Last year, I wrote about bakeneko and nekomata, two yokai, or supernatural entities, from Japanese folklore. Since then, I have learned about even more Japanese cats creatures, and I am delighted to share them with you. This article is mostly derived from a book called Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan by Zack Davisson. I highly recommend it if you would like to learn more.
What is a “kaibyo,” you may be wondering? It means “strange cats,” and the term that encompasses all feline yokai [1]. Kaibyo mostly consist of different bakeneko and nekomata, however one of the strange cats on our list today is neither [1, 4].
Kasha (火車)
The word kasha means “fire cart” [1-3]. You’re probably thinking that was a typo, but it was not. Kasha are a type of oni (demon) that originated with depictions on Kamakura Era hell scrolls of oni carrying sinners in flaming carts [1, 2]. The hell scrolls, jigoku-zoshi, were an art form that depicted the horrors of the Buddhist hell in order to scare the illiterate masses into following the way of the Buddha [1, 2]. These early kasha were not cat-like [1]. Edo Period artist Toriyama Sekien drew the first known feline kasha in 1776 [1].
Toriyama Sekien’s kasha – Wikimedia Commons
The cat-like kasha that became the dominant lore is a bakeneko, or “changing cat” [1, 3]. Some said a housecat becomes a kasha because it gained power through old age [1]. Others believed that cats left alone with a dead body transform into kasha [1]. Whenever someone died, cats would be driven from the house to keep this from happening [1].
Why were people so afraid their cat might become a kasha? Because kasha are fiery, corpse-stealing necromancers [1-3]. Kasha descend from trees and rooftops during funerals to steal the body away–sometimes to drag the sinner to hell, sometimes to eat, and sometimes to play with [1, 3]. Kasha are able to raise the dead, apparently not in a happy way, or to manipulate lifeless bodies like puppets [1, 3]. In their true form, kasha are at least as large as a person, walk on their hind legs, and have an aura of fire or lightning [3].
Bakeneko Yujo (化猫遊女)
As the name suggests, this kaibyo is a type of bakeneko. Like all bakeneko, bakeneko yujo are known for their shapeshifting abilities. “Yujo” refers to sex workers, so the name speaks for itself [1]. Bakeneko yujo were said to be beautiful sex workers who were actually shapeshifting cats in disguise, perhaps luring men to their chambers to meet a grisly end [1, 4].
The bakeneko yujo arose as an urban legend during the highly creative Edo Period [1]. The tales were spread and popularized by kiboshi (“yellow books”), very short, cheap, and lurid novels like the European penny dreadfuls [1]. In the typical tale, a customer arranges the services of a sex worker, only to wake up in the middle of the night to see her casting a feline shadow and realize what she is [1]. The reader doesn’t usually find out the man’s fate [1]. Some stories are more grostesque, such as one where the customer witnesses the bakeneko yujo in a feline form chewing a human arm [1].
Bakeneko Yujo by Torii Kiyonaga,1775 – Wikimedia Commons
Though the urban legend started out creepy and sometimes grisly, bakeneko yujo became an object of desire [1]. Men would specifically go in search of sex workers who might be kaibyo in disguise [1]. The sex workers quickly realized they could take advantage of this and would play into the legend with such little tricks as keeping pet cats and asking their customers for gifts of seafood [1]. Today, human felinity still evokes a sense of beauty and sex appeal in Japan [1, 4].
Neko Musume (猫娘)
A neko musume is a kaibyo all her own, neither bakeneko nor nekomata [1, 4]. Neko musume means “cat daughter” or, figuratively, “cat girl” [1, 4]. Neko musume are cat/human hybrids, possessing distinctly feline physical and behavioral traits [1, 4]. The legend originated with the misemono of the mid-1700s [1]. These carnivals included freak show-like displays of oddities, both objects and people [1]. Yokai were a popular subject [1].
