The Malaysian penanggalan looks like a woman by day, but at night detaches its head from its body & flies around with its spinal column & internal organs dangling while it searches for prey. It uses its long tongue as a straw to drain humans to death. #FolkloreThursday
A palis is a vampiric creature of Middle Eastern lore that lives in deserts. It drains people's blood by licking their feet while they sleep. But it's repelled by salt, & can easily be tricked if two people sleep end-to-end with the soles of their feet together. #FolkloreThursday
Baba Yaga appears in many Slavic folk tales. She's an ugly, fierce-looking old witch who flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, & lives in a forest hut that stands on chicken legs. Depending in the tale, she can be a villain, a helper, or ambiguous. #FairyTaleTuesday
In the Kenyan village of Kakamega, some locals believe the resident geese only honk at witches, as they have a sixth sense for identifying them. Families keep geese as security guards to alert them to the presence of witches. #SuperstitionSat
In the past, when horses got a new pair of horseshoes, their owners didn't throw the old pair away, because they believed in "cream witches:" witches that kept cream from becoming butter. The remedy was to drop a red-hot burning horseshoe into the butter churn. #SuperstitionSat
In Mesopotamian myth, Enkidu is a feral man created by the goddess Aruru. A prostitute, Shamhat, is sent to civilize him, & teaches him human speech. He learns how to act human from watching shepherds, & later befriends the legendary King Gilgamesh. #FolkloreThursday
On May Day Eve, Irish folk used to gather yellow flowers, such as buttercups & marigolds, to spread around the outside of their homes. It was believed these flowers would repel Cailleachs, old witches who stole milk & butter from households on May Day morning. #MythologyMonday
In the Palestinian tale "How the Fox Got Back His Tail," the fox Abu l'Hssein steals goat milk from an old woman, so she chops off his tail. He completes a series of tasks so goats will give him milk, which he gives to the woman in exchange for his tail. #FairyTaleTuesday
Feldgeister are mythical German corn spirits, which includes the Roggenwolf (rye wolf), Erbsenbär (pea bear), Heukatze (hay cat), Weizenvogel (wheat bird), & many other animal & human forms. During harvest, they flee deeper into the fields to escape mowers. #MythologyMonday
According to Japanese myth, if a spider reaches 400 years old, it transforms into a Jorōgumo, a demon that takes the form of a beautiful woman to seduce young men. The men are bound in a strong web, slowly killed by powerful venom, & then devoured. #WyrdWednesday