Monsters: La Cegua

Photo by Anudariya Munkhbayar

La Cegua was a beautiful woman cursed to become a spectral monster in Costa Rica. It was said that she resided in Cartago. The story is said to have happened between 1563 when Cartago was established and 1823 when San Jose became the capital. She was half native and half Spaniard and was extremely beautiful. She would then fall in love with a Spanish soldier. They would have a sexual relationship and believed he loved her two. When the Spaniard left she had broken down and gone mad. A curse would befell her and she would use it against men she deemed unfaithful to their loved ones.

She will first appear to adulterers as a beautiful woman but then transform into a face of a rotting horse skull. In her womanly form, she has an oval face, large black eyes, long curly hair, red beautiful lips, a slender and tempting body, and a voice much like a siren. She is typically wearing full white or black, but there have been occasions where she wore a vapourous pink dress or a luxurious period dress. There are possibly more than one La Cegua and they may work together at times.

Travelers in Costa Rica are to be careful on their journeys. Especially on lonely roads at night. She typically appears in front of drunkards or womanizers. She will then ask the stranger if they could take her to her ride (in older tales it was a horse and more recently a modern vehicle). After she get's onto the man's horse or in his vehicle she rides with him for a while. She tempts him and tranformes into her monstrous version either killing or disabiling him and making him go mad.

She sometimes doesn't appear on the road and instead at dances and festivals in towns. She usually flirts wth every man who approaches her. The one who succeeds in having a hookup with her will accompany her to a clearing of the Guanacaste pampa under a leafy Guanacaste tree. They make love all night, but when he tries to kiss her that face appears.

There is another version in which it is a crying child instead. When the child is found on the side of the road the person will give them a ride. The child would then resort to turning into its horse face.

It's said in order to escape her wrath is to throw mustard seeds at her. She will take her time and pick them up. This gives enough time for the victim to run and flee the La Cegua.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Myths and Folklore Wiki

We Love Costa Rica

Villians Wiki

Monsters: Yama-Uba

Yama-Uba (Mountain Hag) is a female yokai who are considered old hags or witches in the Japanese Forests and Mountains. The Yama-Uba were born human but turn into monsters. They typically appear as kind old ladies, but sometimes they sport horn or fangs. They don't give sign to their evil nature.

Yama-Uba will live alone in huts by the road. They will offer shelter, food, and a place to sleep for travlers. Unbeknowist to the travlers she would wait for them to sleep before turning to their true form an old, ugly, demonic witch. She would then catch and feast on them using her magic. 

Stories of the Yama-Uba would spread and keep travlers to be safer. It's also told as bedisde stories to disobediant children. Sometimes these stories were told when young wome were accused of crimes or wicked deeds and they had to flee to the forest/mountain. They would live in exile becomeing an "old hag".

Sometimes during famines or economic hardship families would make hard choices to get rid a family member so the rest would survive. Often this was a newborn or an elderly family member would be removed. It's believed that some of the Yama-Uba may have been elderly senile women abandoned by family members in the forest or mountains. It's said that these women would either out of rage or desperation tranformaed into the Yama-Uba practicing black magic. 

SOURCES:

Yokai Wiki

Wikipedia

Yokai

MONSTERS: Hone- Onna

From the Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki by Sekien Toriyama

Hone-onna (bone woman) is a yokai in Japanese lore and as the name implies she is in a form of bones. She's a woman who has died but has an undying love that brings her back to life. She is seen as beautiful as she was alive, but some will see her as a rotting corpse. Those people are either not blinded by love or strong religious faith.

This undying love allows her to be with whoever she was in love with alive. She seemingly seems normal to them and herself unknown to both that she's a rotting body. The man would more than likely know that she is in fact dead, but is blinded by love when seeing her. 

She would visit them at night and they would have a sexual relationship. This could last up to weeks and unbeknownst to their lover, she is sucking the life force from him. He will eventually die and the two will be together in death.

If she is seen in her rotting form the person and informs the man what was happening. Her lover may be thrown off though and use magic charms on the home to keep her away. This only works if he truly wants that though. She may continue to visit at night as she is still unknown to her own condition. 

Within the collection of writings called "Otogi Bōko" (1666) by Asai Ryōi (this collection is the moral-free version of "Jiandeng Xinhua" (1378) by Qu You) the story "Botan Dōrō" or the Peony Lantern is about a Hone-onna. A man named Ogiwara Shinnojo would meet Yako, a beautiful woman, and they would have a sexual relationship every night. An elderly neighbor would witness the two, but instead of seeing Yako, they would see Shinnojo embracing a skeleton.

One story of Hone-onna is explained in the text "Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki" by Toriyama Sekien (may be referenced to the previous story) in the story Otogi Bōko. Hone-onna is an aged female skeleton who would carry a chōchin lantern that was decorated with Botan flowers. She would then visit the home of a man she loved when alive and have a sexual relationship with him.

In "Tōhoku Kaidan no Tabi" by Norio Yamada there is an odd tale of Hone-onna in the Aomori Prefecture. It's said that an ugly woman in the Ansei period became a good-looking skeleton after death. She is said to walk around town as a skeleton to show off, likes fish bones, and would collapse upon encountering a high priest.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Yokai 

Myths and Folklore Wiki

Yokai Wiki

amonsters: Samca

 A Samca is a creature in Romanian Legends as an ugly and terrible evil spirit. She can take many different forms like a large pig, a grinning dog with rotten teeth, a hairless cat with fiery bulging eyes, a crow with bloody eyes, and a large black spider. The most known version is of a naked woman with disheveled hair down to her feet, dried out breasts that touch the ground, small bright eyes, a tongue of fire, and iron hands with nails as sharp as knitting needles or hooked as sickles.