One such misemono performer was known as the neko musume, and she was very popular [1]. No pictures of her exist, but she was described as looking exactly like a hybrid of human and cat, as she claimed [1]. Whether this was due to a medical condition or clever cosmetics, no one knows [1].
Neko musume began to appear in literature in 1800 [1]. The increasingly popular stories often involve the frustrated efforts of parents to handle a daughter who looks and acts kind of like a cat [1, 4]. The feline features vary, but a habit of hunting and eating small rodents is usually a prominent feature [1]. In one story, a mother at the end of her rope finally decides to take advantage of her odd daughter’s talents and makes the neko musume the village’s professional ratcatcher [1]. A whole genre of human/animal hybrid stories was spawned from the popularity of these strange tales [1, 4].
Cat girls, as well as other hybrids, remain popular in Japanese media today [1, 4]. There is famously a cat girl in the manga and anime Gegege no Kitaro named, creatively, Neko-Musume [4].
Works Cited
Davisson, Z. (2021). Kaibyo: The supernatural cats of Japan (2nd ed.). Mercuria Press: Portland, OR.
Black cats are a quintessential symbol of Halloween. Unfortunately, their association with Spooky Season is tied to their reputation for bringing bad luck. How many of us have heard that it is an ill omen for a black cat to cross your path? Of course, it is just a matter of genetics that makes one cat black and another ginger or white. Why did black cats get such a bad rap? The history of this myth goes back hundreds if not thousands of years.
Faeries and Familiars
It is hard to pin down a precise origin of the black cat legend. Folklore from numerous places and times likely contributed. In Celtic myth, a fairy called the Cat Sith or King of Cats appears as a black cat with a white chest [9]. Like many fairies, he may bless you if shown respect, but you had better not cross him.
In Scotland, a tale is told about a man who saw a funeral procession of cat carrying the body of a black cat with a white chest while yowling “The King of Cats is dead!” Well, this was quite the spectacle, so the man went home and told his family what he had seen. When he finished his story, the man’s own tuxedo cat leapt to his feet and shouted, “Then that makes me the King of Cats!” The new Cat Sith flew up the chimney, and his humans never saw him again. [9]
The Irish tell a darker version of this story. A man lived in a cottage in a village in Ireland. All his neighbors were careful to keep the fae folk happy. To this end, they left out milk for the Cat Sith once a week. But not this man, oh no. He thought it was a bunch of hogwash. His neighbors insisted that the Cat Sith kept their crops safe and prevented unwanted spirits from interfering with the land, but he would have none of it. In fact, he decided to prove them wrong. [9]
One night, he set out a cut of poisoned milk. Later, he heard a knock at the door, but when he opened, there was no late caller. There was a black cat with a white chest dying on his doorstep. The man just went down to the pub to ask whose cat it was. Well, after a few pints, he started telling everyone the whole story. Suddenly, the black-and-white cat that lived in the pub stood up and announced, “Then that makes me the King of Cats!” The new Cat Sith then ran at the cat-king-killer and attacked him. The Cat Sith drove the man out of town, and he was never seen nor heard from again. [9]
According to legend, the Cat Sith would steal the souls of the recently deceased by walking over their graves. As such, cats–especially black cats–used to be chased out of graveyards in case they were the Cat Sith trying to steal someone’s soul. [9]
Witchcraft and the Medieval Era
Medieval Europe was fertile ground for negative folklore about black cats. In 1233, Pope Gregory IX declared that black cats are an incarnation of the devil [12]. Christians across the continent took the message to heart, rounding up black cats and burning them alive at village festivals as “punishment” [12]. Western Christianity continued to view cats as emissaries of Satan for hundreds of years. So many black cats were killed during the Medieval era that domestic cats were nearly extinct in parts of Europe by the 1300s [12]. It’s thought that the loss of so many cats may actually have contributed to the spread of bubonic plague [4]. No cats means lots and lots of rats. Tragically, the people of Medieval Europe had no idea what good luck the cats were to have around.
