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183: Springtime Cryptids
58 Plays28 days ago
We hope you survived last weeks ep, this one is much lighter. We thought we should celebrate Spring, renewal and rebirth, with a bit of a cryptid twist. First we learn about the Miniwashitu, a creature who is both feared and respected by the Indigenous groups in North Dakota. Its arrival in the spring is long awaited, and it also has a very important job to do.
Next up is the Tiyanak, a terrifying creature from Filipino folklore that commonly takes the form of a helpless baby. Once you have been lured closer by its crying, its already too late to get away.
Happy listening and until next time keep it cryptic!
Darkcast spotlight is The Book of the Dead Podcast!
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Transcript
Introduction to Darkcast Network and Podcast Theme
00:00:01
Speaker
Darkcast Network. Indie pods with a dark side.
00:00:27
Speaker
and Welcome to Castles and Cryptids, where the castles are haunted and the cryptids are cryptic as fuck.
Meet the Hosts: Alanna and Kelsey
00:00:33
Speaker
And I'm your host, Alanna.
00:00:36
Speaker
And I'm Kelsey. And I was just yawning.
00:00:42
Speaker
i was just picking up a pin on my table because my distracted ADHD brain was like, how come I haven't put this Swamp Man pin on anything yet? Yeah.
Podcast's Chaotic Nature and Production Challenges
00:00:55
Speaker
Wow. So welcome to episode 183 of this madness where it's always this chaotic and iconic, as the kids say.
00:01:08
Speaker
no um We hope you've recovered from last week. Just having put that out. Yeah. I remembered it was a brutal one and had such a hard time.
00:01:20
Speaker
Like when it came, I was like, oh, I just have to do a description. All the editing's done. And then I was like, how do I... I was like, what was Kelsey's case? And how do I describe that case? And I just like had no ideas for the title all of a sudden. I was just like, I'm like, what's wrong with me? I have no creative like juices today.
00:01:39
Speaker
It was terrible. Yeah, it was a tough episode. Yeah. I think I referred to your case as... a telenovela I don't know why was like they all have they had their crazy parts um I don't I'm okay I'm sorry I think we were we were probably doing better than the listeners because we recorded on different days so we had a bit of a break in between the cases if you're listening to it it was just back to back and ever everything's worse than the last
00:02:17
Speaker
Right. I'm trying to remember. I'm sure yours was was rough too. I just remember mine was really bad. Yeah, that's right. Um, anyway, maybe, maybe I have too much true crime in the brain.
00:02:33
Speaker
Earlier I said something to Rain, um, something involved the word hump. Not like gross, but it was like hump day or something like that. or a camp And she said, camel.
00:02:45
Speaker
I know, it's right. I don't even remember. um But then she goes, camel. But I said, camel? I said, ah at first, head of sorry, I'm sorry.
00:02:56
Speaker
At first I thought you said cannibal, so i was very confused. Oh no That's how tired I am. It's been a long week. Damn.
00:03:07
Speaker
Um... Yeah, it's all good, guys. we just It's been snowing. We've had a spring snowstorm. um bitched a little bit about multiple car issues we've had this
Weather Woes and Mercury in Retrograde
00:03:20
Speaker
week. and You know, don't even know if I want to go into it right now because I'm trying to just be positive. so yeah It's almost April. We shouldn't be getting like a foot of snow. That's all.
00:03:36
Speaker
That's all. that's it It's wild. Right.
00:03:45
Speaker
But. Hello. Gordo half returned.
00:03:52
Speaker
ah Get in your box. Get in your box. butddy Oh, and because also I know that then I looked up when Mercury was out of fucking retrograde because I was like, I'm tired of this bullshit. And it's not for like another week.
Spring Cryptids and Ironic Snowstorm
00:04:09
Speaker
I'm like, it's literally been shitty the last couple weeks.
00:04:14
Speaker
Anyway, I'm gonna move along.
00:04:22
Speaker
Everyone that's never been here before has left. Um... So we have an interesting theme Twirling around. He's trying to twirl around there. He just settled.
00:04:35
Speaker
He just settled in his box. Ugh. Yeah. Well, Fenrir was curled up in the snow. He just loves it.
00:04:46
Speaker
Um...
00:04:49
Speaker
But think he's the only one at this point in time. um Yeah, we were going go with a spring ah springy sort of theme. I know. new cryptids emerging, you know, like everyone's been hibernating. Now they'll all be coming out. Yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker
And then it's like, oh, little little did we know we're going to record this in a snowstorm. Yeah. and Everyone else is just like, who cares? We're in Texas. It's super hot here. Moving on.
00:05:25
Speaker
It's fine. When you live in the northern... We're in snow up to our knees. just like I went into my yard and there were snow drifts where it had blown weird and it was like inches past my boots and I was like, these are my tallest boots. like The snow was past my knee.
00:05:43
Speaker
Right? She's super fluffy like that almost fake looking snow and then... But it's also damp so it's really heavy. Yeah. was brutal trying to shovel it.
00:05:56
Speaker
I had to shovel the city sidewalk and... it Oh, I totally like tried to ah avoid kind of a hump of snow because nothing's melting or...
00:06:07
Speaker
Like fast enough or being like um plowed, God forbid. So like going out to the parking lot to get back in Well, Pat's car. Yeah.
00:06:19
Speaker
Oh, and so I tried to avoid stepping in the deeper snow and all I did was fucking slip and fall and almost do the splits and get like my whole ass wet. ah like Oh no. Well, I know was lot slippery than I thought it was.
00:06:35
Speaker
I know this morning when I got out of my vehicle in our store parking lot, it must have, the night before people driving, must have kind of you know, it gets slushy, so it just kind of moves around as people are driving, it creates like divots it must have frozen overnight and then when i got out of my vehicle this morning and the snow had fallen on top of it you couldn't see what was divots so when i was walking i kept tripping and almost wiping out constantly because i couldn't see because the the snow everything was white on top and you couldn't see any of all the ruts yeah
00:07:13
Speaker
So I was, I probably looked like I was walking like a brand new like baby deer or something. Just like shaky legs and almost falling every few seconds.
00:07:27
Speaker
Ugh. Like tripping on her own feet, trying to walk through a parking lot. Yeah. So stupid.
00:07:35
Speaker
Then I was having to drive Pat's car and he'd just taken his winter tires off. i Because how? Oh no. Oh no. ah How hopeful is that? Oh, it's almost the end of March, right? Yeah, no.
00:07:46
Speaker
Yeah. Lord have mercy. Well, mine's not too long for once. Neither is mine. that's good.
Mini Washitu: North Dakota's Legendary Cryptid
00:08:00
Speaker
I guess. I don't know.
00:08:01
Speaker
This might be our shortest episode in a while.
00:08:06
Speaker
It's been the shortest spring in a while. Maybe we're straight back in winter. Too soon. it's It's March. It's still March when we're recording this.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, yeah i don't know. That's all.
00:08:24
Speaker
I don't have anything more interesting say. No, I was like, oh, I'll get into that later. We haven't talked about anything yet other than slippery snow.
00:08:36
Speaker
they're poor everyone's gonna be like fuck it's canada of course well fine then
00:08:45
Speaker
if you must be that way we'll get to the stories right i have a ah fun one was kind of interesting and fun too okay
00:08:59
Speaker
Mine, god, it's got such a weird name and I didn't look up how to how to pronounce it.
