CREATURES IN THE MIST CREATURES IN THE MIST Little People, Wild Men and Spirit Beings around the World A Study in Comparative Mythology Gary R. Varner Algora Publishing New York © 2007 by Algora Publishing. All Rights Reserved www.algora.com No portion of this book (beyond what is permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976) may be reproduced by any process, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-0-87586-545-4 (trade paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-87586-546-1 (hard cover) ISBN-13: 978-0-87586-547-8 (ebook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data — Varner, Gary R. Creatures in the mist: little people, wild men and spirit beings around the world : a study in comparative mythology / Gary R. Varner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-87586-545-4 (trade paper: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-87586-546-1 (hard cover: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-87586-547-8 (ebook) 1. Mythology—Comparative studies. I. Title. BL312.V27 2007 398.4—dc22 2006102141 Front Cover: © Layne Kennedy/Corbis Howling Wolf on Mountain Peak © Corbis Printed in the United States For Tim and Brenna Other Books by Gary R. Varner Essays in Contemporary Paganism, 2000 Sacred Wells: A Study in the History, Meaning, and Mythology of Holy Wells & Waters, 2002 Water of Life — Water of Death: The Folklore & Mythology of Sacred Waters, 2004 Menhirs, Dolmen and Circles of Stone: The Folklore & Magic of Sacred Stone, Algora Publishing, 2004 The Mythic Forest, the Green Man and the Spirit of Nature, Algora Publishing, 2006 Strangely Wrought Creatures of Life & Death: Ancient Symbolism in European and American Architecture, 2006 The Dark Wind: Witches and the Concept of Evil, 2007 Acknowledgements This book could not have been written without the people who have been recording folklore around the world for the last two centuries. Lewis Spence, Alexander Porteous, Lady Wilde, Anne Ross, James Mooney, Joseph Campbell, Mircea Eliade, John Gregorson Campbell, Donald A. Mackenzie, Sir James Frazer, H.R. Ellis Davidson, Carl Jung and Jyoti Sahi are just a few of those scholars, living and dead, that have offered so much to the study of the rituals and beliefs of human beings around the world and throughout time. I offer my thanks and gratitude for their work. Thanks to Dr. Brian Siegel, Anthropologist, Sociology Department at Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina for permission to quote from his paper “Water Spirits and Mermaids: The Copperbelt Case.”1 Thanks also to David Catherine, formerly of the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa for his assistance in providing materials on the indigenous traditions of the people of South Africa in regards to water spirits and water in general. The line drawing illustrations that appear in this book are in the public domain. The Wild Man appearing in Chapter 7 is taken from The Sports and Pastimes of the English People by Joseph Strutt, published 1801. The drawings of the mermaid, the Snake People of Hell and the illustration on the title page are taken from Adventures of Telemachus, published by D. Appleton & Company, New York, ca. 1889. The other line drawings are from The Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration by J. G. Heck, published by Gramercy Books, New York, 1979. This is a reproduction of two of the four volumes of The Iconographic Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature, and Art published in 1851 by R. Garrigue, New York. The photographs of the Native American snake petroglyph in Arizona, the antlered-man pub sign in Ashland, Oregon, the bat carving on the Chester Cathedral in Chester, England, the Harpy that resides in the British Museum and the photo of Bast were taken by the author. Gary R. Varner California 1 A paper given at the Spring 2000 Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies (SERSAS), Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina on April 14 & 15, 2000. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: LITTLE PEOPLE AND GIANTS, WILD MEN, MERMAIDS AND OTHER MYTHIC CREATURES 3 CHAPTER 1. AN OVERVIEW OF THE “LITTLE PEOPLE” IN NATIVE AMERICA 5 CHAPTER 2. MERMAIDS & WATER BEINGS 13 Water Spirits 20 The Water Horse 23 Monsters of the Seas 25 CHAPTER 3. THE FOREST FOLK 31 CHAPTER 4. GIANTS 37 CHAPTER 5. COMPARATIVE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE 43 Descriptions and Characteristics of the Fairies 44 Where They Live 49 Children & Childbirth 51 Fairies & Illness 53 Fairies & Adult Humans 54 Fairies and Crops 56 Fairies and the Color Green 56 The Nature of Fairies 58 CHAPTER 6. FAIRIES AND GIANTS: A WORLD OF REALITY OR WORLD OF MYTH? 59 Fairies 59 Giants 64 Yeti, Sasquatch and Yowie — What Do They Have in Common? 