Over time, it wasn’t as common to believe that black cats were literally the devil, but rather that they did the work of the devil through witchcraft. One version of the superstition held that black cats were more likely to be the familiars of witches [3, 6, 12]. A familiar is an animal which aids in the performance of magic or carries out magical tasks. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that cats, especially those with black pelts, helped witches to carry out evil spells, spy on their victims, and communicate with the devil [4, 11]. Some people even thought that black cats could become a witch themselves if they served as a witch’s familiar for seven years [12].
The other incarnation of this belief was that black cats were witches in disguise [3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12]. According to one Welsh folktale, a popular inn owned by two sisters had trouble with a thief stealing the valuables of travelers [8]. The lodgers couldn’t explain how the thefts occurred because their rooms were still locked in the morning, yet their money was gone [8]. Word of this mystery reached a retired army officer named Huw Llwyd, and he went to stay at the inn himself to solve it [8]. At night, he kept his sword in bed and pretended to sleep, until he saw two cats slink down the partition between his room and the next [8].
The cats played with Huw’s clothes until one of them found the pocket where he kept his purse. The cat stuck their paw in, but Huw sprang forward and sliced the paw off. Both cats screamed and disappeared into the night. The next morning, one of the innkeepers was absent. Huw inquired after her, but her sister said she was indisposed. Huw refused to leave until he bid her goodbye. Of course, he found that the “indisposed” sister was missing her right hand, as he had expected. Huw ran the witches out of town. [8]
Another gruesome legend, this one from Lincolnshire, England, tells of a father and son who came upon a black cat. Suspecting it of being a witch, they pelted it with stones. The next day, they saw the witch in her human form. She had bandages on her face. She died soon thereafter. [3]
Bad Luck and Bad Omens
In North America, it is still a common maxim that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck. Scholars think that Norman and Germanic peoples originated this saying [4]. They believed that spotting a black cat was an omen of death [4]. The Norse goddess Hel, who was associated with death, included black cats among her symbols [3]. Later European folklore evolved to say that a black cat crossing your path by moonlight meant an outbreak of disease and death was coming [6].
In 16th century Italy, a black cat laying on someone’s sickbed was thought to herald their death [11]. In parts of Wales, an old proverb cautions “Na chadw byth yn nghyleh dy dŷ/Na cheiliog gwyn na chath ddu,” or “Never keep about thy house/A white rooster or black cat” [8]. And of course, vestiges of belief in witchcraft alone have sometimes given black cats a reputation for being evil or bad luck in the Western world [3].
Cats are an integral part of folklore all over the world. Books and movies have spotlighted the notion that black cats are bad luck, but many cultures still believe just the opposite. Even within a country, opinions may differ. In Wales, although one proverb cautions against ever keeping a black cat, another traditional saying promises that having a black cat in the house brings good luck and drives away fevers [8].
A black cat, I’ve heard it said,
Can charm all ill away,
And keep the house wherein she dwells
From fever’s deadly sway.
Welsh folk-lore by Elias Owen (1896)
Japan holds cats in high regard in general. The Japanese say that black cats specifically bring a certain kind of luck. Owning a black cat will bring suitors to a woman’s door [4]. Simply encountering a black cat may bring luck in love [11]. Lucky Maneki Neko or “beckoning cat” statues are sometimes black. Black Maneko Neko are believed to ward off evil and illness.
Additionally, some sailors believe that black cats are extra lucky to have onboard a ship [6, 11]. Fishermen’s wives sometimes kept black cats to ensure their husbands returned home safely [6]. In Scotland, a black cat appearing at your door or on your porch is said to bring prosperity [11]. And in a variety of places, dreaming of a black cat or finding a single white hair in one’s pelt is good luck [11]. So it really depends who you ask whether black cats bring bad luck or good. Unfortunately, it is the black cats themselves who may be the recipients of their reputed curse.
Are Black Cats in Danger at Halloween?