00:09:10
Speaker
Sometimes there's not a lot of pronunciation on cryptids. I hate to say it. Yeah, this one I might have been able to find it because it's part of a like indigenous tribe is where it comes from.
00:09:24
Speaker
so that's tough. yeah But it's the mini Washitu, gonna say. So it's like mini and then wash and then it too.
00:09:37
Speaker
Mini Washitu? Okay. Never heard of it, don't think. I hadn't before, but it's kind of cool.
00:09:48
Speaker
ah It's from North Dakota, where it makes me think of us. This was very telling when I made these notes and like six days ago.
00:10:00
Speaker
ah
00:10:03
Speaker
They got stuck in the snow and had to eat everyone, a la the donor party? No. Not quite.
00:10:12
Speaker
it's in North Dakota where it said that the winter frost starts in September and below freezing temperatures can last until May.
00:10:23
Speaker
Should have been like, and you can have a snowstorm in March.
00:10:28
Speaker
yes ah in other countries they'll when they film the traders in scotland they'll be like oh scottish summer it's like raining everyone looks freezing like you know here it could snow any minute whether it's like june or july it could still happen it's bizarre yeah it was really weird yesterday while it was snowing really heavily i was at the mall and okay for some reason like there were stores at opposite ends of the mall i wanted to go to and so i had walked the length of the mall like at least once this is what i ran into this canada you're talking about the wham right
00:11:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that's a big fucking ball. I ran into this one lady with her two kids. I and lost track of the husband after the first time I saw the four of them together.
00:11:20
Speaker
But they were wearing shorts and, like, tank tops. The mom was wearing a tank top. The kids were wearing just t-shirts. I didn't see any jackets. And nobody was carrying anything.
00:11:31
Speaker
ah And I was just like, okay, it is like snowing, like very, very heavily. And it threw me off because they were all really tanned. And I was like, did you come back from vacation? You can't feel the cold? Like, what's happening?
00:11:47
Speaker
But I ran into them three times in the mall I ran into them when I got into the mall. Then on the opposite end of the mall, they were there as well. And then in the middle of the mall, I saw them again on my way back.
00:12:00
Speaker
And then I might have seen, like, the mom or something in the food court. I was like, I've seen this same family four times in the mall in two hours.
00:12:11
Speaker
was really Yeah, I feel like you would lose someone there for days. i would i think I said it wrong. I think I said it used to be the biggest mall in Canada. It's the biggest one in Canada. used to be the biggest one in North America. like but think the Mall of America took us over. Yeah, there's... Yeah, ours was built before the Mall of America. And then the Mall America is bigger.
00:12:35
Speaker
And then there's some even crazier ones like on the other side of the world now where... they're yeah like yeah the bigger ones didn't yeah dubai and stuff um i love how like minnesota hills with like chair lifts and stuff inside and you're like what's even happening we just have a water park i was gonna say never mind the 51st state minnesota's like the uh 11th province because they're like yeah basically canada minnesota and maine they're like north and and and they get it they're cold there's nothing to do there i love is blind the recent season was in minneapolis and they're like indoor skating at the mall of america and they had a roller coaster at the mall of america i was like we have that at the west edmonton mall yeah
00:13:27
Speaker
yeah It was actually a really boring season, by the way. oh i know. Get some better guys. So, so I guess by December, the ice of the Missouri River can be as thick as six feet.
00:13:49
Speaker
What? Yeah, by December. Like, that's wild to me. It happens so fast. And then a river, and which is so fast. Yeah, the Missouri River. Okay.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah, ah and this ice can block, obviously, the passage along the river near the capital of Bismarck for over three months every winter.
00:14:17
Speaker
always forget the capital's Bismarck. How very German of you, Dakota. know. right i was like i know this word but if i had never heard that word i wouldn't have know that that's pronounced bismarck you would have been like bismarck yeah why is it like bismarck paris texas and we have like a london ontario and like there's just so many like repeating ones where they're just too lazy to name it anything new yeah new york New New York New York the third There's there's a place in our and in our province here called New Norway It's like a city ah was like where is this?
00:14:59
Speaker
never heard of that I know I just saw someone's address and i'm like what? New Asgard basically Yeah Hold on I should look up I should look up how to pronounce the tribe name Oh, I... Yeah.
00:15:18
Speaker
How to pronounce something in Irish. It's like, well, that's where nothing is as it seems.
00:15:26
Speaker
Oh no, apparently there's a place in Malaysia the same name. Oh.
00:15:36
Speaker
This pronunciation is saying it exactly like I thought it would be, which is phonetically, so that's what I'm gonna use. Uh... Fair. So it's the Madan people and other tribes who live in North Dakota, and they ended up settling along the banks of the Mazarap.
00:15:58
Speaker
And it goes all the way up to North Dakota, huh? Weird. i Yeah, I guess so. i guess we have a river here that's called the North Saskatchewan. We're like, not in Saskatchewan.
00:16:13
Speaker
Yeah, not at all. however They settled along the the banks of the Missouri River and then surrounding rivers that include the Heart River and Knife River, all sometime between...
00:16:29
Speaker
Right? And Heart River. That sounds cute. Do they come together? does the heart go through the night? Oh, no.
00:16:42
Speaker
I don't know. but have to look up. Maybe it's, yeah, maybe the Knife River, like, does something.
00:16:52
Speaker
It cuts straight through. yeah ah But they settled in these areas sometime between 1100 and time ago. Yes. Yes.
00:17:03
Speaker
a wow a yeah a long time ago yes And when I was just like, oh, my God, of course, the Bay is closing because my next sentence is when white fur traders arrived centuries later, I was like, the Hudson's Bay Company.
00:17:24
Speaker
That's now like ah closing. Yeah, it's one of them old school stores that just hasn't been able to keep afloat like Sears and Sellers and shit like that.
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we should rename the Hudson's Bay just like they were going to rename the Gulf of Mexico to what? The Gulf of America? I'm just kidding.
00:17:52
Speaker
No. Who's this Hudson dude? Trudeau's Bay. I'm just kidding. Trudeau's Bay. But spelled like Bay. what? Spelled Bay. Yeah.
00:18:05
Speaker
like spelled ba B-A-E? Yeah, not Bae, not Bae. Trudeau's Bae. Oh, God. Yeah. It's literally crazy that he, like, has stepped down and, like, I don't know. Seems like nobody cares about Canadian politics very much right now.
00:18:28
Speaker
We just are like, oh, we'll just hate the next guy that comes in for the liberal liberals and moving on, you know? Yeah. oh Anyway, I'm sorry. ah So when white fur traders arrived centuries later, the Medan people had already built communities and made the area their home and had already worked to turn the banks of the Missouri River into this thriving hub for trade that okay so it was rivers yeah it was ready right very important in this time to be along along a river the ability to travel the highways sorry yeah yeah
00:19:12
Speaker
ah The ability to travel along the river and trade goods were vital to the Madan people. So when it would freeze over in those long winter months, it led to a really hard time. And with warmer weather on the way, the groaning ice could be heard along the river shifting and starting to melt in the spring.
00:19:33
Speaker
That's why you don't walk on the river when it's frozen because you don't know how frozen. Yes. Yeah. Don't, don't ever go on like ice. I mean, I guess unless it's December when it could be like six feet thick, but yeah that's, this stuff sounds pretty stable. Not going to lie. Yeah. But you do hear more stories of people and their dogs.
