Although not much different to the traditional werewolf, the rougarou likes drinking blood! Stories are more common in Louisiana about this creature. The rougarou is said to be active any night, not just at the full moon. Some believe that the rougarou is responsible for the cattle mutilations where blood has been completely drained. This also is where the legend of the cryptid chupucabra enters, as those are believed to be responsible also for dead animals found without blood. Despite the creepiness of the monster, there is a fun Rougarou Festival which is annual, exciting and based on the scary rougarou legend, based in the bayou of Southeast Louisiana.  

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The Cottingley fairies

 This is my view on the whole story of the Cottingley Fairies as this case has fascinated me since childhood. More than a century ago, two girls named Elsie Wright, aged 16, and Frances Griffiths, aged 9, who were cousins, took photographs of themselves posing with fairies. So mysterious and magical were they, that it got publicity. It attracted more fame when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author, physician and spiritualist) believed that the photos were authentic. For many years, the two girls maintained that the fairies were real, and they had seen them in the woods of Cottingley, England. Both girls grew up and drifted apart. The interest in the fairy photos went away. But decades later, Elsie and Frances were interviewed, still keeping to their story. In 1983 both women said the photos were faked although they had seen real fairies. Everyone was like "okay then" and that was the end of it! Or is it?

The fairies were made by Elsie, who drew figures copied from Princess Mary's Gift Book and added wings to them. Hatpins were used to stick onto the paper fairies. Once the photos were taken, the cardboard fairies were then thrown away. However, Frances said the fairies in one of the pictures were real. It was the fifth and last photo called "Fairies and their sunbath" that Frances said shows a group of true fairies. This does appear like the fairies are transparent and almost blended into the foliage. To see that picture visit Real Fairies HERE.  

Well these two cousins have gone down in history as fraudsters. Many interested in the paranormal and folklore think of Cottingley fairies with a lot of vitriol. I do have a problem with the "faked fairies" story that the girls came up with later in their lives. As a kid, I was inspired by this and tried making fairies the way Elsie and Frances did. Using just cardboard and scissors, I made such a mess. None of the fairies looked accurate, well done, realistic or cleverly cut as the fairies made by Elsie! My fairies had scissor damage and jagged edges! Trying to cut around tight corners, around delicate wings, hair and fingers was impossible. Only a professional using a laser can do this. 

And there are no hatpins appearing in the photos either. There was a significant amount of sunlight and these metallic hatpins were either invisible or the same camouflage colour as the background. At least one of the fairies was suspended in mid air! And these fairies, especially Elsie's gnome, are very three dimensional, catching light and shadow in the same way that it catches the girls in the photos. Now I can understand if these fairies were dolls but they were not, according to Elsie and Frances. When the cousins, both elderly women by the time they caved into the media and said the photos were faked, everyone stopped questioning, and accepted it as the end of the matter. To me, it proves that, even if the fairies in the pictures are really cardboard (somehow), then these girls are the most brilliant artists and photographers in modern history. 

She Wolf Night team