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KiddyKong64
Registered User
(9/1/03 9:14 am)
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Does anyone know the name of...
...A mythical entity in Native American mythology? I'm not sure which tribe it's from, but it was depicted as a massive river serpent with antlers. Google has been no help at all.
I know nothing! |
Valkith
Registered User
(9/1/03 12:50 pm)
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Re: Does anyone know the name of...
Kinnda sounds like the Bunyip from Australia... but thats just off the top of my head, and I could be wrong about the Bunyip.
I'll see if I can find anything for you, but the description doesn't ring any bells for Native American folklore...can you narrow it down a little bit, perhaps a region of America or a specific tribe?
Val
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Valkith
Registered User
(9/1/03 1:01 pm)
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Re: Does anyone know the name of...
Sint Holo
Sint Holo is an invisible, great horned serpent, having spiritual and cultural significance among the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and adjacent tribes. This "snake" might reveal its presence to any male youth who had demonstrated a marked degree of wisdom or intelligence beyond his peers. According to certain but vague accounts, Sequoya, regarded as the primary inventor and developer of the Cherokee written language, "must have seen Sint Holo, the horned reptile" in order to create the alphabet for the Cherokee.
Deep in a cave below the water, Sint Holo dwelled. He brought on heavy rains and could make a noise like thunder but could not make thunder, like the Thunderer spirit, its enemy. Only to those who showed they were wiser than the others, would he show himself and offer his old wisdom.
The Catawba also had many "snake tales".
[note: Certain South Eastern tribes were collectively known as the "Civilized Tribes" and claim their lineage to perhaps Mayan and Aztec or Toltec origins, where the myths of the Great Eagle (Thunder Bird) and Great Snake have varied significance. Other various "origin tales" are disputed whether the Chickasaw or the Creek where the "source" tribe. This connection of the Great Eagle and Great Serpent is prevalent throughout all of Native America. See Thunder Bird.]
source: www.pantheon.org/areas/my...icles.html
Best I could find for you.
Val
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(9/2/03 4:44 pm)
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River Snake
Another version of this was called an "uktena" in Cherokee myth. It was an antlered serpent with a bright diamond in its forehead, and it was not benevolent in the least. It was created to kill, and if you happened to see the creature asleep, your entire family would die.
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KiddyKong64
Registered User
(9/3/03 11:12 pm)
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Re: River Snake
Thanks for your help. I think the creature I was thinking of was the Sint Holo.
Two other mythical creatures I have lost the names of, but can no longer find them out; A large monstrous vampiric frog of Japanese mythology, and a Chinese lupinal vampire beast entity. Any help would be strongly appreciated. Thanks.
I know nothing! |
Valkith
Registered User
(9/4/03 5:34 pm)
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Re: River Snake
Lupine vampire of Chinese myth:
Kumiho
by Charles La Shure
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kumiho means, literally, "nine-tailed fox." The following
description appears (word for word) in both the Donga Color World
Encyclopedia (Tonga wonsaek segye paekhwasajeon) and the Dusan Great
World Encyclopedia (Tusan segye taebaekhwasajeon):
"A fox with nine tails that commonly appears in the oral tales of our country. It can freely transform into, among other things, a bewitching girl that seduces men. A fox that lives a thousand years is said to turn into a kumiho. There are a number of legendary tales in which the kumiho appears." A half dozen or so of those legendary tales can be found in the encyclopedic Compendium of Korean Oral Literature (Hanguk kubimunhak taegye). A quick look at them will help supplement the brief description given above.