00:19:56
Speaker
Yeah. Like, sorry. In the river and stuff. You're like, Oh my God, it's not worth it. Yeah.
00:20:04
Speaker
So the mini Washitu is described as a frightening looking creature. ah and looks pretty creepy, but the Madan people both fear and welcome its arrival.
00:20:20
Speaker
It's said to come from the bottom of the Missouri River, and it actually plays a really important job, or has a really important job. Aww. Aww. like messy no i don't know yeah it's like associated no it's water that's cool yeah
00:20:44
Speaker
uh describe described back in the early 20th century by an ethnologist ah named melvin randolph gilmore The creature is a dreadful being and covered all over with hair like a buffalo, but red in color. And it has only one eye.
00:21:08
Speaker
it's a red buffalo. It has only one eye in the middle of its forehead. and above that, it has a single horn. So like one horn. oh This is getting more and more bizarre with every descriptor.
00:21:28
Speaker
It has a backbone that stands out notched and jagged like an enormous saw. And it's said to stand between seven and nine feet tall. And apparently has human hands and then like coven hooves.
00:21:47
Speaker
why god because it it's like i'm like first picturing like an otter because i'm like what hairy that goes in the water and then it's like a cyclops but it's also thinking nio like i would say i give up yeah like you know the It's like a centaur kind of type thing.
00:22:15
Speaker
Or i'm now I'm picturing something like big i mean pro a beaver and a stegosaurus because it's got this weird spine poking out. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think stegosaurus? That is a good...
00:22:29
Speaker
I have a hard enough time picturing things. This is just throwing me all It's a liger! no Yeah. What?
00:22:39
Speaker
Yeah. It's said to be very protective of its territory and will lash out ah ah towards invaders. Okay. Looking it in the eye is said to cause blindness and leave you in a mad, delirious state up until you die soon after. Oh, shit.
00:23:00
Speaker
It's one big eye. It's one big eye to hypnotize you with. oh There was a little cartoon character on the early internet website I used to frequent called um Joe Cartoon or something. And the character's name was Fatty Big Eye because one of his eyes was bigger than the other. And he'd just be like, quit looking at my eye. way.
00:23:25
Speaker
knowing Oh, the days of the early internet were so bizarre. Yeah. I'd tell
00:23:40
Speaker
the creature is said to have a loud bellow ah sound that it makes when it's surfacing out of the water. and it said that if you hear this sound as it does it, it can make you deaf.
00:23:55
Speaker
Oh, shit. Yeah, deaf and blind and mad and then you die. Right? Like, is it just so terrifying? Or I don't know.
00:24:06
Speaker
When you said surfacing, I'm just, I don't know. Now I'm thinking of like maybe the narwhal. Like wait. Oh. Yeah, Matt. You're going to meet your dad.
00:24:17
Speaker
Yeah. what if Yes, exactly. Good luck, bud. What's he say? hope you find your dad. Yeah.
00:24:29
Speaker
Oh, buddy. ah So the creature's arrival is announced by this terrific roaring sound as it emerges from the bottom of the river. It's supposed is said to swim upstream and then use its saw-like backbone to break up the ice of the Missouri River.
00:24:51
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah, that's why it's... it's both feared and like loathed and welcomed because it, it helps break up the ice. So that spring, ah the thaw and everything starts and allows them to travel along the river again quicker because it's like saws through the ice with its back.
00:25:14
Speaker
and They're all like, thank this guy. We can travel. yeah
00:25:19
Speaker
Oh man. Folklore. So crazy. The way they were like, yeah, winter comes because, you know, that one Greek tale where she goes to Hades and Persephone and blah, blah, blah. I don't remember.
00:25:40
Speaker
or um So for stories, there was one that was kind of cool. um This was documented...
00:25:53
Speaker
or I guess from the KXNet, which I think is like a local like radio station or some sort of newspaper.
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah. Because it had a whole write-up about it. But it it was talking about what that Gilmore, the... um ethnologist guy um because he stayed with the Medan people for a little while and he's the one that like heard these stories and documented them first I guess and back in 1921 Gilmore wrote this statement regarding the myth saying it is said that in the long ago there was a mysterious being within the stream of the Missouri River it was seldom seen by human beings
00:26:46
Speaker
Oh, Maybe it's just tidal it is said that sometimes it was seen within the water in the middle of the stream causing a redness redness shining like the redness of fire as it passed up the stream against the current with a terrific roaring sound oh wow hu yeah it's just a title board
00:27:15
Speaker
yeah a and they say that if this dreadful dreadful being was seen by any anyone in the daytime anyone who thus saw it what a sentence saw it soon after became crazy and continued restless and writhing as though in pain until he was relieved by death
00:27:40
Speaker
I go crazy on you. Crazy on you. Yeah. Just put it in a sound snippet.
00:27:50
Speaker
a And it is said that one time, not a very great many years ago, this frightful being was seen by a man and he told how it appeared. He said that it was of strange form and colored and covered all over with hair like a buffalo, but red in color, that it had only one eye in the middle of its forehead, and above that a single horn.
00:28:13
Speaker
Its backbone stood out notched and jagged like an enormous saw, and as the man beheld the awful sight, everything became dark to him, he said, and he was just able to reach home, but he lost his reason, and soon after that he died." So, like, presumably the only description we have of the creature is somebody that barely managed to get home, quickly describe it before they went mad, and then died.
00:28:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's a very good, thorough description. It's very specific. Yeah. Reddish hair, yeah, all of these things. I'm like, okay. ah Especially the spine. Ugh.
00:29:01
Speaker
it's so weird yeah like saws through i like that it saws through the ice though yeah wasn't there a seal one i saw where like wait a minute because i won some stickers from the cryptid account and i was like they did the was it's a scripted that looks like a seal but it has like um Almost like, yeah, a round saw attached to its, like, tail.
00:29:33
Speaker
oh my gosh. I'm trying to remember now what it's called. I'll get back to you. ah Okay. I'm like, I don't know that one. I'm sure I have a sticker of it somewhere. Oh.
00:29:46
Speaker
Cute.
00:29:50
Speaker
ah So by the time Gilmore, the ethnologist or ethnologist, whatever you want to say that stupid word.
Historical Impact of Fur Trade on Cryptid Lore
00:30:02
Speaker
By the time that guy heard this story, the dangers of the river had had real life consequences for the Medan people.
00:30:09
Speaker
ah The white fur traders that they had been interacting with had brought smallpox with them. Which I think a lot of people in Canada will know about as well.
00:30:25
Speaker
Obviously, it seems like it happened quite a bit in the U.S. too. um yeah yeah, yeah. They didn't have any um immunity against it. So everything that we had that could possibly have the...
00:30:39
Speaker
disease. It was like, oh. oh
00:30:42
Speaker
Yeah. Also, also talks of maybe sometimes it happening intentionally. i know. I feel like I heard something like that too where they're like, here's a smallpox blanket or something. You're like, oh, great.
00:30:59
Speaker
That just seems pretty nasty, but I don't know. Yeah. We'll never know. It's history for you. It's A lot of really bad things that people did to each other.
00:31:14
Speaker
and then also, like, we just don't, like, people act like history is, like, set in stone where it's really, like, we're learning things all the time that contradict what we think we know and stuff like that where it's much like, changeable and and whatnot. We don't really understand it as well as we think we do, I think.
