Tag Archives: child behavior

The Jersey Devil

Age: 20

Text: According to the subject, the “Jersey Devil” is a monstrous creature that supposedly haunts Jersey’s wilderness. The subject described the creature as having bat wings, hooves, a devil’s tail, and a goat head. According to the legend, the Jersey Devil was born as an unwanted 13th child to a mother who ended up cursing him – causing his disfiguration. His curse caused him to transform into the horrifying monster that has become so popular in New Jersey folklore. Allegedly, this creature only appears at night – scaring and even harming those who come across his path.  

Context: The subject first came across this urban legend when he was in middle school. Growing up and living in New Jersey, he would grow up to occasionally hear the creature mentioned here and there, but he just brushed it off as a kid’s story – he never really believed in it. His older brother was the first person to describe the creature to him, as such he just viewed the myth as a way of his brother trying to scare him and tease him. Some of his friends in middle school did believe in the creature, he admitted, and they would be spooked whenever they stayed outside too late. 

Interpretation: I believe that this legend can be seen as a story parents might’ve utilized to try to keep their kids from staying out too late or wandering out into the wildlife at night. I think by playing on this element of fear, children would be less likely to disobey their parents out of fear of this monstrous creature, as opposed to parents telling their children that they can’t stay out late “because I said so”. I think this creates a sense of consequences greater than the parents’ anger and would help motivate the child to obey out of self preservation.

Lulu Khor Khoreh

Age: 20

Text: According to the subject, a creature that is prominent within Persian folklore is a creature named Lulu Khor Khore. Described as a hairy, hideous, monster-like creature, Lulu Khor Khore hides in the dark corners of childrens’ rooms – whether that be under the bed, in their closet, or just simply in the shadows. She explained that as an evil entity, Lulu Khor Khore knew when children had been bad; if they disobeyed their parents, talked back, or just misbehaved, he would snatch them away in the middle of the night and the children would never be seen again.

Context: The subject heard this story often from her father when she was growing up. Her father, from Iran, would remind her that Lulu Khor Khoreh knew when she was misbehaving and not listening to her parents – he warned would warn her that if she kept acting out he would steal her away in the middle of the night, and there would be nothing he or she could do to stop it (unless she started listening and behaving). She remembers hearing about Lulu Khor Khoreh often whenever she didn’t want to practice the violin and would try to hide in her room to avoid her lessons. As she grew up, she heard less and less about Lulu Khor Khoreh (much to her relief, as she told me she truly was scared of the thought of him, let alone being carried away in the middle of the night by him); she explained to me that this story was just a means of getting children to behave – kind of like Santa Claus, or Baba Yaga. 

Interpretation: I believe that the subject is very much correct in her observations – despite the fact that Lulu Khor Khoreh himself is unique to Persian culture, the overarching idea or purpose that he serves is one that can be found across time and the globe. His story is a means of getting children to behave and listen to their elders.

‘El Cipitio’

Age: 48


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: Spanish


Nationality: Latino/a


Occupation: Caregiver


Primary Language: Spanish


Residence: United States

Text:

  • El Cipitio is a legendary character from Salvadoran folklore portrayed as a 8-10 year old boy with a large conical hat and a pot-belly.

Context:

  • ‘El Cipitio’s’ name is derived from the Salvadoran word for child, “cipote” translating‘El Cipitio’ to ‘The boy’. Cursed by the god Teotl, Cipitio was condemned to live eternity as a small boy with backwards feet. He is known to be a trickster, wandering into farmers fields, throwing pebbles at beautiful ladies, hiding in bushes to scare people, and eating ashes leftover in rural kitchens.

Growing up in the rural parts of El Salvador, my informant has heard various stories about the Cipitio. Considering their family always cooked in lumber fueled stoves, when ashes laid scattered the day after cooking, the fault would always lay to ‘El Cipitio.’ Or whenever foot prints would lead to no suspecting figure, it would be perceived as a trick from ‘El Cipitio’ and his backwards feet.

My informant interpreted these stories from ‘El Cipitio’ to explain some of the oddities of life, or some of the things children would do but would never explicitly take fault for.

Analysis:

I interpret ‘El Cipitio’ as a legendary character who is just meant to be an entertaining factor in life. Made to make light of some oddities and serve as a easy cop out for things we just aren’t able to explain. I find that he is made to represent childish wonder and all that makes up being a kid growing up. In term, I believe that he is meant to represent the literal sense of a child, a boy to be exact as he is described to do some of the ‘stereotypical’ actions of a boy at his age.

Old Man Waterface

Nationality: American

Age: 47

Occupation: Education

Residence: Sedalia, MO

Performance Date: October 27, 2024

Primary Language: English

Language: English

MAIN DESCRIPTION

Q: “What’s something strange that’s happened to you?”

A: “Like, what kind of strange?”

Q: “That’s up to you.”

A: “Oh, well… I used to have this recurring dream, um, in which I, when I was young, I would have to take out the trash every week. And I’d have this recurring dream about when I would take out the trash, and I would take it out to the alley behind our house, that there was a figure there and he had no face. His face moved around like— it looked like it was water. So, I named him Old Man Waterface. So, I would have this dream about every six months. And, um, my mom would think, of course, that I was trying to get out of taking out the trash, but I 100% had this dream over and over and over again.”

INFORMANT’S OPINION

Q: “Do you believe this occurrence had more significance than being simply a dream?”

A: “It always happened the exact same way. There was never any variation in the dream. All I know is, well, being honest it scared the hell out of me.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION

The fact that this is a dream and the figure remains faceless leaves room for a million perspectives. I could see Old Man Waterface as a mere kid’s nightmare. I could see a faceless figure representing the spirit of a person who has lost their identity or been forgotten as well. There is a wealth of possibility. The consistency of the dream is startling, but there is not enough evidence to draw much beyond that point. The creature had no cultural significance, and the informant named him. So, it looks like it could be his monster!

Close Your Eyes

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/3/23
Primary Language: English

Text: “There once was a little boy named H. He stayed up late every night and made his mother very angry by not going to bed on time. But one night, he wanted to try and keep his eyes open until morning, without getting a lick of sleep. But on that very morning, his eyes were shriveled up like raisins and he could no longer see. When his mother came in, she screamed. She told him, “Close your eyes forever.” After that, the boy never saw anything out of his eyes again. And you want to know why? Because your eyes need to be closed for a few hours while you sleep, in order for them to reset. Keeping them open for a long period of time and blinking to comfort them only goes so far. They need to be closed for hours in order to keep your eyes healthy.” – Informant’s mother

Context: This scary little tale was told to the informant when his mom would get mad at him for staying up too late. She used a tale in order to get him to go to sleep and used the scare tactic to make him want to sleep. As a 7 year old, this story scared him enough to stop staying up so late. The informant laughed when telling this tale because it is so stupid and probably made up by his mom. However, it worked.

Analysis: When I was little, my parents would tell me that if I don’t go to sleep, my nightmares will happen in real life in order to get me to go to sleep. Similar to this tale, they were both tactics used to improve our lives. Sleep is one of the most important things for a human and yet, a growing child. It teaches us a lesson that will help in the long run and actually made us both go to sleep. Although my version was more of a myth type and the informant’s was more of a tale, they both made us follow the rules set by our parents.