The Complete Guide To Mysterious Beings - Galaksija

flashlight (we can question whether flashlights existed and were in use in Wales fifty years ago) and
directed the beam at the monster. It instantly faded away into thin air.
While the werewolf legends are open to debate, there are many authentic cases of human
vampirism; some of them occurred as recently as the last decade. In his book Sex and the
Supernatural Brad Steiger discusses several celebrated cases in which demented men and women
found sexual gratification in acts of brutal murder, which included drinking their victims' blood.
There have been numerous ghoulish affairs in which the pseudovampires dug up fresh graves and
mutilated the corpses or even ate them. In their way, these unfortunate characters seem to have been
obsessed with the same frightening appetites that drove the Leopard Men to terrorize whole
generations in West Africa. Appetites that would have sickened even the Marquis De Sade.
The Leopard Cult plagued Guinea and Senegal for many centuries, but during the last decade the
authorities have made a serious effort to wipe them out. Leopard Men don leopard skins, grip razorsharp,
claw-like instruments in their hands, and crawl about the bush trying to imitate in act and
appearance the animal after which the cult was named. Their victims, who are supposed to number
in the thousands, look as if they had been savagely mauled by a leopard.
In case you have never seen the animal kill, the leopard, like most of the big cats, attacks by
gripping the human prey about the head and shoulders while its hind claws raise up and rake away
at the stomach, disemboweling the victim. Man-eating tigers, who are usually injured or lame and
thus unable to go after ordinary prey, prefer to pounce from behind, seizing the head and snapping
the spine in a single quick frenzy of movement.
The African Leopard Men share the commonly held primitive belief that they can draw upon the
strength and spirit of wild animals by wearing their hides. The cult is also cannibalistic and one of
the initiation rites requires that the plebe must produce a member of his own family for dinner after
the ceremony. What a way to get rid of your mother-in-law!
The Leopard Cult was last heard from in the early 1960s. There have since been many changes in
the countries affected by the cult, and perhaps they are no longer roasting their mother-in-law but
are sitting home and watching television instead.
It is not very likely that the Leopard Cult ever existed in England or France, nor would such a cult
ruthlessly massacre fifty cattle or sheep in a single night. The real culprits are still at large.
Every so often some newspaper describes how a tame, polite little house cat suddenly turned into a
ferocious monster and successfully drove off an unwary burglar who dared to invade its home
grounds. Cats are odd little beasts and have managed to surround themselves with all kinds of
legend and folklore.
Cat cemeteries have been found in ancient Egypt. Beautiful, lovingly carved cat statues have been
discovered in ancient tombs. Winged cats are depicted in the ancient hieroglyphics. The cat was
even deified and worshipped.
During the Dark Ages, the cat acquired a somewhat more sinister reputation. Practitioners of
witchcraft were alleged to have used the animals as ”familiars.” The cat became a spy, sent to peer
into windows and report back to the witch. It is said that witches could call upon the little beasts to
perform all kinds of foul and ugly deeds.
One of the most fascinating of these tales involves a lady who practiced vampirism in her spare
time. Her name was Countess Elizabeth Bathory. She lived in a charming old castle in Csejthe,
Hungary, in the early 1600s. Life was dull in Csejthe so the countess developed a quiet little hobby.
She would invite local peasant girls to the castle and entertain herself by stringing them up in the
dining room, slicing open their arteries, and drinking their blood. After a few years of this, the local
townspeople became rather annoyed and grumbled to the authorities. On New Year's Eve 1610, a
group of soldiers and policemen, led by the local governor, assaulted the castle and caught the
countess and a few of her select friends in the act of celebrating the New Year by lapping up the
blood of a very unhappy young girl.
Upset by the intrusion, the countess is supposed to have uttered an extravagant curse, calling upon
ninety-nine cats to come to her rescue. Shortly afterwards, by a most curious coincidence, the local