00:31:35
Speaker
Yeah. Cool. Yeah, so these, like, smallpox outbreaks happened in 1782 and 1837, and is said to have decimated the tribe of the Medan people is sure as, like, other tribes that were also in the area.
00:31:58
Speaker
and It did say that though many Madan traditions have been lost, ah that today the legends of the Minnewashitu um still live strong along the Missouri River area, and especially through other no North Dakota tribes that are more prominent there still.
00:32:24
Speaker
um and like people that aren't associated with the tribes uh also kind of know about it in the area which i think is nice
00:32:34
Speaker
yeah it's kind of like shared within the community along the river and a local legend yeah um
00:32:47
Speaker
I thought this was kind of... i don't remember why I wanted to end with this. This was from Atlas Obscura. Good website.
00:32:58
Speaker
I think it was literally just be because I thought this was just crazy things that they described. I was like, oh, wow, this will be fun.
00:33:11
Speaker
so
00:33:13
Speaker
Oh, it must be. Yeah, KX News. I was right. That's what the other one little snippet was from. KX News website. Because it says it here.
00:33:24
Speaker
ah sorry. ah It says, but he is not so frightening now. A recent description by KX News, Western North western north Dakota's CBS affiliate.
00:33:38
Speaker
No! No!
00:33:41
Speaker
That's when your GPS tells you to go head northwest east on something road west. You're like, okay. ah Yeah, recent description by KX News Western North Dakota's CBS affiliate insists that the bipedal buffalo pescatarian.
Comparative Cryptid Analysis
00:34:07
Speaker
How can it be bipedal if it lives in the water? what? It walks? It walks on two legs? I guess so, yeah. Yeah, that's why was like, imagine a minotaur.
00:34:20
Speaker
no Imagine with me a centaur minotaur. I know. I guess I have to see these pictures. yeah they're really all very similar. Like, people just seem to do the one thing. It's nothing too crazy. Yeah.
00:34:37
Speaker
Yeah, I do find that's the case sometimes with the cryptids. I did put the one on the drive. It kind of looks like, you know, those little... i don't know. It'd be like travel brochure type pictures and where it's like, oh, that's... Oh, okay.
00:34:56
Speaker
Like an animal in front of your ah like panoramic landscape or something, and it's two-dimensional shapes and... but you can look at it and be like, oh yeah, that's whatever lake with a bear in front of it or something.
00:35:13
Speaker
ah It looks like one of those pictures, but it's a cryptid. It looks like it's in a national park. It's so cute. I think I, yeah, this one kind of looks like an ad where it's like, yeah, standing, crouching against a backdrop of, you know, ah mountains and a river. Yeah, it's like, visit North Dakota.
00:35:37
Speaker
Look at this mesa behind me. It's purple. Yeah. Theater was about National Park. Okay. Yeah. we do Did they do this officially? i don't know, but i love it. This guy, there's nothing mini about this guy at all. I love that mini's in his name, but he looks like, well, actually, because but like, unless you count Minotaur, because it does kind of remind me of that episode of Gravity Falls where the he...
00:36:05
Speaker
um dipper you know they're like 13 or whatever so he's like dealing with his manhood and he meets his minotaur and then there's ah these other guys and he's i'm full of i'm full of tor and stuff and I don't know. It's all about, it's like coded in masculinity. And this one guy's like, I don't know your name.
00:36:26
Speaker
So i'm just gonna call you Beardy. And he's like, it's Beardy. Like there's all these different minotaurs and stuff. Oh God, I love that episode. They're like, of course it is. Yeah. Anyway, shout out Gravity Falls. ah Such a good show.
00:36:43
Speaker
Sorry. right Just have a tiny bit more. Nice. Tor! Yeah, they insist that the bipedal buffalo is a pescatarian and subsisting on plants, fish, and grass.
00:37:01
Speaker
Okay, because that means you only eat fish for meat, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. weird and he's like a big this is where it gets right it gets even ah crazier i was like what even was this article on alice obscura i was reading because this was their closing statement i was like i want to read every one of their articles i get their emails and i'll be like yeah i should read that yeah um
00:37:33
Speaker
And though cryptid aficionados have likened the creature to a cross between West Virginia's aggressive saber-toothed sheep squatch, which I never heard of.
00:37:46
Speaker
ah Apparently we're not cryptid aficionados.
00:37:51
Speaker
Yeah, it was like, West Virginia's aggressive saber-toothed sheep squatch. Fuck. And the South, um this one I have heard of.
00:38:04
Speaker
Sorry, Sabretooth Sheep Squatch and the Southwest's blood-sucking Chupacabra. Sabretooth Sheep Squatch. Such a tongue twister. Yeah. That's what i was like, this is the most crazy paragraph about it.
00:38:19
Speaker
Most modern renderings of the Minnewashitu show it as an amiable cycl... cycloptic unicorn.
00:38:30
Speaker
my god. Yeah. Cycloptic is an adjective now? Okay. I know. I was like, not psychotic. It's not a psychotic unicorn. It's a cycloptic unicorn. I've never heard this word ever in my life. That's so funny. One-eyed. Why don't they just say one-eyed like everyone else?
00:38:51
Speaker
It's a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater. Oh, no, wait. It's red. Yeah. Yeah. ah like god But if you hear a terrific roar along the Missouri River during the day, just remember to look away and let the hard-working water monster usher in spring.
00:39:10
Speaker
That's the end. It's literally one-eyed, one-horned. This is such a fucking children's nursery rhyme. I know. I feel like it's a character in like Monsters, Inc. or something.
00:39:24
Speaker
oh totally. Totally. I could see it on Gravity Falls. Yeah, Monsters Inc. Mike Wazowski. There was ah Monsters vs. Aliens.
00:39:35
Speaker
That one has a cryptid in it. It's got the guy called The Missing Link. Pretty sure played by Will Arnett. And he's like, I'm the link between, you know, Neanderthals and monkeys or whatever.
00:39:48
Speaker
I haven't watched that one a long time. Oh, so good. That was really interesting. Never heard of him. He's very very specific in his looks.
00:40:01
Speaker
Yeah. I was like oh. I like that they were afraid of him but they're they also when they start hearing the ice breaking they're like he's here! I'm gonna wash it too!
00:40:14
Speaker
I like that too. i like the way um I don't know if there's a word it's not like anthropomorphizing but like like making nature take on like oh it's because of this legend that this like you know weather thing happens or this seasonal thing happens right like we just kind of like explain it that way i always love those ones yeah really cool yeah yeah i thought it was nice he helps them usher in the spring
00:40:47
Speaker
mini i'm never gonna remember any of those names for him they're all you washed it too right men wash you by why it then something something shape shifter sharp sheep it's a sheep squatch Oh, it was a sheep squatch.
00:41:13
Speaker
The way they just add squatch to everything now, though. It's a bat squatch, you know? Yeah, I don't know. know There are some lesser known cryptids. Sheep squatches.
00:41:25
Speaker
ah have I do know who the chupacabra is. but
00:41:31
Speaker
Right. No, but that's just sometimes you're just like, here's a goat man, or there's been a bunch of dog man sightings, and you're just like, wow, nobody talks about these ones very much. It's crazy. ah really cool I feel like Cycloptic Unicorn is would be a cool band name.
