Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

New Jersey Devil

Nationality: Italian-American
Age: 19
Occupation: N/A
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/30/13
Primary Language: English

I hate to ask it, but do you know anything about the New Jersey Devil? Isn’t it some kind of horse monster thing?

 

Ahaha! Gosh, I wish I had my old 4th grade New Jersey book things with me – it had a whole story.

So basically, in the pine barrens of New Jersey lived this couple. And there was some argument between the couple – one wanted children and the other didn’t, something like that. But for some reason, the woman got pregnant, and for some reason – she ate something she shouldn’t, or sold her soul, or something Rosemary’s Baby-esque – the baby came out with hooves and yellow eyes or some shit like that, but the way I learned it, it wasn’t evil or anything, just deformed…

 

So what does this deformed baby do? Just run and hide? Or does it attack and scare people? Is the couple unmarried? Is it cautionary against premarital sex?

 

I’ve heard both ways. The way they taught us in school was essentially that we should feel sorry for it and not be afraid, haha – not that they taught it as a true story, it was just a myth.

No, I think they’re married… I feel bad forgetting what the issue actually is between them,  but it’s really not talked about very much anymore.

 

Why do you think that is?

 

I just don’t think people subscribe to superstitions the way they used to, and also, methods of child-rearing have changed a lot. We don’t talk about Black Peter anymore, only about Santa (perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it’s a pretty racist name). We don’t scare our kids (as much) into behaving by telling them the child-stealer or something is going to steal them in the night if they don’t behave. Instead, we tell them that Santa’s not going to come if they misbehave. Or we tell them we’re going to take away their iPad.

 

I find most interesting the informant’s admission that this folktale is no longer being told as often as it might have once been, that she doesn’t remember it as well as she should. She points towards the consequences of modernity: rewarding is more a part of culture than telling a child that bad things are just going to happen. Even though this folklore is archived, will there be a point when it is no longer told anymore? Can stories just die out? Their part of folklore assumes that they will be passed from generation down to the next, but is this assumption wholly true as generations of people less believing than the last and more concerned with the factuality of life are raised?

Black Peter

Nationality: Italian-American
Age: 19
Occupation: N/A
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/30/13
Primary Language: English

So Black Peter isn’t something my family subscribes to – I learned it in French class in high school. So behind Santa is Black Peter. So when Santa comes around, giving out presents, he skips the bad children. And Black Peter comes when Santa has left the bad children alone, and whips them, or steals them, or gives them coal.

And I don’t know if this is important, but I’m pretty sure Black Peter rides a donkey.

 

And this is French? What does Black Peter look like?

 

Yeah, French. Well, for a start, he’s black, haha. Past that, I don’t know.

 

Racially or just like in coal?

 

Racially, I’m pretty sure.

 

Do you think that his race has anything to do with his being a foil to Santa Claus?

 

Yeah, definitely, haha.

 

My question about this being French stems from a Germanic creature called “der Krampus,” who basically functions the same way. He’s this nasty demon thing that whips all the bad, little children. I find it interesting that Black Peter is actually a person, not a monster. Perhaps this is tied to some deeper racial tension that existed in French culture around the time of his inception. 

New Form of Kidnapping (Ladies – be aware – worth a read)

Nationality: Ecuador
Age: 70
Occupation: real estate agent
Residence: Park Ridge, Il
Performance Date: 07/18/2010
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

“NEW FORM OF KIDNAPPING

Please take a minute to read this. This is very scary and could happen to
any of us.. Seems like every nice thing people do for one another can be
perverted.
A new twist on kidnapping from a very smart survivor:
About a month ago there was a woman standing by the mall entrance passing
out flyers to all the women going in. The woman had written the flyer
herself to tell about an experience she had, so that she might warn other
women.
The previous day, this woman had finished shopping, went out to her car and
discovered that she had a flat.
She got the jack out of the trunk and began to change the flat. A nice man
dressed in a business suit and carrying a briefcase walked up to her and
said, ‘I noticed you’re changing a flat tire. Would you like me to take care
of it for you?’
The woman was grateful for his offer and accepted his help. They chatted
amiably while the man changed the flat, and then put the flat tire and the
jack in the trunk, shut it and dusted his hands off.
The woman thanked him profusely, and as she was about to get in her car, the
man told her that he left his car around on the other side of the mall, and
asked if she would mind giving him a lift to his car.
< BR>She was a little surprised and she asked him why his car was on other
side.
He explained that he had seen an old friend in the mall that he hadn’t seen
for some time and they had a bite to eat, visited for a while, and he got
turned around in the mall and left through the wrong exit, and now he was
running late.

