By the will of human imagination, our world is inhabited by a myriad of the most diverse creatures. Among them there are giants and dwarfs, disgusting monsters and good-natured brownies, bizarre hybrids of different animals and birds. Some of them are not at all like a person, while others are its separate parts, living their own lives
At all times, distant lands attracted people with unprecedented riches and unprecedented adventures. But only the most courageous and strong in spirit had the determination to go to conquer unknown countries. The majority preferred not to leave the inhabited territory. Even in order to reach the neighboring village, the medieval inhabitants required considerable courage. Many dangers lay in wait for travelers on the road: wild animals, inclement weather, robbers and bloodthirsty robbers, who could not only take away the acquired property with impunity, but also, without hesitation, take a person's life. But most of all, people were frightened by supernatural beings who hunted on deserted roads for fresh human blood or could chase a traveler just for fun.
Some torturers lay in wait for a person and turned him into a beast of burden. The night spirit jumped onto the traveler's shoulders, and the legs of his victim buckled under the exorbitant weight of the otherworldly rider. In Germany they were called Dark Riders, in Belgium - Cludd, and in Scotland - Oshaert. Until dawn, the unclean spirit did not get off the captured person, he scratched his back with claws and whispered all sorts of nasty things in his ear. Many travelers died in the Middle Ages from the leprosy of these demons. Even if the unfortunate ones managed to wait for the first rays of the sun or hear the bell ringing driving away evil spirits, then such a person could never again enjoy life, and overnight the gray hair did not let him forget about the nightmare he had experienced.
The fantasy of the Japanese inhabited their islands with terrible monsters - kuro-kubi-goblins.
Another spirit roamed the night roads of Scotland - the Headless Body. He never touched women and children, but he did not spare the men - their disfigured corpses were found in the morning in the roadside ditches.
Similar creatures also lived in distant Japan. After sunset, they indiscriminately destroyed all living things that came their way. Neither the old nor the small was saved. And if the night spirits did not manage to get a human sacrifice, then they did not disdain large animals and even smaller prey: mice, beetles and worms. The Japanese called them rokuro-kubi-goblins.
The Adventures of a Wandering Monk
This story happened to a Japanese monk named Kweir in ancient times, when Japan was divided into many feudal principalities, waging a bloody war among themselves. Before, Quair was a samurai, but after the death of his master, he decided to devote himself to the service of heaven and went to wander, carrying the holy word to people.
Once, when he was traveling in a mountainous area, night overtook him far from human habitation, moreover, a thunderstorm was approaching, and Quair began to humbly prepare for an open-air lodging. In his search for a suitable place, he ran into a woodcutter, who kindly invited him to spend the night in his modest hut and share a meager dinner with him. Four other people lived in the woodcutter's hut: two women and two men, who politely greeted the guest. During the evening conversation, it turned out that the owner of the hut had also once been a samurai, but, having violated the code of honor, he himself exiled himself to this distant exile and now, together with his comrades, leads a secluded life and helps lost wanderers.
Quair promised to pray for his soul, which he faithfully did for several hours, fencing off the rest of the room with a bamboo screen. When his throat was dry from the continuous chanting of prayers, he went outside to drink water. And then Quaira was seized with horror. Right on the doorstep, he found five motionless decapitated bodies. With difficulty overcoming his panic, he bent over the bodies of the hospitable hosts and was surprised to find that their heads had simply disappeared. There was no wound at the site of the neck, and no blood leaked from the dead bodies. Then the monk realized that in front of him were the bodies of the rokuro-kubi-goblins. During the day they take on human form, and at night their heads are separated from the body and go in search of food. In order to destroy these creatures, you need to hide the headless body. Then the head will not be able to find a refuge and will fly until dawn,filling the surroundings with wild screams until the first rays of the sun kill her. Quair hid the woodcutter's body in a nearby ditch and took up the next, but then a rustle made him hide in the thickets.
Attack
It turns out that one of the heads returned to see if the wanderer had finished praying to attack him and eat fresh flesh. Seeing that the monk was not in the hut, and one of the bodies had disappeared, the head hurried to notify its comrades about this. Upon learning that the prey had left them, the heads rushed in rage to look for Quair and soon found him running in terror through the gloomy forest. With a heartbreaking squeal, heads attacked him, opening the predatory fetid mouths. Quair pulled out the sapling and, swinging it like a club, began to strike at the attacking demons. Soon, the four heads were forced to stop trying to destroy the man and returned to their bodies. But the woodcutter's head continued to pursue its prey. The monk was almost exhausted, but he continued to defend himself. Suddenly, the monstrous creature dodged the club and rushed straight for Qweir's throat, but he managed to put his hand forward, and his head grabbed the sleeve of his clothes in rage. Their mortal fight lasted for a long time, but as soon as the monk stopped to throw off his clothes and thereby free himself from the pursuer, the head again clicked its jaws and bit his hand.
But then came the saving dawn, and the monster began to weaken. With the first rays of the sun, his head froze, and Quair managed to free himself from his clothes. He threw his torn dress with his head tightly clenched in his jaw into the abyss. The next day and all night he walked through the forest until he came across a detachment of young samurai. Only now did he feel safe.
Young samurai laughed at the story of the monk, they thought that hunger and poverty drove him crazy, and did not believe a single word of him. And in vain, because the rokuro-kubi-goblins were not the only creatures that tormented people. On the other side of the Earth, across the ocean, other winged heads filled the night with their ominous cries.
Chongchon - flying head
In Chile, you can hear many stories of evil jeongchons with sorcerous powers. Locals say that they look like human heads with huge ears. These creatures use their ears as wings. For ordinary people, chonchons remain invisible, and their presence can be guessed by the flapping of their wings and the lingering sounds "tue, tue, tue" that they make during the flight. Some people with secret knowledge can not only see flying heads, but also cause these demons to descend to the ground. To do this, you need to hum a prayer, the words of which are known only to the elect. After the prayer, you need to say some twelve words twice, draw the sign of the Solomon seal on the ground, and then spread your jacket on it. After these manipulations, the jeongchon falls to the ground and cannot take off.but only desperately flaps its wings and screams angrily.
Jeongcheons are vindictive and never forgive their offenders. Those who made fun of them in this way will face cruel revenge from these creatures. They can send illness and ruin to the offender, failures will haunt him for the rest of his life, and nightmarish visions torment every night.
This is a story that happened about a hundred years ago, is told in the vicinity of Limas. Guests gathered in one of the houses in the evening, but the festive feast was interrupted by the ominous shouts of the jeongchon. One of the guests read a prayer and drew a seal for Solomon. At the same time, the guests went away and something heavy fell in the yard.
Going outside, people found a large black bird the size of a turkey with a red beard on its head. The owner cut off the bird's head and gave it to the dog, and the carcass was thrown onto the roof of the house. Soon, the flapping of the wings of flying chongchons was heard overhead. The guests hurried to the house, and in the morning, when the owner decided to get the carcass from the roof, it was not there. A few days later, the city gravedigger said that that night unknown people came to the cemetery to bury someone, and then it turned out that the deceased was headless.
It is not known whether the other jeongchons took revenge on the people for the death of their comrade, but the dog did not benefit from such a treat. The next day after the incident, the owner noticed that the animal's belly was swollen, as if the dog had swallowed not a bird's head, but something much larger in volume. And a few days later the unfortunate animal died in terrible agony, clearly demonstrating that jokes with evil spirits are bad.
Natalya IVANOVA
Secrets of the XX century