The Kelpie and the Nine Children From the Highlands (1900)
The legend tells the story of a group of children from the Scottish Highlands, who were playing when they saw a very large and friendly horse. They saw there was room enough for all of them on its back, and so climbed up. But when the horse took off at a gallop the frightened children tried to jump off, but they were all stuck fast. Only one of the children survived, and managed to jump off whilst the horse dove straight into a loch. None of the children were ever seen again, but the next day searchers found their remains on the surface of the pond. The horse is said to have been a water-horse or a kelpie: a creature that likes to fool humans into thinking it is an ordinary horse that will drag you underwater to your doom.
The Deer Woman (not known)
The story of the Deer Woman originates from Native American folklore and features in the mythology of several Native American tribes, most notably the Chippewa. The Deer Woman’s form varies between a deer and an old woman; however she favours the form of beautiful maiden with the legs and feet of the deer. Legend has it; she calls out to men who are hunting and are then lured into her trap to waste away until they die. According the Chippewa, she can be banished with the use of tobacco and chants, while some say that her spell can be broken by noticing her hooved feet.
La Llorona (1519)
Can you hear her cries? La Llorona, also known as the Weeping Woman is one of the oldest and most terrifying Mexican Folklores to date. La Llorona is the ghost of a beautiful woman named Maria who drowned her children in a blind rage following her husband’s infidelity. Suddenly realising what she had done, she also threw herself in the river after her children. The spirit of La Llorona is said to still haunt the riverbanks in her white robes, weeping as she walks and kidnapping children, mistaking them as her own and then drowning them. The La Llorona folk-tale has been passed on, generation after generation waiting until darkness falls to scare children before they sleep.
