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Deadtime Stories and Gooey Tidbits

Slugs have 4 noses! An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. The giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue! The name "Satan" is from an Arabic word meaning "adversary" The electric chair was invented by a dentist! The only animals who can turn its stomach inside-out is the starfish! More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. After it has eaten, the housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again! Months that start with a Sunday always have a Friday the 13th. A spider dangling in front of you predicts the coming of a letter (or a Care2 card. ;) The spider`s skeleton is on the outside of its body (an exoskeleton). If you see a spider on Halloween, it could be the spirit of a dead loved one who is watching you. The eight-legged Starfish has eight eyes; one eye at the end of each leg. In Medeival Times, a spider was rolled in butter and swallowed as a cure for plague and leprosy. In old Britain, people spat away their toothache into a frog's mouth, and then politely asked it to carry the pain away.

Gravely Dig Your Body.... Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin! A cow produces 200 times more gas a day than you do. The ashes of a cremated person weigh approximately 9 pounds. In many cultures, the use of nose-rings (for protection) originated from the belief that the nose is a doorway for demons and spirits. In Ireland, should fairy ghosts pass you on Halloween (Samhain), you can release any humans they've abducted by throwing dust from your footprint at them. It was widely believed in Europe that the index finger was poisonous, and that if it touched an open wound that wound would never heal. Thus the expression: "It's rude to point." The custom to "cross your fingers" when lying originates from the old belief that a cross would cancel out the sin and drive away the Devil who might take your soul in your moment of wickedness.

Spooktacular: If a candle flame suddenly turns blue, there's a ghost nearby. If you ring a bell on Halloween, it will scare the spirits away. York (North Britain) is the most haunted city in Europe. In Northern Britain, the words ghost and guest (geist) are the same word. America's most haunted house is the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana which is said to have 14 ghostly guests. The German household spirit "Friar Rush" (Bruder Rausch) is said to be responsible for getting people drunk.

Athenodorus, a greek philosopher, had one of the earliest ghost sightings (1st century A.D). He rented a house haunted by a ghost in chains. One night the ghost lured Athenodorus to follow it to the garden where it disappeared. The following morning,Athenodorus dug at the spot where the ghost had disappeared... and uncovered a skeleton in chains. Athenodorus buried the skeleton properly. After that,he never saw the ghost again!

Once Every Blue Moon: The word "werewolf" comes from old English meaning "man-wolf". From 1520 to 1630 there were over 30,000 werewolf trials in France. The French believed you could be cured from the enchantment by shedding the blood of a werewolf in animal form.

Werewolves around the world: Africa: weretiger, wereleopard, werelion and werecrocodile. China and Japan: werefox. South America: werejaguar.

European Tradition: If a cat jumps over the coffin at a burial, the corpse will become a vampire (unless the cat is captured and killed.) Sir Thomas Browne (17th century) proved that despite previous beliefs, a magnetic compass worked perfectly without the presence of garlic!

To own a black cat in medieval Europe was enough to be accused of witchcraft, and more than nine million men and women were burned at the stake as witches. According to old witchlore, a young girl who falls in with a merry dance to fiddle-music may find she has unwittingly become a witch.

The Flying Dutchman: The Dutchman, Captain Hendrik Vanderdecken, cursed God as he navigated through a storm around the Cape of Good Hope.After trying to make a pact with the Devil, the Captain and his crew were cursed with eternally sailing round the Southern Cape. In 1881, Prince George V Of Britain recorded a sighting of the ghost ship, which was followed by the death of two of his crew members.

The Jersey Devil: Modern American Tale, said to be a ghost haunting the southern Jersey shore. A witch with 12 children said that her 13th child would be born a devil, and her curse was fulfilled.The tale has since been part of Jersey popular culture, with pranks and reportings in newspapers. In 1909, a Philadelphia showman exhibited The jersey Devil (soon discovered to be a kangaroo painted green with false wings attached).

Kappa: With bodies of a turtle, legs of a frog and a head of a monkey, the kappa (Japanese water-demons) eat humans underwater from the inside out. The creature draws its strength from the water-filled crater atop its head. One way to defeat it is to bow politely when approached by a kappa. Obliged to return the bow, the kappa will spill out his head-water and must swiftly return to the sea for "re-fueling",whereupon you have time to escape! Another way to elude the kappa's fury is to carve out your name in a cucumber and throw it into the water. Grateful for your gift (kappas love cucumbers) they will remember your name and spare your life.

Baba Yaga: Russian Folklore. A cannibal witch (with a tooth for sweet children) who guards The Water of Life Fountain. She lives in a magical hut, surrounded by a picket fence with human lantern skulls atop each post. The location of her house is unknown, as it moves from spot to spot on chicken legs. Baba Yaga kidnap children, eat them with"teeth of stone", and "crush them against her breasts made of stone".

Pixies: Mischievous elf spirits of the south-west of England. Dressed in green, often red-headed, and fond of dancing in the moonlight. They play pranks on humans, most commonly leading travellers astray (hence the expression:"to be pixie-led"). If a horse appeared exhausted,it was said it had been "pixie-ridden" overnight, and to prevent that from happening the horse owner would nail a horseshoe above the stable door.

Sleep Those little slices of death. How I loathe them. (Edgar Allen Poe)

"She thrusts her fists against the posts,and still insists she sees the ghosts." (American tongue-twister)

Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing. For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and babble, Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. (William Shakespeare)

...and that's a wrap!

Thanks goes to Camilla Eriksson for this month's Trivia Quiz!