Some Salish tribes told stories of the basket ogress which was a disheveled woman who would come and steal misbehaving children, throw them in a basket, and eat them. She was also venerated as bringing wealth.

There’s way too many to list in South East Asia I’m not even sure where to start, and a lot of stories get passed down through trade but Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand each have their share of scary creatures. And to think some of them came about through stories parents tell their kids so they don’t stray and get caught up with wild animals…

My area has a supposed undead creature called Stovepipe. He has a stovepipe stuck in his head and attacks people by train tracks. Apparently he died in a terrible accident and couldn’t move on because he was so mad about his death. High schoolers love going looking for him lol. I don’t believe he exists, but it’s an interesting thing.

In Finnish folklore there’s a couple of scary things but the one that pops to my mind is the water spirits. Näkki, vetehinen and hiisi. They are all slightly different but all have basically been used to scare kids to stay safe around waters or the water spirit of your choice will drown you. There’s stories of them attacking boats too and trying to trick adults into drowning themselves.

I live in/near the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, so I heard plenty about the Jersey Devil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil

I like the legend of the Black Horse, from the village of Trois-Pistoles in Quebec, where my mother was born. But there are many variants from other places in Quebec.

For those who drink the Trois-Pistoles beer, that’s the black horse you see on the image.

You can read about this legend [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Horse_(legend\)).

In Louisiana we have the rougarou that’ll come and get ya if you don’t act right.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rougarou

He’s similar to a werewolf, but French.

Not sure how such an outlandish tale captivated so many people for so long, but: Trickle-down economics.

Here in Northern Italy near Bergamo, we have something called “Gratacornia”, an half human-half goat creature, which was used to scare kids. The Gratacornia waits for the kid on top of the stairs in darkness and scratches his hooves with his long horns (Gratacornia is formed merging “Grata”=to scratch and “Cornia”=horns).

My grandpa would tell this one:

There once was a man who lived all by himself way out in the woods. He lived in a small log cabin with just one room, and that room served as his kitchen, dining room, parlor, and his bedroom too. This man owned three great big hunting dogs. One was called You-Know, one was called Eye-Know, and the third was called Cumptico-Calico.

One winter night the man had run out of food and had to go to bed without supper. Just as he was starting to drift off to sleep, he snapped his eyes open at a noise. He looked around and there in the cabin with him was the curiousest creature that you ever did see. It has two little pointed ears, and two great big red eyes, and it had a great big long tail. The man snatched up his hatchet and swung at the creature, chopping off it’s tail. The creature shrieked and fled back out into the wilderness.

The man cooked and ete the tail for his supper and then went back to bed.

An hour or so later the man wakes with a start. Way out in the distance he hears something call out, “taily-po! Taily-po! All I want’s my taily-po!” The man called out to his dogs, and they came barrelling around the side of the cabin and chased the whatever-it-was far away from the cabin. Only two of the dogs came back.

Later that night, the man awoke again. Something called out, “taily-po! Taily-po! All I want’s my taily-po!”, only from nearer than before. The man called out to his dogs again, and the two dogs crashed across the meadow chasing the whatever-it-was even farther away than before. But this time only one dog came back.

In the deep, dark hours of morning, the man woke again. And from just outside his front door he heard the whatever-it-was demanding again: “Taily-Po! Taily-Po! All I want’s my taily-po!” The man called out to his last dog, who chased the whatever-it-was for miles and miles and never came back.

Just before daylight the man woke once again. He didn’t hear anything, but when he looked down at the foot of his bed he could see two little pointed ears. And after a moment two big, red, fiery eyes were looking at him. Slowly the whatever-it-was crept up the foot of his bed until it was right on top of him. And in a low voice it said, “taily-po. Taily-po. All I want’s my taily-po.”

The man found his voice and screamed, “I ain’t got your taily-po!”

But the whatever-it-was replied, “yes, you has!” And it jumped on the man and scratched him all to pieces!

Some say it got its taily-po back; some say it didn’t. But when the moon shines bright and the wind blows down the valley, you can sometimes hear a voice cry out, “taily-po!”

One thing I could think of from Filipino culture is the manananggal (rough translation: one who removes). It’s a sort of humanlike being, but with wings and a very long tongue. At night, its body from the waist up would fly away and leave its lower half behind, then it would hunt for food. It would go on top of pregnant womens’ rooftops and using its long tongue it would feed on the fetus. Once the manananggal gets back to its lower half, the fetus would be gone forever.

In order to get the fetus back, you can prevent the manananggal from returning to its lower half by putting something on the lower half, if you find it (not sure if it was salt or garlic or something else).

One interesting thing that I’m not sure is quite related, but if you have a miscarriage, people say that ‘nakunan ka’ (rough translation: you were taken from / x was taken from you). Could be left over from the idea that the manananggal takes fetuses?

I live in New Jersey. Most people know it for the sopranos or even just the turnpike, but in the south of the state there’s a huge pine forest called the pine barrens. The Lenape that originally lived in New Jersey spoke of a spirit in the forest known as M’Sing, a deer like creature with leathery wings.

After New Jersey was colonized, a legend came out of a family that lived in the barrens in the 18th century, the Leeds. Mother Leeds, upon finding out she was pregnant for a 13th time, cursed the child. It is said she gave birth during a terrible storm. When the child was delivered, it transformed into a creature, not unlike what the Lenape described. It quickly took off out of the chimney and disappeared in the forest. Since then, people spot the “Jersey Devil” throughout the state, but especially around the pine barrens. Personally, everything I hear the thing is harmless, but creepy.

Fresno has its very own cryptic with the Fresno Nightcrawler

i grew up in East Anglia, which is the hump on the east-by-south-east side of England, UK, British Isles, Europe, Earth, etc

not only did we have the super cool Hereward the Wake, and Boudic(e)a and the Iceni tribe

but also

• devils dyke — a seven mile ditch caused allegedly by the devil himself being turned from a wedding and stomping his tail, and you can summon him yourself by walking around the local church 7 times

• fairy cow — a magic cow who gave milk to all in times of famine stamped her hoof in the sandstone and the.imprint is still seen today

• devils hole - a place where such a horrific crime was committed that when it rains the ground never gets wet

• tom hickathrift - a 1700s legend of a giant-killing giant whose catchphrase was “a turd in your teeth for your news” and whose weapon of choice was a wagon wheel

A bogus gasman, here to ransack yer hoose.