In "Transformation of the Kumiho" ("Kumihoui pyeonshin"),
a kumiho transforms into an identical likeness of a bride at a wedding,
and not even the bride's mother can tell them apart. The kumiho
is finally discovered when her clothes are removed. In "Pak
Munsu and the Kumiho" ("Pakmunsuwa kumiho") , the
famous character Pak Munsu encounters a girl living alone in the
woods who has a distinctly fox-like appearance. "The King and
the Kumiho" ("Wanggwa kumiho") tells of a king who
meets a girl in the woods at night and tells her to take off her
clothes after promising to save her debt-laden father. The tale
records that it was too dark for the king to see whether she was
actually a girl or a fox, indicating that if it had been light the
difference would have been obvious. In "The Maiden who Discovered
a Kumiho through a Chinese Poem" ("Hansiro kumihoreul
aranaen ch'eonyeo") we read that the kumiho was ultimately revealed
when a hunting dog caught the scent of the fox and attacked. All
of these details would seem to indicate that, while the kumiho may
be able to change its appearance, there is still something fox-like
about it; its countenance changes, but its nature does not.
The kumiho is typically pictured as taking a female form when transforming into a human being (as indicated in the encyclopedia entries), but the kumiho in "The Maiden who Discovered a Kumiho through a Chinese Poem" turns into a young man who attempts to trick the maiden into marrying him. It should be noted that this is the only case where the kumiho transforms into a man; in the rest of the tales the kumiho takes the form of a beautiful girl.
Although it is not indicated in the encyclopedia entry quoted above,
the kumiho is not a benign trickster who delights only in fooling
people. There is no doubt that the kumiho is an evil creature; unlike
the fox of Japanese folklore, who will sometimes change into a woman
to marry a man who has been kind to it, the kumiho never appears
as a benevolent figure. The kumiho encountered by Pak Munsu intended
to harm him, but he was able to escape. Likewise, the amorous king
was saved by the timely arrival of a mountain spirit who struck
the kumiho on the cheek and forced her to reveal her true form.
Others were not so lucky. In "The Hunter and the Kumiho"
("P'osuwa kumiho") , a hunter comes upon a fox scratching
at a human skull in the woods. Before his eyes, the fox changed
into an old woman and went down into a nearby village (the scratching
of the skull and the subsequent metamorphosis introduces an element
of sympathetic magic into the kumiho's transformation, but there
is not space enough here to flesh out this aspect). The hunter followed
and saw her "reunited" with her children, who had puzzled
over her absence of several months. The hunter was able to warn
the children that their mother had been killed by the kumiho, and
the kumiho intended them to be her next victims. "The Emperor's
Kumiho Daughter-in-Law" tells of us a Chinese emperor's son
who married a kumiho. After the marriage, the country's retainers
mysteriously began to die one by one. The tale's hero eventually
discovered the kumiho and was given permission by the emperor to
kill it and save the remaining retainers. The kumiho of "The
Kumiho and the Samjokku (Three-legged Dog)" ("Kumihowa
samjokku") is married to another Chinese emperor, and she shows
vampiric tendencies in wanting to suck the blood from her intended
victim, the hero of the tale (she is foiled by the hero's three-legged
dog, who attacks and kills her).
Although this is by no means a complete survey of kumiho tales,
it should suffice to supplement the brief definition we began with.
Through these tales we can see just how intriguing a character the
kumiho is, reflecting in its complex nature aspects found in various
characters familiar to a Western audience: the trickster, the fiend,
the succubus, and even the vampire. The kumiho continues to live
on today as one of the few truly evil creatures of Korean folklore.
Source: www.pantheon.org/articles/k/kumiho.html
Japanese vampire frog:
Can't find anything
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(9/4/03 11:07 pm)
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Vampire Frog
I'm not sure, but I think the "Japanese Vampire Frog" referenced above is actually a _kappi_. That's a water sprite with a nasty reputation, but it actually more closely resembles a turtle than a frog.
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(9/4/03 11:11 pm)
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Kappa
Make that "kappa," above. My bad.
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KiddyKong64
Registered User
(9/5/03 1:09 pm)
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Re: Kappa
Yeah, I'm familiar with the Kappa, the tiger-faced turtle sprite with a bowl-shaped head. I'm pretty sure there was another creature that resembled a large toad and had vampire-esque attributes, but I might be wrong about it being Japanese. It's definitely Asian. Who knows, I might have made it up.
I know nothing!
Edited by: KiddyKong64 at: 9/5/03 1:10 pm
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