Author Archives: Robert Tierney

Mami Wata

Interview: “Essentially its like a water spirit that protects people — but she’s kind of like a mermaid-siren fusion. And she is there to protect people and keep people safe, but also she can lure people in that are ignorant, or other people in that are looking for trouble. And then she’ll trap them in the water and then take them.

I think its kind of along the lines of legends like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, like they’re native, and they’re there for the land.

I think the reason, like historically the reason it was probably birthed is because of slavery, but it’s just turned into a thing that people are very afraid of now. Even now like my parents, if I were to text my mommy like: can you tell me about Mami Wata, she’d be like: don’t say that name. So its very taboo.

In Terms of experiences, like stories that I heard from family and friends, you know they’ll be out late walking by the beach when they shouldn’t be, like they’re sneaking out of the house or whatever. They’re near the ocean and they start to hear these chants calling them in, and they’re lured in and they go deeper and further into the water and then they’re attacked.

Context: The informant is from a Nigerian Family, but was raised in the US. She remembers hearing the story on multiple occasions from her parents or other Nigerian friends and family.

Analysis: As mentioned by the informant, the legend seems to bear some similarities to guardian spirits seen commonly in folklore, with Mami Wata apparently interested in protecting both the beaches and the people from dangers, although she is not always friendly. The informant also mentioned the theory that the legend either arose, or took on new meaning with the arrival of the slave trade in Nigeria, as a cautionary tale to keep people away from the shore.

Saint George and the Dragon

Interview:

G: “So St. George [pause] well i dont know what order this happened in, but St George was a Roman soldier, and he was told to start killing people who were Catholic, and then the king tortured him and killed him.
At some point there was, in a town, there was a dragon. And he would come every day and they would pull straws for who he would take. And then St. George came and killed it, and i think saved a princess.”

Interviewer: “Is this a true story, do you think, or more of a fairy tale? Do you think there have ever been dragons?”

G: “Yes. Yes, but not like real dragons, maybe the devil.”

Context: The informant comes from a Catholic family. He first learned the story from his mother.

Analysis: There are some interesting similarities between the Legend with the dragon, and the more plausible story of St George’s Martyrdom, with both stories centering around George confronting a powerful force of evil to stop the slaughter of innocents. Perhaps the story of the dragon emerged as a metaphor for the emperor Diocletian, who is said to have put St. George to death.

Splitting the Pole

Interview: “Its a superstition i guess. It’s a superstition like walking under a ladder. If you split the pole when you’re walking next to somebody, and you both go to different sides of the pole its bad luck. Which, I don’t know, probably came from it being unsafe to be on the other side, the side closer to the road.
I dont know if anyone really believes the bad luck part, I guess its just disrespectful, you know, to the person you’re walking with.”

Context: The informant is 21 years old. He first remembers encountering the superstition in grade school, but says it remains a relatively common practice among friends.

Analysis: This superstition is so common that I really never stopped to think about where it actually came from. While the informants hypothesis about road safety seems to be incorrect, it shows how superstitions like this can survive just fine without any knowledge of their history.
Another reason this belief probably survives so well is how naturally the superstition fits with the ritual itself. The idea that putting that physical barrier between two people would also contribute to a distancing in their relationship makes sense on a certain level, and shows the importance of having that parallel between the physical and symbolic.

A’Tix – Yukon Legend

Age: 60s

Context: The informant is now retired, but used to tell the story every year at a summer camp i attended. He does not remember where he first heard the story, but believes it to be at least partially based on real events.


Interview:
H: “I’ll just give you the synopsis, the real story would take twenty minutes… Essentially there were these Americans up in the Yukon in Alaska, two guys, big game hunters. They come to a trading post asking about a good place to hunt, and the natives tell them to stay away from the valley. Well they went anyway. They thought the natives were trying to keep them away because that’s where the best hunting is.

Interviewer: “And what did you say the name of the tribe was?”

H: “Its the Kaska Dena: K-A-S-K-A.
So they went down into the valley, and they don’t find anything the first day. In the night they here a thumping noise in the forest. They had a dog with them, so they wake up in the night and the dog is all ripped to pieces.

Well they decided to stay the night anyway. And when one of the guys woke up, he saw the other guy dismembered too, just like the dog, and no animal tracks or anything, no signs, except there was blood on the branches of the big tree, and he hears the thumping again coming from the tree.

So the guy just starts running, and finally makes it back to the horses. They had to leave the horses because they couldn’t get down into the valley. But when he got back to the village, well not the village but the little trading post, he was all cut up and bruised from running through the bushes and everything. And obviously his mental state was pretty messed up. I think he pretty much went mad.

It’s a real disappearance too, you can look it up.”

Interviewer: “And do you know what the name for the demon is?”

H: “Oh, yes. I think the Kaska call it A’tix.”

Analysis: The story seems to be a combination of several different elements. The Kaska Dena are a real tribe spanning a massive area of Canada and Alaska, and A’tix seems to be a real legend associated with them. As far as I can tell, the Legend of A’tix does not really have much to do with the real disappearance mentioned, which was most likely a reference to the Nahanni Valley, or the “Valley of Headless Men”. While both A’tix and the Valley of Headless men are quite poorly documented online, some accounts claim that over 40 headless bodies were discovered in the valley in the early 1900’s.

It is not difficult to see how these two stories may have become associated, with the legend of A’tix, a man-eating demon serving as the solution to the mysterious corpses, With both taking place in the Yukon, when it was still largely unknown to Americans.

Step on a Crack, you’ll Break your Mother’s Back

Interview: “Don’t step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back. So that’s the saying we used to… Uh… sling around on the playground. If you’re on a sidewalk or blacktop, you’re not supposed to step on the cracks. I think painted lines counted as well, in parking lots and stuff. I guess its a superstition but like, nobody actually believes it.
Its a little bit of a game. More than anything it was just to annoy people. If there’s a lull in conversation and somebody steps on a crack you’d be like: Oh, better call your mom, see if she’s okay.”

Context: The informant is 21 years old from Los Angeles. He remembers playing the game in grade school.

Analysis: This falls into a group of superstitions which are prevalent around schools. Like many school superstitions, it survives and spreads likely because the consequences are so severe. Even a child who is pretty sure that the consequences are not real, might still be hesitant to step on a crack, and might still warn his friends about it, just in case.