The Mammoth Book of True Hauntings
Page 61
TOKOLOSH (South Africa)
The Tokolosh is a strange-looking phantom that lives in the rivers and watercourses of South Africa. Semi-human in appearance, it is said to be not much bigger than a baboon with a body covered in black hair. According to reports, the creature appears at night and carries out revengeful and spiteful acts. It makes no sound, but can become invisible in an instant. Some experts have suggested that there is a certain similarity in the actions of the Tokolosh to the European Poltergeist.
TRICKSTER SPIRIT (American)
For all its light-hearted name, the Trickster is an eerie phantom that appears either in human shape or as a “dancing light” that can lure the unwary to their death. Found mainly in the Florida Everglades, the ghosts are said to be the spirits of Native Indians who were killed during the Seminole Indian Wars in 1852 and have spent the years ever since seeking revenge on the white man by luring them into the treacherous swamplands.
U
UNDINE (European)
Known throughout Europe, the beautiful and beguiling Undine is a female spirit that haunts stretches of water reproaching unfaithful lovers. According to tradition, the spirits are those of young women who died by drowning – usually having killed themselves after a broken love affair. These ghosts – who have been celebrated in stories and poems for generations – apparently intend no harm to anyone who sees them, beyond serving as a warning to those who are being untrue to their partners.
UTUKKU (Assyrian)
Records indicate that the Ancient Assyrians were among the first people to take ghosts seriously and named the spirits they believed arose from the dead, the Utukku. They believed these phantoms had evil intentions and would lay in wait for unwary travellers. The Utukku were also said to have the power to make anyone who crosses their path fall ill. The Assyrians identified two other types of ghost: the Alu, a hideous-looking spirit, usually with one or more of its limbs missing, that tried to grab its victims in a “clammy embrace” and the Ekimmu, that appeared outside homes wailing that a death was imminent. Furthermore, the Assyrians believed that all three types of ghost resulted from either failing to observe the proper rites when burying a dead person or leaving a body unburied.
V
VERRE (Nigerian)
A traditional ghost in that it assumes human form, appears and disappears in a moment and usually haunts at night, the Verre of Nigeria is unusual in that the people have a special address directed to it that is read over a dead body before burial. The words declare: “You have lived long. Go now to the sun and declare that you are the last of living men and it is useless to send any more [ghosts] to us. And do not bear us malice. Return not to earth to interfere with our crops or prevent our women being childless.”
VIRIKA (Indian)
The Virika is sometimes referred to as the “Vampire Ghost” because of its ability to leave bite marks on the flesh of its victims – although they are completely unaware of its presence. The spirits are said to have small, red-coloured bodies, long pointed teeth and roam the countryside at night making harsh, gibbering sounds. In certain parts of India little shrines can be seen at the roadside in which offerings of bloody meat have been placed in the hope of assuaging the Virika’s appetite.
W
WATER WRAITH (Scottish)
People in Scotland are divided in their opinions about the Water Wraith, which has been recorded in tradition for several hundred years. The ghost is said to resemble a skinny, withered old woman who dresses all in green. She is invariably scowling and is said to be intent on luring her victims to their death by drowning. Some authorities have cast doubts on the actuality of this ghost as by far the majority of accounts of seeing the Water Wraith have been made by men on their way home and very much the worse for a night’s drinking.
WENDIGO (Canadian)
Belief in the Wendigo goes back to some of the country’s earliest legends and describes it as half-phantom and half-beast. According to these stories, the creature lives in forests and seizes human beings, particularly children, and eats their flesh. It is said that the Wendigo originally entered into a pact with evil spirits to gain their immortality. Furthermore, the spirit can be either male or female, and is occasionally found in the same vicinity as other Canadian “wood horrors” including the whimpus, the hodag and the bizarrely named filamaloo.
WHITE LADY (French)
The White Lady is a familiar figure in French folklore, where they are usually said to be strikingly beautiful and found in the vicinity of old bridges. According to tradition, the reason for this location is that it was once the custom to offer young women as human sacrifices to rivers over which a new bridge had been erected so that the waters would allow people to cross in safety. White Ladies have also been reported in a number of other European countries, where they tend to haunt the castles and old houses where they once lived and ended their lives in tragic or murderous circumstances.