Rumor has it that Halloween is not a good time to be a black cat. Expert opinion on the matter is mixed, however. For a long time, some animal shelters have refused to adopt out black cats during October/near Halloween [1, 2, 5, 10]. There are two reasons for this. One is that they fear the animals will be ritualistically killed or tortured for a sick Halloween “prank” [1, 2, 5, 10]. The other is that people might adopt a black cat in a flurry of seasonal spirit, then abandon their kitty when Spooky Season is over [1, 10].
Without a doubt, there are people who hurt animals just because they can. Whether black cats are at high risk around Halloween, it’s hard to say for certain. Part of that fear is clearly rooted in misunderstanding. Halloween is celebrated by neo-pagans as Samhain, an old Gaelic festival of the dead. Combined with the vestiges of the Satanic Panic, we’re left with the belief that witches and Satanists sacrifice black cats at Halloween in arcane rituals [1, 2, 5]. Real witches and Satanists aren’t about that sort of thing. It wouldn’t be surprising for a neo-pagan to engage in ritual magic on Samhain, but they won’t be killing any black cats in the process.
What about those who engage in the sadly ordinary forms of animal cruelty? Are black cats “an easy target for Halloween pranksters who commit violent acts against unsuspecting kitties,” as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals tells us [10]? They certainly can be. But so are cats of other colors, and puppies, and gerbils, and whatever other innocent animals they might get their hands on. It doesn’t have to be Halloween for people like that to engage in such unconscionable behavior, either. It happens all the time. Fortunately, a lot of animal shelters have measures in place to prevent people from adopting an animal just so they can torture it. It still happens sometimes, but not as often as it might. Animal shelters don’t make you fill out all that paperwork for the fun of it.
According to Francis Battista, cofounder of Best Friends Animal Society, “There is no evidence that black cats are at special risk of abuse if adopted around Halloween” [1]. What about the second problem, though? Do people actually adopt black cats as nothing more than Halloween decorations? There doesn’t seem to be any data on this. It would be a hard thing to study, after all. Who would want to admit to that? These days, more shelters are accepting whatever small risk there might be of this and relinquishing their bans on October black cat adoptions so that more black cats can find loving homes [1].
Are Black Cats Less Likely to Be Adopted?
The more opportunities black cats have to be adopted, the better, because there is some data to suggest that black cats may have a harder time finding homes. Lepper et al studied cat and dog adoptions at the Sacramento County Department of Animal Care and Regulation for 20 months [7]. They analyzed six factors they thought might contribute to adoption rates: breed, coat color, age, sex (including intact or sterilized), hair length, and reason for impoundment [7]. Among their findings, the data indicated that coat color in cats made a difference in how often they were adopted. The researchers set tabby cats as the baseline [7]. Black cats were only adopted 59% as often as tabbies!
Happy Halloween! – Image by LorysCats from Pixabay
This supports the common maxim that black cats are less likely to be adopted than other colors. However, brown cats were in the same boat, adopted 56% as often as tabbies [7]. And black-and-white cats, which I’ve always heard are less adoptable, too, were not adopted at a statistically different rate than tabbies [7]. White, color-point, and gray cats were adopted more often, if you were curious [7]. Additionally, a 2013 study at Colorado State University concluded that it takes 4-6 days longer for black cats to be adopted than cats of any other color [12].
The observations of shelter workers count for something in their own right. They tend to report that black and black-and-white cats stay in the shelter longer and are euthanized more often. However, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals claims that it’s all a myth [10]. They say that the only reason there are more black cats in shelters is because there are more black cats in the population [10]. Black coat color comes from a dominant gene, making it a very common color in domestic cats.
Still, shelter staff have their own say on the matter. “There definitely is a preference for other colors in my opinion. We have adopted out more than 10,000 cats and time and time again, black cats are always overlooked,” explains Samantha Shelton, president of Furkids no-kill shelter in Georgia, USA [10]. Whatever the truth about their adoption rate, black cats need loving homes just like all other kitties. Some shelters have special adoption days for black cats and dogs, sometimes on Black Friday or perhaps August 17, National Black Cat Appreciation Day in the US! So adopt, don’t shop, and give a black cat a forever haunt.
