Blogging about spooky
animals while sitting in the creepy basement office alone at night –
probably a bad idea. Here goes:
1) Black cats are supposed to be bad luck, right? Well, that depends where you live. In parts of
the British Isles and in Japan, black cats are considered good luck.
The Japanese also apparently believe that ladies who keep black cats
get laid more often.
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| "Sup, beautiful?" ~ Boulgakov |
European suspicions about
black cats can be traced to Norse legend. Freya, the goddess of love,
fertility, death and war (cause those things go together) was said to
travel in a chariot pulled by seven black devil-cats. These cats were
also capable of turning into horses, for some reason.
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| "Meow." ~ BLW |
After seven years of
faithful service, the cats were rewarded by being turned into
witches. As witches, they could take the form of cats at will. Later,
medieval Europeans, being the level-headed, reasonable people they
were, decided that all black cats were either witches, or working for
witches, and went around killing every one they could find.
This led to a shortage of
cats, which led to a surplus of rats, which led to whole lot more
Black Death.
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| "Let's just burn people until it stops." |
2) Anti-black cat prejudice
traveled to the New World with the Pilgrims, who continued to
excecute the animals and their owners. Today, Americans remain
suspicious of black cats – so much so that they needed their own
holiday. On National Black Cat Awareness Day (17 August), American
animal shelters lower adoption fees and put colorful scarves on their
black cats, in hopes of finally getting some of them adopted.
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| "Please take me home, I'm only a little demon." |
3) Black dogs don't get off
the hook either. British folklore tells of a huge black demon dog
with glowing red eyes. If that sounds like the Hound of the
Baskervilles to you, that's because it is. Arthur Conan Doyle drew
from local legend when he wrote that story.
The Black Dog is said to
roam the moors at night, and has a particular fondness for lightning
storms, apparently. They can be found lurking at stiles, gates,
crossroads, execution sites, along ancient paths...
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| ...and right behind you. ~ Liza Pheonix |
Some of these ghost dogs are
said to be the souls of executed criminals, while others are just
straight-up demons. Sometimes, they attack people. If you see one,
you're probably gonna die – or at least get really sick.
4) Like the black cat thing,
the black dog legend made it to America. The Black Dog of the Hanging Hills is said to roam the traprock ridges overlooking the Quinnipiac
River Valley. It's said to be a rather small dog, that moves silently
and leaves no tracks. It's even said to be friendly. If you see it
once, you'll have good luck; twice, you'll have bad luck; three
times, and you die.
Among those who've succumbed
to the Black Dog of the Hanging Hills's curse was geologist Herbert
Marshall. Marshall and colleague W.H.C. Pynchon were doing field work
in the Hanging Hills when they spotted the famous Black Dog. Moments
later, Marshall, who had already seen the dog twice, slipped and fell
from a cliff. He did not survive.
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| Beware the Weiner Dog of Death! |
5) In Europe, wolves get a
bad rap too. While Native American cultures revered the wolf as a
wise hunter and sometimes even as a creator god, medieval Europeans
definitely did not.
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| Then again, they didn't seem to like much of anything. |
Wolves in medieval Europe
were assigned all sorts of magical powers. If a horse trod on a
wolf's pawprint, it could become lame. If you managed to make eye
contact with a wolf, you'd go blind. Wolves were said to sharpen
their teeth before they hunted, and were believed capable of cooking
meat by breathing on it.
Many pre-Christian tribes
revered wolves and dressed themselves up in wolfskins for certain
celebrations. As Christianity spread across the continent,
reasonable, level-headed converts deduced that their neighbors must
be capable of turning into wolves, because you totally can't see
their legs sticking out of those costumes.
6) Which brings us to the
werewolf. Apparently, they don't have tails, because, you know,
people don't have tails either.
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| Nope, no tail. |
We all know what a werewolf
is, but it turns out becoming one is more complicated than you'd
think. The whole “bitten by a werewolf, turn into a werewolf”
thing is a modern invention. In the Middle Ages, people became
werewolves by sleeping outside under the full moon, rubbing
themselves down with a special ointment, or drinking magical potions.
The condition was often cured by exorcism, treatment with wolfsbane,
or through surgical procedures. These procedures included driving
nails through the hands, or smacking the person on the head with a
knife. Other cures included calling the werewolf's full name three
times, converting it to Christianity, or giving it a stern
talking-to.
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| "You put that lady down and turn back into a human RIGHT NOW, mister!" |