00:41:47
Speaker
oh it is. Cycloptic Unicorn! The older one I heard today that they were like, that'd be a cool band name or whatever was... a Lesbian Falia de...
00:42:02
Speaker
describe as someone described the uh we've talked about it on the pod the moberly jordain incident the time slip when they the two ladies are walking around versailles and they like slip back to the past and see maria and tonette and stuff and someone said it was a lesbian folie adieu you know just a shared madness of two lesbians like what okay anyway um amazing we'll take a short break we'll be back after work these sponsors
00:42:39
Speaker
hello hello i'm courtney and this is the book of the dead a true crime podcast based out of new jersey city For those looking for a podcast that focuses on the victims and who they were, or cases where the family is directly involved in the telling of their loved ones' stories, each chapter of this podcast is dedicated to the victim they feature.
00:43:04
Speaker
Here, you can find cases you may have never heard of, or interviews with experts that have dedicated their lives to protect and serve, and occasionally hear from the victim themselves.
00:43:17
Speaker
So get comfortable, grab a drink, and settle in for another chapter of The Book of the Dead.
00:43:34
Speaker
We are back. I did find the seal sticker I was talking about where it has a like weird oh the end of his tail. It looks like, yeah.
00:43:47
Speaker
Yeah. Kind of like a circular saw or like weirdly reminded. I was reminded of this when you're talking about your guy. I'm not sure how to say it exactly. i Ice, ice, ice, good dunk.
00:43:58
Speaker
I said good dunk.
00:44:01
Speaker
i remember I entered a contest on one of our Instagram people there who she just cryptid art and stuff.
00:44:13
Speaker
and And I won. That's how I got the sticker in the it was a book with the cryptid Zodiac. I remember now. Oh, yeah. ah but it's been a while. Anyway.
00:44:27
Speaker
One of these days. We're going to some good merch too. Especially my mom gave me such cool merch. Like my my most recent mug that I... Yeah, it's great.
00:44:38
Speaker
Instagram, yeah. I tried to do the thing where like if you tag someone now on Instagram, it's like, do you want to share this post with them? So you can like put it out as like a collab almost.
00:44:51
Speaker
And I was like, well, not with this person. But yes, if I tag castles and cryptids, I'll try it out with me. But then it didn't work. I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't know how these things work. I'm not good on the Instagrams.
00:45:04
Speaker
Yeah. okay Okay. this one creature comes to us from Philippine folklore or Filipino folklore.
Introduction to the Tionic: A Philippine Folklore Cryptid
00:45:16
Speaker
So yeah, they have a very rich um culture of folklore. I feel like I've come back to this well a few times and they're still like yeah website that's like here's a to z creatures like over 300 of them and i'm like what wow that's a lot of crazy yeah the website's like the asswong project and i'm like i know we've talked about asswongs asswangs yeah that can't be how you say it no i don't think so
00:45:53
Speaker
Oh my God. Anyway, that's not we're talking about today. These ones are, uh, to the best of my knowledge, pronounced the T-O-N-A-K or T-O-N-A-K. So there's a couple different spellings.
00:46:06
Speaker
T-I-Y-A-N-A-K, which I kept doing, even though the other ones were a little bit more simple. T-I-A-N-A-C-T-I-A-N-A-K.
00:46:18
Speaker
Basically, if you if you put it into Google, it if you look for Tionic stories, it might think you're looking for Titanic stories, especially if you use the spelling with the C at the end.
00:46:32
Speaker
Which was, like, fascinating, but not what I wanted. Just like when I was trying to tell you what battlefield I chose, and freaking autocorrect on my phone that isn't even supposed to be enabled, just kept changing it to Town Town.
00:46:46
Speaker
I was like, I'm not trying to say Town Town. honestly thought Town Town might have been autocorrect. Yeah, i was like, Town Town? it was like town town was saying town town and then please delete this repeating word it was like no toonten did you mean toonten abby
00:47:09
Speaker
i hate it my phone thinks it's smarter than me and i and i've mentioned yeah when we talk about autocorrect because pat pat will be like oh it did that to me today. And I'm like, you should just turn it off like Kelsey did. If it bugs you that much, it's like, mine's supposed to be off. It'll just like do squiggles. But yeah, every once in a while, it just really wants to automatically change a word. And I'm like, Nope, I know what I'm saying.
00:47:36
Speaker
Like, it's like when spell check, it's like, did you mean this? and you're like no, I meant the thing. That's like one letter away from the thing I said. Yeah, not a totally different, like, four different letters. Yeah, you idiot.
00:47:49
Speaker
This is a name. Yeah. Oh, God. Okay, so the way I came upon this one was I looked up, like, something like baby cryptids or something like that. Baby cryptids.
00:48:07
Speaker
So we talked about how it was like spring and like that's when some of the baby animals come out and ah stuff like that. And then I was like, oh, I know there's definitely little cryptids that are like creepy little guys or like, you know, sometimes cute little ones.
00:48:22
Speaker
But what I what I ended up with was this creature that's basically like a little baby vampire sort of thing. Oh,
00:48:34
Speaker
Yeah, sort of terrifying. um And of course there's been movies made about it because what sounds more creepy than a baby vampire? So they basically take on the look and sound of a baby or a toddler as they'll appear to their unwilling victims, unwitting victims or whatever. Yeah.
00:49:00
Speaker
So if you're walking alone in the jungle, and all you can hear is the sound of your own footsteps and then the crying of a newborn. Run away! There's no newborns in the middle of the jungle.
00:49:12
Speaker
No, it's not a changeling. It's not any of that. yeah It's trying to lure you in so it can kill you. um Creepy. If you do fall upon it, you know, fall, fall victim to its call. Then once you get to it, it might look like a baby until it reverts back to its original form and kills you.
00:49:35
Speaker
As one does. Yeah. Um, So yeah, it's, this one's definitely a bit of a cautionary tale in some ways we'll get to it.
00:49:46
Speaker
Um, yeah, just your classic loving to lead travelers astray and kidnap abduct children other and other, yeah.
00:49:58
Speaker
Victims.
00:50:00
Speaker
Um, innocent victims. They have the trait. They're always have that trait of being able to mimic like the cries of a baby. um So they'd be crying piteously in the forest so that you come to them.
00:50:15
Speaker
But even creepier, I think, is that sometimes they can imitate the voice of a specific child or baby. so oh that's very creepy.
00:50:26
Speaker
Does that thing where it sounds like someone you know and you're like, oh, no.
00:50:32
Speaker
Yeah. um Other traits can vary a bit by region. um This tends to happen with this kind of folkloric creature. sometimes they're described differently as babies with claws and fangs.
00:50:47
Speaker
Sometimes. yeah baby Yeah. Yeah. And what is it with vampiric folk folklore? At least... like Anne Rice and some of the other inspired byes where they're like, that's the one thing you don't do is you don't make a kid or a baby into a vampire.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah. It's against the rules. Um, so sometimes they look a little bit more like, I put dwarf dwarvish and then it auto corrected to dwarfish.
00:51:21
Speaker
So I would like to know who's right here anyway. dwarf-like.
00:51:28
Speaker
ah Like a wizened little old man. So they would have like wrinkles, a mustache and a beard, a very flat nose, and what was described as eyes the size of peseta coins.
00:51:40
Speaker
Spanish coins ah in use from 1868 to 2002.