They show themselves at the end of the month usually around the full moon. With their large crooked mouth, they show in front of children under 4-years-old.  A disease that children get after the Samca appeared often called "the children's malice". This causes the child to be deathly ill. 

They also show themselves to women lying on their birth bed, and once the creatures are visible they touch the pregnant woman as if kneading them. This would either scare the women to death or cripple them for life. It's also said that the Samca would curse the newborns.

Samca goes by 19 names; Vestitia, Navadaria, Valnomia, Sina, Nicosda, Avezuha, Scorcoila, Tiha, Miha, Grompa, Slalo, Necauza, Hatavu, Hulila, Huva, Ghiana, Gluviana, Prava, and Samca. In order to avoid the Samca people would need to write all 19 names on the wall of the house or ask someone for a protective spell. If attacked the person who did the spell gets attacked, except if the person is of age the Samca cannot.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Monster Wiki

Right Words

Librum Prodigiosum (tumblr)

Monsters: Dziwożona

 

Dziwożona. Woodcut by Jan Styfi (1839-1921) based on an earlier engraving by Henryk Pillati. 

According to Slavic folklore, a Dziwożona is a female swamp demon. It's believed that women would become one after death. Typically these women were midwives, old maids, unmarried women, pregnant women, and children that died before birth or were abandoned after birth. She usually lives in thickets near rivers, streams, and lakes. She typically is seen as an old woman with a hairy body, long straight hair, and breasts so large she uses them to wash clothes. She's usually wearing a red hat with a fern twig attached to it.

Dziwożona is said to kidnap newborn babies and switch them with her own children (changelings). If she did switch it was noticeable that the child was a changeling. They would have an uncommon appearance such as a disproportionate body, a disability, huge abdomen, unusually proportioned head, a hump, thin arms and legs, hairy body, or long claws, and would prematurely cut their teeth.

It's also said that these changelings would have a wickedness to them. They would be spiteful towards others, fear its mother, noisiness, be reluctant to sleep, and an exceptional glut. It would be rare for a changeling to reach adulthood as they typically die young. As an adult, they gibber instead of talk and do not trust people.

In order to keep the Dziwożona away from their newborn's mothers would tie a red ribbon around their child's hand, put a red hat on its head, and shield its face from the moon and sun. She should never wash the nappies after sunset or turn her head away from the child when it sleeps. Another method is to keep a St. John's wort flower at home or nearby as to grab it if she comes for the child for protection.

If she was able to take the child and leave a changeling there is a method to get the child back. The mother would have to take the changeling to a midden and whip it with a birch twin and pour water over it from an eggshell. While doing this she will have to shout "Take yours, give mine back!" The Dziwożona would want to save her child and switch them back.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

Brendan Nobel

Jenny Greenteeth

Jenny Greenteeth is a monster that shows up in English folklore. She’s described as an old hag that has green skin, long arms, wild green hair, and sharp teeth. She often waits in the water and is seen as pond-weed or clumps of water plants. Her preferred victims are children and the elderly, but sometimes a traveler becomes a victim. She traps them in the water and drowns them.

In Britan Duckweed covers many ponds and bodies of waters. Sometimes it looks solid and children who don’t know better try to walk on it. It’s believed that the tale of Jenny Greenteeth may have been created to scare children and prevent drownings. 

SOURCES:

Christopher Fowler
Cryptidz Wiki

Monster Women: Abere

In Melanesian Folklore, there is a demon named Abere. She’s seen as a beautiful woman who uses her sexual prowess to lure men into a water source. She will wait in the water naked among the mimia reeds. She calls out to men hoping they will follow her into the water. If he chooses to go into the water with her he’s doomed. Abere traps him among the reeds by using her powers over them and tangle them around him. She will then drown him and eat him.

SOURCES:
God Checker
Genies Wiki

Cryptids: Futakuchi-Onna

Futakuchi-Onna is a Japanese Yokai characterized by the two functioning mouths on her head. She has one in the front and one in the back that her hair covers. It’s said that the second mouth forms on the back of the head of a woman who typically eats very little. It's described as hurting and split happens in the back of the head where lips, teeth, tongue, and hunger forms. The mouth in the back begins to mutter awful things to her and it begins controlling her hair at its will to feed itself.

In one tale the Futakuchi-Onna is married to a miser who noticed she never ate anything. Even though she never ate but food in the home disappeared. One day he pretends to leave the home to see the catches her sleeping and undid her hair tie to see a second mouth. Her hair began to scoop rice and placed it inside the hideous mouth. He planned to divorce her, but she found out. She tried to trap him in a bathtub and

Another tale with the Futakuchi-Onna is a woman allowed her stepdaughter to starve to death. 49 days after the step daughter's death the woman felt a pain in the back of her head and a mouth former. the stepdaughter's voice could be heard and beg for food. The other mouth would scream if not fed and the stepmother had to live in constant hunger because of this. 

SOURCES:

Cryptid Wiki

Yokai

Wikipedia