Wechuge
The wechuge (pronounced "way-chu-gay") is a creature appearing in the legends of the Athabaskan people.[1] In Beaver (Dane-zaa) mythology it is said to be a person who has been possessed or overwhelmed by the power of one of the ancient giant spirit animals—not related to psychosis as with the similar wendigo but more related to becoming "too strong". These giant animals were crafty, intelligent and powerful, and somehow retained their power despite being transformed into the normal-sized animals of the present day.[2]
Professor Robin Ridington came across stories of the wechuge while speaking with the Dane-zaa of the Peace River region in western Canada. The Dane-zaa believed that one could become wechuge by breaking a taboo and becoming "too strong". Examples of these taboos include a person having a photo taken with a flash, listening to music made with a stretched string or hide (hence guitar music), or eating meat with fly eggs in it. Like the wendigo, the wechuge seeks to eat people, attempting to lure them away from their fellows by cunning. In one folktale it is made of ice and very strong, and is only killed by being thrown on a campfire and kept there overnight until it has melted.[2]
Citations
- ↑ Gilmore, David D. (2009). Monsters : Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0812220889.
- 1 2 Ridington, Robin (1976). "Wechuge and Windigo: A Comparison of Cannibal Belief Among Boreal Forest Athapaskans and Algonkians". Anthropologica. 18 (2): 107. JSTOR 25604963.
Further reading
- Sanday, Peggy Reeves (1989). Divine hunger : cannibalism as a cultural system (Reprint [d. Ausg.] 1986. ed.). Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0521311144.