00:51:46
Speaker
Very specific. I had to look it up. i'm like, what the fuck is a peseta? Yeah. um yeah like a toonie no i don't know there was definitely at least one podcast where they were like what the fuck is a loonie and then like we're so sorry we didn't know it's a oney didn't we say that yeah yeah it's a one because we called the the other one a toonie why do we call the other one a oney no it's a loonie
00:52:20
Speaker
Because it has loon on it. Come on. Yeah. A loony or toony. Loony toons. Costs a toony or two.
00:52:32
Speaker
Yeah, and then we have dollar stores called a buck or two because it's under a buck. Wait, there's a joke in there. I can't remember. It's not under a buck. so It's a buck or a two.
00:52:43
Speaker
No, no, no. There's one. There's a joke that's like, what is it? What's the difference between $2 bale and beer nuts? One is a dollar. Wait, that's not it. It's something like one's $1.99 and the other's under a buck.
00:52:57
Speaker
That's the punchline. That's all I know. Oh. Deer nuts. Under a buck? Anyway. I fucked up the delivery.
00:53:08
Speaker
so sorry.
00:53:11
Speaker
Oh, she needs more sleep. Okay. Okay, so yeah, the in this version where they look more like a little dwarf, they are also depicted often as having a one leg shorter than the other.
00:53:25
Speaker
So it moves with a a weird half leaping, crawling gait.
00:53:33
Speaker
oh I hate that. I don't know why. I'm pretty sure you can walk normally. You just have back pain if your legs aren't even.
00:53:43
Speaker
So... um Other versions have it taking the form of a baby as well, but it flies through the forest over the treetops. um Why?
00:53:55
Speaker
don't know. That one really made me giggle, though. And on the island of Mindano, the legend says it turns into a blackbird and then flies away. So kind of, you know, like the way vampires turn into bats, I guess.
00:54:13
Speaker
um There's another tale from central Luzon, one of the main provinces there, and especially in the region called Pampanga. And it has the Tianuk looking like a small nut brown people or person or whatever.
00:54:30
Speaker
And they generally float above the ground and have large features like eyes and noses. um That one kind of reminded me of Game of Thrones and the like...
00:54:42
Speaker
I forget what they called them, like the tree people or the forest people or something. And they were kind of like small little guys.
00:54:52
Speaker
I don't remember. I've tried banishing Game of Thrones from my head. Right. I don't blame you. i don't blame you. um They don't feature them a lot in the show. I think there's just one scene where they they do a flashback and one of them kills like the original...
00:55:10
Speaker
guy that becomes the night king like they show him stabbing a guy and then whatever don't know i'm like okay they're little forest people um okay this i think this description was from the aswang project it said the tianak is essentially a vampiric baby it presents initially as a lone infant abandoned and crying for sucker That's a word I don't say out loud a lot.
00:55:42
Speaker
Sorry. um The wailing is its siren's call, and when someone unwittingly approaches to help, the creature morphs into its true form. Its angelic face hardens and becomes demonic. Its eyes bulge and turn red.
00:55:56
Speaker
Its nails grow into long claws, and it gains sharp teeth with with which it bites before sucking the blood of its victim. um
00:56:07
Speaker
It's so creepy. I hate all of it. It's not good.
00:56:13
Speaker
um just holding my neck like, no! No vampiric baby. know. And like a fast moving little vampire thing. Oh oh no, wait sorry, that was the next sentence. Oh, and it moves fast too.
00:56:29
Speaker
It scrambles and leaps, almost flying into the air. You can't just drop the baby and run. it will give chase.
00:56:38
Speaker
No. Chucky vibes. but Yeah.
00:56:44
Speaker
It's usually found in forests at night, and it is said that the only way to resist the pull of the Teanux cries is to turn your clothes inside out before venturing into the woods, end quote.
00:56:57
Speaker
Oh, where did we hear that before? Something was turning your clothes inside out or putting them on backwards? I know. i think I'm not sure where, because but it's something that I feel like I had heard at least once, like listening to a podcast about a creature or something.
00:57:18
Speaker
But maybe, oh, cause I mean, I'm sure I've touched, because we did vampires and I... Or like we've done ones where I've talked about a few different ah Filipino folklore creatures, I think, before I'd heard of the Aswang.
00:57:33
Speaker
um there's yeah There's a lot of flying vampire-y ones they have. the The other one, I think, was called the Mananangal or something.
00:57:46
Speaker
I don't know. They gave me like creepy blood sucking half formed humanoid things flying through the air vibes.
00:57:59
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. Such a weird, uh, counter measure but we'll get into there's a there's a few other things they suggest you can do um to ward them off uh it also there was a quote that said there are some variations though like in the netflix show um i don't know how to pronounce this either trees or treze t-r-e-s-e but it's probably spanish so i'm not sure
00:58:32
Speaker
Um, it said where the Tionic has long limbs and can climb walls like a spider.
00:58:41
Speaker
so Even worse. Stop making it worse. I know. Love it. ah It's such a long time since I've deep dived into a creepy creature I was just like, God, these guys are you yucky.
00:58:57
Speaker
Also, we just finally watched Nosferatu. At least I watched it all. Rain and Pat tapped out. Because it was very long and a little bit slow. Yeah.
00:59:09
Speaker
I liked it. No, I did. i was like... I feel appropriately creeped out and skeeved out and, you know, all the things. And I liked it. But it was it was a bit of a slog, ah I guess.
00:59:24
Speaker
Um...
00:59:27
Speaker
Uh... Okay, so these guys have been also compared to the Spanish Duende, I just felt like I'd heard of before, so I wanted to mention it um Oh, and yeah, one more creepy detail that reminded me of other their similar mimicky type creatures, mimic creatures.
00:59:47
Speaker
If it sounds close to you, it's actually far away. And if it sounds far away, it's right fucking there. that's nice. Yeah. Don't know how that works, but it's just like the creepiest little detail when they have that ability. Yeah.
01:00:04
Speaker
Yeah. um I looked up a couple origin stories, which kept trying to correct me as original stories. Thanks, word.
01:00:16
Speaker
I know what I meant to mean.
01:00:20
Speaker
as Gloria would say. So in the Batanga's region, I believe, this version has the creatures as lost babies who went into the wild.
01:00:30
Speaker
How? How? By the way, these are all so, like, sad. just How? How does the lost baby make its way into the forest?
01:00:42
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. We should do a series like the National Park ones they do where people just vanish without a trace sometimes. Or sometimes the kids come back without, like, a scratch on them and you're like, how?
01:01:00
Speaker
Yeah. Um... Sometimes they say they are babies who died without a name, um which is kind of sad. And in this version, they are kind of stuck earthbound until they can get a name to move on.
01:01:17
Speaker
I don't know. I definitely have heard some folklore where they don't like to name the babies too young, but that different. um The Mandia people of Mindano, again, like the largest island after Luzon province,
01:01:34
Speaker
They believe the Tionic are spirits of kids whose mother died before birth. So guess died when they were still pregnant with the child. So then they were considered to have been born in the ground, quote unquote.
01:01:47
Speaker
Um, Yeah, it's all just a little dark. But they do have a similar creature that comes up called the Pontianak. And it seems to exist more in Malay culture, which I guess is like from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, and Brunei.