Lepper, M., Kass, P. H., and Hart, L. A. (2002). Prediction of adoption versus euthanasia among dogs and cats in a California animal shelter. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 5(1), 29-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327604JAWS0501_3
At long last, we have reached the end of our series on werecats. We are rounding out the line-up with werepumas, which really only take one form: the wampus cat. It might be a bit of a stretch the call wampus cats a type of werecat, but they do have many of the common characteristics. Plus, these creatures come from my own neck of the woods, so I didn’t want to leave them out. I now present to you the (sort-of) werecat of the American south.
What is a Wampus Cat?
Wampus: An imaginary creature who lives in the deep Cape Fear River swamps.
Paul Green’s Wordbook: An Alphabet of Reminiscence, 1990
Appalachian Mountains – Appalachian Regional Commission via Wikimedia Commons
Descriptions of the wampus cat vary depending upon the location, and it has a pretty large home range. Wampus cat folklore is concentrated throughout the southern Appalachian Mountains, from Virginia to Mississippi (2, 7). The stories even crop up to the west in Missouri and Arkansas (8). Wampus cats are usually said to be part-human, part-cougar (1-3, 5, 7) but are sometimes a canine-feline hybrid instead (2, 8). Others describe them as huge, black panthers with demonic, glowing eyes (5). Typical traits include walking on two legs instead of four, luminescent yellow eyes, and a bone-chilling howl or scream (1, 2, 8).
How dangerous wampus cats are depends upon who you ask, as well. In some legends, the wampus cat can be destructive but doesn’t pose a danger to human lives. She may disturb or damage items left outside and kill or steal livestock, and she makes scary noises in the woods at night (6). Sometimes the wampus cat is said to drive people insane (8) or to portend death with its haunting cries (7).
There are those who swear wampus cats are much more dangerous than that, however, and will absolutely attack humans with intent to kill (1, 5). Yet according to a Cherokee version of the legend, the wampus cat is actually a protector of the land and its people (2, 8). The tale of the wampus cat may have originated with the Cherokee (7), although it’s hard to say for sure because the provenance of the lore has become quite muddied.
Murky Origins
Cherokee Curse
This seems to be the most common origin story for the wampus cat. It’s also the one that I remember reading in a book of spooky stories as a teenager. It begins with a beautiful Cherokee woman who wants to know what the men get up to on their hunts, which women are forbidden from participating in (1-3, 6, 7). In some versions of the tale, she is jealous, believing that her husband may be engaging in infidelity while he’s away from her (1). In others she wants to learn the magic rites that the men perform on these trips (6).
Whatever her reasons, she covered herself in a puma skin as a disguise and snuck after the men the next time they went hunting (1-3, 6, 7). They caught her spying on them, and the shaman put a curse on her as punishment (1-3, 6, 7). The woman and the cougar pelt became one, and she was turned into a half-human, half-cougar, doomed to wander the forests forever away from human companionship (1-3, 6, 7).
Although this story is about the Cherokee, it probably was not their story (6). In fact, the Cherokee have a different myth about the cat creature, which I will get to next. It’s thought that the first stories of the wampus cat–under a different name–were shared among Native Americans, especially the Cherokee, and later relayed to white settlers (2). Then, perhaps because of cultural differences or just the Telephone Game that happens with folklore, the European newcomers began to tell the story differently.
Cherokee Hero
The Cherokee legend also casts a woman in the starring role, but in a much different light. Once upon a time, a Cherokee village was under siege by a demon: Ew’ah, the Spirit of Madness (2, 8). Ew’ah ate dreams and could drive people insane with a single glance (8). The Cherokee’s strongest warrior, Standing Bear (or sometimes Great Fellow), was chosen to go out and kill the demon (8). When he finally returned weeks later, he was completely insane (2, 8).
