Comments on: Sightings: Wayward Panther, Wolves, and Windigo

By: Bilgerat313

Bilgerat313 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:18:50 +0000

The Lenape of the East coast spoke of a forest spirit called the Mesingwa which translates roughly to "living solid face". The Mesingwa was a a large hairy creature who at times was said to ride a large buck. He was both the boogie man to Lenape children and a benefactor of the tribe. It was said that he taught the tribe how to hunt. Each year at a festival a bear was hunted killed and feasted upon in homage to the Mesingwa. I think he may be our Eastern Sas. An image of the Mesingwa mask.

By: LanceFoster

LanceFoster — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:35:17 +0000

Point taken, Loren. I didn’t see any claw marks but the toes seemed so pointed. I guess running would account for that. Here’s a good page on felid vs canid tracks (not Wikipedia :-/ )

As far as the other part goes, well, we’ll leave it as a difference of opinion; I don’t argue with a man in his own house

By: korollocke

korollocke — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:28:33 +0000

Jmonkey I almost fell for the “sign” gag until I read the last line about small bells in the feces.

By: korollocke

korollocke — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:25:36 +0000

I’ve heard a lot of wendigo stories from Glacier National Park (spaced out in Montana and Canada), always thought they were a northern creature, ie the great white north.

By: Andrew D. Gable

Andrew D. Gable — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:27:56 +0000

To add a comment to my last bit, also note that Bullbeggar Creek is just over the border from Maryland; and the southern marshes of the Eastern Shore of Maryland have extensive wildman/Bigfoot traditions.

By: Andrew D. Gable

Andrew D. Gable — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:26:21 +0000

There’s more name game stuff than that: Melfa is up the road from Painter, which is an old word for “panther” and north of town is the rather oddly named Bullbeggar Creek and the town of Bullbeggar (bullbeggar is an English hobgoblin appearing in the form of the infamous black dog). I think there may be more to these than “cougar”…

By: arewethereyeti

arewethereyeti — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:13:59 +0000

Now here’s something for Loren’s “name game.”

Checked-out DWA’s link and noticed that right smack-dab in the middle of the three sightings is the town of Exmore, VA. It immediately called to mind “the Beast of Exmoor” another large, out of place felid, across the pond. Coincidence…

By: DWA

DWA — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:30:58 +0000

And how about this cougar sighting developing in Virginia. Sounds like they know what they're seeing.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:53:51 +0000

Interesting that the sign site notes this:

“He agreed to give us an artist’s rendering of the warning, so we could beat Cryptomundo to the punch by sharing it with you first.”

Humm, hominological and cryptozoological competition? Say it ain’t so, Joe.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:48:49 +0000

Track has been identified by Florida wildlife authorities as felid, comparative to the southern Florida panthers.

There are no claw marks in the imprint, as you would see in a dog, and this does seem to be like a cat running.

As to your other point, Lance, I trust you won’t take offense to the fact that I consider a primary source of Wikipedia hardly a great way to start marking your argument.

What we have going on here is that the precursor tales of the Windigo ~ as a hairy, bipedal primate seen in the forests ~ were there first and then the psychologists and psychiatrists used the model of the Windigo to talk about the windigo psychosis or wittiko psychosis. Of course, this psychosis is real, no doubt, but it is a tale of Western psychology retro-fitting the creatures.

The “monsters of the woods,” the Windigo/Wendigo/Wittiko, were seen first, even if the “insanity” explanation may have been used by some First Peoples. Nevertheless, the sightings of Eastern Sasquatch/Bigfoot were there first. The two topics are actually separate but equal.

The Windigo (also known as the Wendigo, Windago, Windiga, Wittiko, Wihtikow, and numerous other variants) is an unknown hairy hominid tied to the sightings, legends and folklore of First Nations people linked by the Algonquin languages. The Windigo is a bipedal hairy creature, equal to the Eastern Bigfoot, Stone Giant, or Marked Hominid in some classification systems, which is often said to have more aggressive behaviors than its western cousins. The “windigo psychosis” has nothing to do with cryptozoology, except that a name is used for a mental disorder based on the hairy hominids.