01:02:07
Speaker
So those sort of areas. and um But I was like, it's basically the same name. so I think it's like basically the same creature. Yeah. And then there were some interesting passages on Wikipedia from history of
01:02:27
Speaker
preventative measures, I'll call these ones. So one account, it said from Juan de Placencia?
01:02:41
Speaker
Sorry? Customs?
01:02:45
Speaker
ah Yeah. I don't know if this is... Yeah, this must be the book or whatever it's in. Customs of the Tagalogs. 1589. know Tagalog is the
01:02:54
Speaker
i know tagalog is the Filipino language they usually speak because I worked with a bunch of Filipinos. Salamat. um So for the Mandaya people of Mindano, the Tiyanak originated from the spirit of a child whose mother died before giving birth.
01:03:15
Speaker
So this is the same. They're considered born in the ground, thus gaining its current state as a creature of the earth and soil that modern Filipinos refer to as a Laman Lupa.
01:03:29
Speaker
Laman Lupa, which literally means root crop, which I don't love. thought it was interesting for the etymology of the, I don't know, like words.
01:03:45
Speaker
And the other quote said that Tagalog people believed that if any woman died in childbirth, she and the child suffered punishment and that at night she could be heard lamenting.
01:03:58
Speaker
This was called partyic may the honor and glory be god our lords that among all the tagalogs not a trace of this is left and that those who are now marrying do not even know what it is thanks to the preaching of the holy gospel which has banished it think that one and had uh some of the spanish uh catholic influence on it but after they came
Cultural Practices and Cryptid Lore
01:04:23
Speaker
um But what was interesting, I learned about the etymology of the word of the creature, the Teonics, or however you say it, is that many people interpret the name Teonic as coming from the words Teon, meaning womb or stomach, and Onak, meaning child.
01:04:43
Speaker
um But the name was initially spelled Teon. Again, just different spellings with a C and with K, Tianach or Tianach. From the earlier Pateonic or Pateonic meaning dead child.
01:04:58
Speaker
So it's a little, again, dark and dreary. um Yeah. But like kind of ties into some of these origin stories they believe in. So I thought it was interesting. And then apparently when the Spanish came to the country in the 16th century, that's when Catholicism...
01:05:17
Speaker
entered the chat so to speak and kind of influenced some of the origin stories um so some of these might be again like a little triggering but the idea was then that some of the that the tiana could be souls of infants that weren't baptized before they were born and died or whatever
01:05:39
Speaker
so they're like they're the ones that didn't see you know weren't christian or whatever you're like okay um And I have to say even more triggering perhaps some versions say that they are like aborted fetuses that return to seek revenge on their quote unquote killers.
01:05:58
Speaker
To... Why? but it mildly.
01:06:05
Speaker
I think there's a little bit of a quote that helped me give a little more context to like maybe that it's still kind of frowned upon there like abortion and stuff like that so maybe it's kind of one of those like oh this is if we so keep stigmatizing it and use this as a cautionary tale then yeah whatever i don't know um the there was another description of the tianic
01:06:39
Speaker
Uh, that's nothing new. yeah, it was, they called it the spirit of a child whose mother died while pregnant and for who, for this reason was born in the ground.
01:06:51
Speaker
The belief in a similar spirit known as Munteonic is widespread throughout the Southern Philippines. Uh, So a lot of similar named creatures. um When first encountered, this said, the Teonic looked like a naked newborn baby.
01:07:08
Speaker
ah very plump baby lying on the side leaf of a banana plant. That sounds super adorable. Like a Cabbage Patch Kid or something? Yeah.
01:07:22
Speaker
I'm so cute. Oh my God, just watched a trailer today for a new John Lithgow movie. um Him and Jeffrey Rush and they're in like a retirement home situation and John Lithgow's like running around with this weird little creepy baby doll and like terrorizing the other guy. i don't know.
01:07:42
Speaker
It's called like the rule of Jenny, Jenny Penn or something. think that might be the name of the doll. he Never heard of it I hadn't either, but they, I was just listening the smart list today and they had John Lithgow And i was like, this looks creepy.
01:07:59
Speaker
Um, yeah.
01:08:04
Speaker
Uh, this one was talking about two boys who once founded Tionic lifted him up and kissed him many times when fondled the infant, seeming creature suddenly turned into a little old man with an old man's face, wrinkled skin, long beard, and mustache.
01:08:21
Speaker
It had a flat nose, the eyes were the size of a peseta coin, and its right leg was much shorter than the other so that the creature had to move around by leaps. The Tianuk are said to take a mischievous delight in misdirecting travelers, and one of them, quote, laughed, ha ha ha, I fooled you, I fooled you, and disappeared.
01:08:43
Speaker
These are not even full stories. In the tale of the devil child, Tiana cried, ahaha, ahaha, like a human infant to attract passerby. And it had the happy voice of a baby at play.
01:08:57
Speaker
i don't know. It's like trying to make me make a noise and i don't know how to make it.
01:09:07
Speaker
um But yes, they again reiterate that they're capable of being outwitted, especially if you turn your clothes inside out, um which might distract them with laughter.
01:09:19
Speaker
can't remember if there was other explanations as to why that was supposed to work, but they also hate loud noises like fireworks. um So they talked about, I think in one, you know, how like,
01:09:31
Speaker
Chinese New Year and different celebrations, they'll do, like, fireworks and stuff. Well, some of that was to help ward off some of the evil spirits, I guess.
01:09:43
Speaker
Or you can try other things that are, like, vampire repellents, like garlic crosses, etc. um Or you can try to help guide their spirits onward with a white candle to light their way home or a If they're one like the nameless ones, you can help to name them so they can move on.
01:10:09
Speaker
But one of my favorite preventive measures was this description ah from Wikipedia that said from Wanda. This guy, Wanda Plasencia.
01:10:23
Speaker
I feel like we talked about him already. 1589. Yeah. It said, fifteen eighty nine oh it's a pregnant women could not cut their hair for they said that the children that they would bear would have no hair when a woman is about to give birth some men undressed until they are stark naked Then, taking shields and katans, one takes a stand in the Cylon and another on the ridge of the house and they continually fence with the wind with their katans.
01:10:56
Speaker
As long as the parturition lasts. Sorry, this one had a lot of weird words. um Well, they're naked? They're just fencing on the top of the house?
01:11:07
Speaker
They're just wielding their swords to keep the spirits away.
01:11:15
Speaker
um This quote went on to say from 1589, I have removed some from this performance by force of punishment. They say that it is to keep the pattania and the Aswang away from the woman.
01:11:29
Speaker
These are witches among them who come to obstruct the success of the childbirth and to suck out the souls of the children. And the people act thus in order to prevent them. He who does not wish to have this observed in public through fear of punishment removes his wife to another house for the parturition if he thinks that the witch is in his.
01:11:54
Speaker
it's It's quite a picture. Yeah. um Yeah, the this other historical quote was a similar account from Francisco to San Antonio, Cronicas, 1738 44. Yeah.
01:12:15
Speaker
seventy thirty eightight to forty-our They have many other superstitions as that of the Pataniak, a spirit or ideal being whose employment or amusement consists in preventing, by certain means particular to itself, the delivery of a woman in labor.
01:12:32
Speaker
To counteract the malignity, like malignant, but malignity. Sorry.