Standing Bear’s wife, Running Deer, was heartbroken–and determined to get revenge (8). The shamans gave Running Deer a wild cat mask and a magical black paste that would hide her scent and her body (8). They told her that she must surprise the demon, or she would fare no better than her husband (8).
So Running Deer tracked Ew’ah through the forest and managed to sneak up behind it as it was drinking from a spring (8). Running Deer sprang upon Ew’ah, taking it by surprise just as she’d planned (2, 8). The spirit of the mountain cat in the mask banished the demon, and Running Deer ran home without looking back (8). The shamans and warchiefs named Running Deer “Spirit-Talker” and “Home-Protector” in honor of her courageous act (8). They say that she is still protecting her home now in the form of the wampus cat (2, 8).
Witchy Werecat
On the flip side, there is a common wampus cat tale that has European colonists written all over it. Where there are women and cats, there must be witches, right? The story claims that an Appalachian village was being terrorized by a spate of mysterious livestock thefts (3). They believed a witch was the culprit, and they had a particular woman in mind (3). Some of the townspeople followed her from her home to a farm late one night (3).
They watched as she transformed into a house cat and sneaked into the farmhouse (3). She put a sleeping spell on the family, slunk back outside, and entered the barn (3). There, she began to transform back into a human (3). The townspeople interrupted her, however, preventing her from finishing the spell (1, 3). She was able to escape capture, but was stuck halfway between a human and a cat thereafter (1, 3).
The Government Did It
This one is my favorite because it’s just so wild. There is an urban legend version of the wampus cat specific to Alabama which has it that wampus cats were created by a secret government program (2). The story goes that this World War II-era program aimed to create a fast, courageous animal that could be used as messengers in warzones (2). In a remote place in Alabama, government scientists made a creature that was part mountain lion, part gray wolf (2). How that was allegedly accomplished in the 1940s when it wouldn’t even be possible today, is anyone’s guess. According to legend, some of these hypothetical animals escaped the facility and established themselves in the environment (2). As someone with a degree in genetics, I firmly assert that this make no sense. But what a story!
Wampus Cats in Media
Conway High School’s six-legged wampus cat mascot – Photo by Lord Belbury via Wikimedia Commons
Wampus cats are not an especially common supernatural creature in popular culture, but that doesn’t mean they never rear their furry heads. Cormac McCarthy incorporated them in his debut novel, The Orchard Keeper (7). McCarthy’s character Uncle Arthur is plagued by dreams of wampus cats which he fears will enter his bedchamber and “suck his meager breath” (7).
In The Island of Dr. Moreau, H. G. Wells paints a truly horrifying picture of the depravity of humankind in the service of science. Wells uses an unusual word for the wampus cat, “virago,” in a scene with Dr. Moreau’s surgically-built puma woman (7). The narrator notes dispassionately that the creature’s shrieks under the torture of Dr. Moreau’s knife sound “almost exactly like that of an angry virago” (7). The puma woman immediately escapes and succeeds at exacting her revenge on her tormentor, although she loses her life as well (7).
J. K. Rowling made Wampus Cat one of the houses in Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
There was a string ensemble in the late 1930s called The Wampus Cats.
Cry of the Wampus Cat by Joel Eden is a crime thriller that uses the Cherokee curse wampus cat mythology and pits two detectives against a series of murders that may have been committed by a wampus cat.
Several schools use the wampus cat as their mascot, including Conway High School, which depicts is as a blue-and-white mountain lion with six legs. Your guess is as good as mine.
Is the Wampus Cat Just a Cat?
With all those possible origin stories for the wampus cat, there is another we have yet to examine. Is the wampus cat just a case of mistaken identity? Most of the descriptions sound a lot like a real puma, except sometimes on two legs instead of four, which cats can’t do for very long. Puma eyes can glow at night, a phenomenon known as eyeshine. It is caused by the reflective layer at the back of their eyes which helps felines see in low light. As for the unearthly wails of the wampus cat? If you’ve never heard a mountain lion scream, I’ve included a video below. The sound is often compared to a woman screaming in fear or pain.