WILL-O’-THE-WISP (European)
The Will-o’-the-wisp is just one of many names used throughout Europe to describe the ghostly lights which hover over marshland or old graveyards – Jack-o’-Lantern, Corpse Candle, William with the Little Flame, are just three of many more. Traditionally they have been described as the souls of dead people predicting a death, or alternately lost souls that cannot enter heaven and are condemned to lure the foolish into danger. The lights are now more likely supposed to be the igniting of gases escaping from rotting plant matter.
WOLHAARHOND (South African)
Another of the world’s disturbing animal phantoms, the Wolhaarhond is a large, furry dog that glows in the darkness and is ill-omened. According to accounts over many years, the phantom initially appears as a red light and only begins to change into a dog when it nears a potential victim. It also bears striking similarities to the famous English hound, Old Shuck (see here).
WOTAN (French)
Associated with terrible storms, Wotan is the name of the Wild Huntsman who has ridden across the skies of France with his spectral hounds in search of human souls for many centuries. In rural districts of the country, people still lock their doors very carefully at night if there is the chance of a storm brewing up, afraid that the phantom huntsman might spot them and carry them off as he did their forebears in the past.
WRAITH (European)
The Wraith is an exact likeness of a man or woman presenting itself at the moment of that person’s death There are numerous accounts of people seeing their own likeness, notably the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who, in 1822, saw his own Wraith as he was about to board the ship across the Bay of Spezia in Italy which would carry him to his death by drowning. In other instances, the phantom has presented itself to family or relatives of a person about to die many miles away. The tradition of the Wraith has apparently evolved from an ancient belief that a person’s soul is an exact duplicate of their living body and must escape from it when death is imminent.
X Y Z
YURI (Japanese)
The Japanese have a long tradition of Yuri or Kaidan (ghosts) and even a number of “ghost gods” of varying degrees of ugliness, according to ancient documents. They all vary in temperament, the females less fierce than the males who are often deformed, with snake-like necks, elongated tongues, and either one or three eyes. They mostly haunt cemeteries and old houses, and among their number are the “Water Bogie”, “The Storm Fiend” and the curious “Chink and Crevice Bogie”. The ghosts of famous samurai warriors have also been reported in the localities where they died and there are occasional sightings, too, of the Koi-Teno, or “Fox Spirit” – a female ghost in long, flowing white robes who has the power to bewitch unwary men.
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Research Organizations
Great Britain
The Society for Psychical Research
49 Marloes Road,
Kensington,
London W8 6LA.
Institute of Psychophysical Research
118 Banbury Road,
Oxford,
Oxfordshire OX2 6JU.
The Churches’ Fellowship for Psychical & Spiritual Studies
The Rural Workshop,
South Road,
North Somercotes,
Nr. Louth,
Lincolnshire LN11 7PT.
The Ghost Club
PO Box 160,
St Leonards-on-Sea,
East Sussex TN38 8WA.
Scottish Society for Psychical Research
Neilston,
Glasgow G78 3QF.
Northern Ireland
Belfast Psychical Society
Gateway House,
57 Dublin Road,
Belfast
BT2 7HE.
Australia
Australasian Society for Psychical Research
PO Box 2001,
Kardinya,
6163 Perth,
Western Australia.
France
Institut Metapsychique International
51 Rue de l’Aqueduc,
75010 Paris,
France.
Germany
Institut fur Grenzgebiete der Psychologie
Wilhelmstrasse 3a,
D-79098 Freiburg i.Br.
Germany.
Italy
Societa Italiana di Parapsicologia
Via dei Montecatini 7,
00186 Roma,
Italy.
New Zealand
Auckland Psychic Research Society
PO Box 5894,
Wellesley Street,
Auckland,
New Zealand.
United States of America
American Society for Psychical Research
5 West 73rd Street,
New York,
NY 10023.
International Society for the Study of Ghosts & Apparitions