TYPE FILE · 10 CRYPTIDs
Spectral & Supernatural
Creatures from folklore that sit between animal, spirit and omen.
Wendigo
Boreal forests of Canada and the northern Great Lakes
A being of winter, hunger and greed from Algonquian traditions – Ojibwe, Cree, Innu and others – whose teachings warn against selfish excess.
FOLKLORE
SPECTRAL · 16th century
La Llorona
Canals of Xochimilco, Mexico City
A weeping ghost in white who wanders rivers and canals at night crying for the children she lost – Mexico’s most famous and most widely told legend.
FOLKLORE SPECTRAL · 1800s (recorded 1888)Feu Follet
Marshes and swamps of south Louisiana
Louisiana’s will-o’-the-wisp: a dancing marsh light that Cajun and Creole lore says leads travelers astray – a lost soul, a sorcerer or swamp gas.
FOLKLORE SPECTRAL · 1904Witch of Yazoo
Glenwood Cemetery, Yazoo City, Mississippi
A river-swamp witch who, legend says, swore as she sank in quicksand to burn Yazoo City in 20 years – and the 1904 fire that seemed to keep her promise.
LOCAL LEGEND
SPECTRAL · 1817
Bell Witch
Bell farm, Red River, Adams, Robertson County, Tennessee
An invisible, talking spirit said to have tormented the Bell family on their Tennessee farm from 1817 to 1821 – America’s most famous haunting legend.
FOLKLORE SPECTRAL · Pre-colonialNight Marchers
Throughout the Hawaiian Islands
Huakaʻi pō – ghostly processions of chiefs, warriors and gods in Hawaiian tradition, heralded by drums, chants and torchlight on sacred nights.
FOLKLORE
SPECTRAL · 1822
Gray Man of Pawleys Island
Pawleys Island, Georgetown County, South Carolina
A ghostly figure in gray said to walk the beach at Pawleys Island before hurricanes, warning residents to flee – and sparing the homes of those who listen.
LOCAL LEGEND SPECTRAL · 1965Popobawa
Pemba and Unguja islands, Zanzibar, and coastal Tanzania
A shape-shifting night spirit of Zanzibar whose “bat-wing” shadow has sparked waves of panic since the 1960s, most famously in 1995.
REGIONAL LEGEND
SPECTRAL · Mid-19th century
El Silbón
Los Llanos of Venezuela and Colombia
A towering, cursed phantom of the Llanos who carries his father’s bones in a sack – and whose whistle is most dangerous when it sounds far away.
FOLKLORE SPECTRAL · Early 1900sHuggin’ Molly
Abbeville, Henry County, Alabama
A 7-foot phantom woman in black who chases children out after dark in Abbeville, Alabama, hugs them tight and screams in their ears.
LOCAL LEGENDVideos
ARCHIVE.ORG3:04
La Llorona
Pikes Peak Library DistrictA short 2010 storytelling segment from a Colorado public library’s community TV channel – a good example of how the legend is told in the US Southwest.
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The Legend of La Llorona
Monstrum | PBS StoriedFolklorist Emily Zarka explains the legend’s Nahua and colonial roots and its many regional versions.
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The Legend of Feufollet
Louisiana Public BroadcastingLPB’s <em>Louisiana: The State We’re In</em> segment on the Cajun marsh-light legend.
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From LPB’s Scary Archives: The Legend of the Feufollet
Louisiana Public BroadcastingArchival public-television look at how the story has been told in south Louisiana.
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The centuries-old tale of the Witch of Yazoo City
WLBT 3 On Your SideJackson TV news feature on the legend and the chained grave.
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Glenwood Cemetery and the Witch of Yazoo in Yazoo City, Mississippi
YazooCVBThe local visitors bureau’s own short tour of the cemetery and the story.