There are two problems with this hypothesis, however. The first is that the legend of the wampus cat likely began with the local Native Americans. They shared the forests with cougars and would have known very well what they look and sound like. Widespread misidentification seems highly improbable. The second is that cougars have been extinct in the east (except Florida) for almost 100 years. At least, that’s the official line.
There’s no one, simple answer to the first quandary, but there might be to the second. Although Fish and Wildlife Services maintain that the Eastern Cougar is extinct, people sure seem to see a lot of them for that to be the case (5). They also continue to see wampus cats and to blame them for attacking livestock (2). If people don’t expect to see pumas it might be easier to conflate the two.
In 2017, Tennessee confirmed 10 mountain lion sightings after none in the last hundred years (5). As far as I know, that’s the closest the Eastern Cougar has come to official de-extinction. Why aren’t wildlife officials interested in cougar sightings? A North Carolina fish and game official, who wished to remain anonymous, told journalist Mike Conley that wildlife officials might be afraid admitting the Eastern Cougar is back in town could lead to hunters flocking to bag the cats (5). Not many people seem interested in taking home wampus cat trophies, however. Perhaps the wampus cat is a protector of the forest after all.
Trail cam footage of female mountain lion featuring “screaming” vocalizations and eyeshine
Works Cited
Bahr, J., Taylor, T., Coleman, L., Moran, M., and Sceurman, M. (2007). Weird Virginia: Your travel guide to Virginia’s local legends and best kept secrets. Sterling Publishing Company: New York.
This week we resume our tour of werecats by traveling to Africa, home of the werelion. There, in the cradle of humanity, cats big and small are exquisite predators. Sometimes the big cats take human prey, and this must only have been more so the case in the early days of human history. Is it any wonder, then, that some African folktales have fused two of the most fearsome beasts they knew: humans and lions?
On the one hand, the folklore of Bantu African cultures explains that sovereigns are transformed into lions after death [1, 2]. This suggests a kinship with lions. However Knappert points out that is also tells us lions commanded the respect and fear of those that lived alongside them, just like kings do of their subjects [1]. A lion that used to be a king in a former life is a sort of spiritual werelion, but there are stories of werelions with real transformative powers, and they tend to have less ambiguous personalities.
To this werelion, I do thee wed…
Sometimes, the belief is that humans use magic to take the form of a lion for various nefarious purposes [2, 3]. However, it can be the other way around [3]. In one story, a lion took the shape of a man, moved into a village, and married a human woman [3]. After a while they had a child [3]. So far, so good, if a little strange. Then the werelion suggested the family go visit his parents [3]. Yikes! None the wiser, his wife agreed, and the little family set off, accompanied by the wife’s brother [3].
As the sun began to set, they made camp, and the werelion built a protective shelter, or kraal, of thorn bushes before announcing his intention to fish and leaving. The brother was not impressed with his brother-in-law’s kraal and strengthened it himself. As you will surely be shocked to learn, the werelion brought his family to attack that night, but the lions couldn’t breach the kraal. The werelion’s family shamed him for his failure, and they left. [3]
The werelion came back in the morning with fish and plenty of excuses, but the brother was becoming suspicious. When the werelion left to fish again, the brother went on a walk to think. He found a gnome (akachekulu) who confirmed his suspicions and, in return for some housecleaning, taught the brother how to make a magic drum that would enable him to fly when he played it. The brother hid his sister and the baby inside the drum and began to play. It worked, but the noise attracted the werelion. Fortunately, it also compelled the werelion to dance, and the brother was able to fly everyone home to the village, where the werelion dared not try to hurt them. [3]
Werelion defeated by smart kid with feathers
Humans are human everywhere, so many elements of folklore are cross-cultural. The phenomenon of were-beasts is one example, but this story has lots: the rule of three (twice), rags to riches, advice from magical objects. It also reminds me a little of the German fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, but this time the mother is not the one who breaks the pact.