69 Creatures in the Mist CHAPTER 7. WILD MEN 71 CHAPTER 8. HORNED BEINGS 83 CHAPTER 9. SPIRITS OF THE OTHERWORLD — GHOSTS AND VAMPIRES! 87 The Vampire in Legend and Lore 93 CHAPTER 10. WEREWOLVES — NOT JUST IN TRANSYLVANIA 97 CHAPTER 11. HARPIES AND OTHER CREATURES OF STORMS AND WIND 105 PART TWO: SPIRIT BEINGS OF THE ANIMAL & INSECT KIND 109 INTRODUCTION 111 CHAPTER 12. THE SNAKE 113 The Horned Snake 129 CHAPTER 13. THE TURTLE AND THE TORTOISE 131 CHAPTER 14. THE TOAD AND THE FROG 135 CHAPTER 15. THE EAGLE AND THE RAVEN 141 CHAPTER 16. THE OWL 145 CHAPTER 17. THE DOG 149 Dog Symbolism 151 Black Dogs 153 Ghost Dogs 156 Dog-Men 157 CHAPTER 18. THE CAT 161 CHAPTER 19. THE BEAR 167 CHAPTER 20. THE HARE AND THE RABBIT 173 CHAPTER 21. THE BAT 177 CHAPTER 22. THE SPIDER 181 CHAPTER 23. THE BEE 185 AFTERWORD 189 APPENDIX A: THE FAIRY 191 APPENDIX B: THE WILD MEN 193 BIBLIOGRAPHY 195 INDEX 213 xii INTRODUCTION Little People, Fairies, Giants, Mermaids, Werewolves and Wild Men. Do we simply regard them all as products of the universal unconscious mind — a mind that stretches between cultures, times and geographic location? On the other hand, do we assign a possibility that they may be based on real- ity, or at least a reality that co-exists within our own sense of reality? This question is not a new one by any means. Douglas Hyde, President of the Gaelic League at the turn of the 20th century wrote, “the problem we have to deal with is a startling one…Are these beings of the spirit world real beings, having a veritable existence of their own, or are they only the creation of the imagination of…informants, and the tradition of bygone centuries?…Is not the Mermaid to be found in Greece, and is not the Lorelei as Germanic as the Kelpy is Caledonian. If we grant that all these are creatures of primi- tive folk-belief, then how they come to be so ceases to be a Celtic problem, it becomes a world problem.”1 What we do know is that accounts of “Little People,” Fairies, Wild Men and giants are common among Native American people as they are among the people of Europe, Africa and Asia. Many of their stories and descriptions are for the most part, identical. Why is this? I am afraid that I do not have an answer to this question (only guesses) and can only provide more related folklore, theories and suppositions for consideration. I hope that by the end of this study you will be able to decide for yourself. 1. Hyde, Douglas. “Taking of Evidence in Ireland” in The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. Mineola: Dover Publications Inc. 2002, pgs 25, 28. A reprint of the 1911 edition pub- lished by Henry Frowde, London. Creatures in the Mist The scope of this work is the folklore and mythology of Native American and the other indigenous people of the world. Part One is concerned primar- ily with the mystical creatures that are spoken of and written about for thou- sands of years in most every corner of the world. Part Two is about the spirit beings appearing in animal and insect form that have accompanied spiritual belief and traditions around the world. These spirit beings are universally recognized for many similar reasons. We will compare their accounts with similar tales from other times and places, and explore the commonality of these legends. This book is admittedly one of a broad study. I have brought together many tales of a mythic and folkloric nature to illustrate how universal our beliefs truly are — not how different one culture is from the next, but how similar they are. Even though Victorian writers are no longer in favor these days, the Victorians were the best at collecting and relating folktales from many different cultures, so they cannot be left out. These references are based upon first hand knowledge of many indigenous people that no lon- ger exist either physically or culturally. A book which deals with worldwide phenomena and oral histories must be approached in a way that allows a global comparison. Those who discount everything said by Victorian schol- ars such as Sir James Frazer because he made some assumptions that were later found to be incorrect do the rest of us a major disservice. A huge amount of knowledge would be lost without these works. The subjects for this book were chosen because they are recognized the world over. Fairies and Wild Men, mermaids and giants have been impor- tant in many cultures throughout time. The twelve animal/insect spirits in Part Two were chosen for the same reason. By showing the similarities as well as the differences of these stories, we show the common mythic root that we all have.