01:12:43
Speaker
That's a new word for me. Of the spirit, the husband fastening the door reduces himself to a state of complete nudity, lights a fire and arming himself with a sword continues to flourish it furiously until the woman is delivered.
01:12:58
Speaker
was helping the woman while the guy does this. I'd rather he be out of my way, out of my business. He doesn't need to looking down there, seeing what's going on when I'm giving birth. That's the doctors and the midwives.
01:13:10
Speaker
He can be a, like, I famous, not famously, but like, I think Pat wanted to poke his head and was just like, go away. You don't need to be.
01:13:21
Speaker
Anyway. Um, so yeah, that's really all I could find on them. Other than there was like a couple of similar creatures that had,
01:13:32
Speaker
um a paragraph or two that i was like and they have similar names like the way they keep calling this one like the tianak or the patianak like they're all um really similar and this other one was called the antianak it's like the anti that one no but yeah this one's apparently in um Oh god, a lot of these are really big words.
01:14:03
Speaker
Kempengon mythology? ah This is a race of creatures called Antionic, believed to be one of the oldest beings on Earth. They looked like normal humans, but smaller in size.
01:14:16
Speaker
um Just a little bit. It says in in brackets, growing to 12 inches tall. Damn. And were extremely powerful. They would be dwarfed by that snow out there today. Yeah.
01:14:31
Speaker
um It said their civilization sensation was said to be more advanced and capable to communicate with the trees, animals, the spirits of the wind and the water. So. Other than their name, like they don't sound super similar, but like it's so weird that that their name was really the same.
01:14:52
Speaker
Less vampiric. Um, but this other one is kind of also really creepy and it's the last one i'm going to talk about. And there was definitely creepy pictures of it that I should and will put on the drive and on our Instagram eventually.
01:15:11
Speaker
Um, it's the Montionic.
01:15:16
Speaker
This is a creature from Mindanoan folklore. A vengeful female spirit with a slit in her belly exposing her unborn child inside.
01:15:30
Speaker
So creepy. Yeah, it's not like, oh we're after your babies. She has her own baby and it's almost falling out of her. So she sees men as enemies, believing that her pregnancy caused her her pregnancy caused her miserable fate.
01:15:47
Speaker
For this reason, she preys on men at night by ripping off their genitals with her long, sharp claws. Oh no. She's a man-eater, make you work more. Just rips them off.
01:16:04
Speaker
Damn. I know. Talk about a man-hater. You did this to me!
01:16:14
Speaker
Um, okay. So this, yeah, that same article had some, um, interesting sort of context. Um, they said, but this remedy applies to almost any supernatural occurrence in the Philippine jungles.
01:16:29
Speaker
ah Sorry, this might not have followed exactly after, but early Filipinos believe that the world is inhabited by territorial nature spirits who can harm or play tricks on you. Once you step across the elemental boundary, doing something strange.
01:16:43
Speaker
Oh, this was about the wearing your clothes inside out while in a strange place might break any enchantments. um
01:16:52
Speaker
Sorry, had that kind of maybe in the wrong place. Oh yeah. And then talked about a lot of noises and the firecrackers. also clanking metal objects cause they hate loud noises.
01:17:06
Speaker
Um, Oh, this is what I was talking about. More context. The, cause this one article said that even, um, like as far as the stigma against all these, you know, souls supposedly of, you know, dead babies and whatever, which is obviously very sad, but they're like,
01:17:30
Speaker
Even in the Philippines today, newborns are found deserted on roadsides and other bushy areas. Not sure, again, how true this is, but the mothers are usually minors who conceived out of wedlock and or were victims of rape and have no means to support their offspring, which, yeah, that can happen anywhere, sadly. yeah um But they said that they think the Tianek lore reflects the risks of maternal and infant mortality during childbirth.
01:17:58
Speaker
But the fear of the creature was propagated to kind of guilt trip mothers since abortion is still illegal and heavily stigmatized in the country. So the demon baby is a link to our past where we've had very different ideas of moral obligations and everything wasn't always explained by science.
01:18:17
Speaker
um Which I think just goes to show how stigmatizing abortion and all that crap can be very, very harmful. to a also not to like bring it back around to you know today's issues but it's pretty crazy because like if they were scared to seek that kind of treatment there I mean ah just hearing so many horror stories too about like
01:18:52
Speaker
even if you're not having an abortion or something, but if you had like a miscarriage with complications and you're in a state in the U S that doesn't offer, they consider any care to do with that, like an abortion and it's illegal. You might have to go to a different state to get the medical care you need to live because you like miscarried or whatever. And you know, not everything yeah came out properly and You know, it's like, what the fuck?
01:19:25
Speaker
This is crazy. Um, so yeah, not to end on a crazy dark note, but like, what the fuck is the world coming to? Like, should be just so much more free everywhere. so we don't have these horror stories and, you know, cautionary tales that are supposed to like, I don't know what make people scared of ever having sex and getting pregnant.
01:19:51
Speaker
Poor girls in every fucking folklore tale. We always get the worst of it. Or through history. You could say. yeah Ugh.
01:20:05
Speaker
Anyway. But funny vampire babies.
01:20:11
Speaker
I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to be heavy. It's been a fucking week over here. Okay? Yeah. Ugh. yeah
01:20:20
Speaker
oh
01:20:22
Speaker
Vampire babies. really enjoyed yours.
01:20:29
Speaker
And there are some, i will I think there was some cute pictures of babies with fangs and stuff that I can at least include her Instagram. And no hashtags about fetuses or anything like that. Oh my God.
01:20:46
Speaker
No. I don't need to have two, triggers I have two triggering cases two weeks in a row. First I get, literal, like, beheading and cannibalism. And then I'm like, and then these ones might have to do with poor unblessed souls. No.
01:21:07
Speaker
Um.
01:21:10
Speaker
Religious trauma. Okay. Pray for us. No. ah Oh my god, Kelsey, help me. I'm spiraling. How do I end this? Okay.
01:21:21
Speaker
a I don't think we decided what we're doing next time oh no did we not yet we have our our Patreon picked which is the next thing we have to work on so that's why we haven't yeah pick the next episode but that's because we're gonna yeah haunted battlefields which is really it's gonna be a fun one excuse me yeah Some ghost stories.
01:21:55
Speaker
Yay. Hey, they all knew they were going to battle. Yeah. I got nothing else. I'm trying to make it sound better, but no, it should be fun. Like there's so many, you know, like ghosty stories from battlefields and stuff like that. So I think it should be a fun one. And you, I know you've already picked and I'm going have to pick something and Yeah. Sometimes there's just like too many on a topic where I'm like, well, I could do that one or could do that one It's like, like with this, I was like, calm down. You could do one cryptid today and you can do another one next time you guys do one.
01:22:30
Speaker
Yeah. I won't run out of topics. All right. Well, we will see you next week. Yeah. And if you miss us in the meantime, join Patreon.
01:22:45
Speaker
It's.com slash castle and cryptids. And I made us a new TikTok account. So I'll let you know when I post something there. Yeah.
01:22:57
Speaker
All right. Until next time, keep it cryptic. Bye. Bye. but but
01:23:07
Speaker
Thank you for listening to Castles Encrypteds. We love all our listeners and appreciate every subscriber, every new review, every listen, rate, and download. Our music is by Kobe Off Air and our cover art is by Antonio Garcia.
01:23:21
Speaker
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01:23:35
Speaker
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01:23:47
Speaker
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