The story begins during a severe famine, with a pregnant woman searching for something to eat in the wilderness. She finds a lion that has just killed an antelope and offers to trade her child for its kill. The lion agrees. [1] Perhaps it’s a gap in my understanding as a cultural outsider, but it seems as though it is never clear why, exactly, the lion would want the woman’s unborn child. If he wants to eat it, why not just keep the antelope, or kill the woman and have all of the above? To me, not knowing what he has in mind is actually more disturbing.
But perhaps the lion’s intentions are irrelevant. Cases of parents bartering their children for food were not unheard of [1]. I have no doubt that such a thing is not isolated in space or time, either. Starvation is a horrible thing that can make people do horrible things just to survive. The werelion may simply be a convenient stand-in for the sort of person who would be happy to buy a child.
35,000 – 40,000-year-old lion man sculpture from German cave – Wikimedia Commons
Well, the woman gave birth to a son and named him Mutipi. Mutipi grew two feathers on top of his head, but he was the only one that could see them. Eventually, the lion decided the time had come, so he changed into a man and came to the house to collect Mutipi. But Mutipi took out his feathers and asked them what to do. They told him that this was Mr. Lion come to take him away, and that he must change himself into a mouse so that when his mother called him in for dinner, he would not be recognized. And it worked. [1]
The werelion tried twice more, but each time Mutipi’s feathers told him how to escape capture using tricks or magic. Finally, the werelion took Mutipi’s mother instead, and Mutipi fled to another country. There, he became a favored messenger for the king. The courtiers grew envious and tried thrice to kill Mutipi, but again, his feathers told him how to avoid assassination. [1]
When drought and famine killed everyone in the country but Mutipi, for only he had magic, all-knowing feathers, the feathers told him to make a whip of lion-skin that would bring whoever he whips with it back to life. He chose not to resurrect his murderous enemies. He did resurrect the princess, married her, and became king himself. I am unclear on what happened to the last king. He just isn’t mentioned in the closing action of the story. Make of that what you will. [1]
Werelions, where are they now?
If you read the magnum opus that was my article on weretigers, you might be either disappointed or relieved that this installment in the series is so much shorter. Personally, I’m a little bit of both. I struggled to find reliable resources on this topic. Most sources just seemed to be repeating each other, and I wanted to provide better information than that. The result is a higher-quality but rather short article. If you do want to get more werelions in your life, here are some examples of werelions in modern media. We see werewolves quite frequently, especially in paranormal content in the United States, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen or read anything with a werelion. Let’s see what’s out there, why don’t we?
Books
Beast by Krishna Udayasankar – a werelion is wreaking havoc in Mumbai, and an unsuspecting cop is on its trail
Daughter of Lions by Catherine Banks – daughter of the leader of a werelion pride experiences teen angst
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews – magic is dying and Atlanta is overrun with monsters, plus shapeshifters
And a truly shocking number of erotic novels…
Games
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn feature a people called the Laguz, one tribe of which can transform into big wildcats, including lions.
Dungeons and Dragons has an official race of lion-like people called Leonin.
World of Warcraft druids can take lion or panther forms.
Works Cited
Knappert, J. (1977). Mutipi and the werelion (Ronga). In Bantu Myths and Other Tales (pp. 54- 58). E.J. Brill.
Gouldsbury, C. and Sheane, H. (1911). The great plateau of northern Rhodesia: Being some impressions of the Tanganyika plateau (pp. 200). Edward Arnold. PDF
Werner, A. (1933). Chapter XIII: Of werewolves, halfmen, gnomes, goblins, and other monsters. In Myths and legends of the Bantu. George G. Harrap and Co., Ltd. Accessed at https://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/mlb/mlb15.htm