The woman hated to tell him ‘no’ because he had just rescued her from having
to change her flat tire all by herself, but she! felt un easy . (Trust that
gut feeling!)

Then she remembered seeing the man put his briefcase in her trunk before
shutting it and before he asked her for a ride to his car.

She told him that she’d be happy to drive him around to his car, But she
just remembered one last thing she needed to buy (Smart woman!!)

She said she would only be a few minutes; he could sit down in her car and
wait for her; she would be as quick as she could be

She hurried into the mall, and told a security guard what had happened, the
guard came out to her car with her, but the man had left. They opened the
trunk, took out his locked briefcase and took it down to the police station.

The police opened it (ostensibly to look for ID so they could return it to
the man). What they found was rope, duct tape, and knives. When the police
checked her ‘flat’ tire, there was nothing wrong with it; the air had simply
been let out.  It was obvious what the man’s intention was, and obvious that
he had carefully thought it out in advance. The woman was blessed to have
escaped harm.

How much worse it would have been if she had children with her and had them
wait in the car while the man fixed the tire, or if she had a baby strapped
into a car seat? Or if she’d gone against her judgment and given him a lift?

I’d like you to forward this to all the women you know. It may save a life.

A candle is not dimmed by lighting another candle. I was going to send this
to the ladies only; but guys, if you love your mothers, wives, sisters,
daughters, etc.., you may want to pass it on to them, as well.

Send this to any woman you know that may need to be reminded that The world
we live in has a lot of crazies in it. Better to be safe than sorry.

PLEASE BE SAFE AND NOT
SORRY”

 

This email was originally received by my real estate agent, she resent it to me with the message that I should be, “extra careful!” especially since I am a single woman living away from home.

What first threw me off about this narrative was that the woman remembers the man put his briefcase in the trunk of her car; however, when she is narrating what he put in the trunk, she doesn’t mention the briefcase. It was inattention to detail like this that made me look it up and as it turns out, it’s an urban legend that’s been around since at least 1998.

My real estate lady is older, and she sent it to me because as a single young woman living in a big city like Los Angeles by myself, she thought I was more at risk. I guess this goes along with the stories and legends you hear about how dangerous and gang-infested big cities are.

Mamahuarmi

Nationality: Peruvian
Age: 22
Occupation: student
Residence: Lima, Peru
Performance Date: February 15, 2013
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

This tale was told to Marisol by one of her nannies.
She said that in her mother’s town, one of her family’s neighbors, a man named Huaman went to bathe at a lake in Churin. While he was bathing, he saw a beautiful white woman with blonde hair down to her ankles. She was nude and standing on the other side of the lake form where she was beckoning him with her hand in a very flirtatious way. The man could not hold back for long and so, ensnared by her beauty, he crossed the river and went towards her. Many days went by and the man was not seen back in the town; then, Huaman was found at another town completely blind and incoherent. His family took him to a local hospital, but the hospital couldn’t explain the man’s sudden blindness, and so the family took him to a shaman. It was during a healing, that Huaman was able to tell them about his meeting with the blonde woman of the lake, the mamahuarmi. After the healing his mind was restored, but his sight was not, and he died many years later from old age.

The mamahuarmi is a very popular creature from Peruvian folklore. Unfortunately, there is not much study devoted to Peruvian myths and folktales; however, the mamahuarmi can be found in the recently released encyclopedia of Peruvian magical creatures titled, Seres Magicos del Peru compiled by Javier Zapata Innocenzi. A story similar to the one Marisol heard can be read in Relatos Magicos del Peru

Mound Parties

Nationality: Peruvian
Age: 22
Occupation: student
Residence: Lima, Peru
Performance Date: February 15, 2013
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

This is another story told to Marisol by a nanny who was from the Andean province of Ayacucho. The nanny told her that as a child, her relatives always warned her not to get close to parties or gatherings of people in the middle of the fields or on top of hills because these were there to take away wayward children, drunks and gluttons. She warned her that if she was out playing the hills and heard laughter and voices, she was to run away immediately and not get close to the table, no matter how delicious and abundant the meal or how inviting the people because if you ate any of the food or touched the guests, they would take you to the afterlife and the party would disappear and all that your family would find on the hill would be a rock.

This story serves to keep kids in line and keep them away from strangers and unknown places. It is a lot like the Irish tales of fairies. There is also the presence of a magical mound which can be found, most famously, in Irish fairy folklore.