The Supernatural Book Of Monsters, Demons, Spirits And Ghouls

THE ™ BOOK of Monsters, Spirits, Demons, and Ghouls ALEX IRVINE Illustrations by Dan Panosian Supernatural created by Eric Kripke Contents Preface vi SPIRITS The Woman in White 9 Water Spirits 14 Urban Legends and Vengeful Spirits 19 Land Spirits: Native and Immigrant 24 NATIVE AMERICAN CURSES 24 AMITYVILLE 27 ROUTE 55 28 WISCONSIN LAKES CURSE—OH, AND THE BUGS 29 CURSE OF KASKASKIA 32 Vanir 35 Lawrence 40 Death Apparitions 49 MONSTERS Wendigo 56 Shapeshifters 60 iii YENALDOOSHI 61 BEARWALKER 62 LESZY 64 NAHUALES 65 PUCA 66 THE ANIMAL WIFE: SELKIES, SWAN MAIDENS, KITSUNE LYCANTHROPY 67 70 Tulpas and Other Created Beings 77 Homunculus 81 Golem 85 Rakshasa 88 GHOULS, REVENANTS, ET CETERA Ghoul 97 Shtriga 100 Draugr/Draug 102 Vampire 105 Zombie 118 How to Kill a Zombie/Revenant 122 Other Revenants 127 WITCHES, FAMILIARS, AND BLACK DOGS iv Contents DEMONS Succubus/Incubus 145 Jinn 147 Tengu 148 Abiku 149 Pishacha 150 Acheri 151 The Yellow-Eyed Demon 152 Lesser Demons We Have Known 155 Reaper 171 Goofer Dust 174 Appendix A: Herbs, Oils, and Hoodoo Hands 175 Appendix B: Names and Attributes of European Demons 195 About the Author Other Books by Alex Irvine Credits Cover Copyright About the Publisher Contents v Preface From ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties, good Lord, preserve us. —old irish saying And when the good Lord won’t, we will. —newish winchester saying S am and Dean Winchester, at your service. We’re hunters. Dispatchers of spirits, scourges of the undead and unnatural, feared by demons and shapeshifters and boogeymen of all shapes and sizes. In a nutshell? We track down monsters, and then we blow the suckers away. We’ve been in this line of work all our lives. Sam was six months old when a demon killed our mother. Dean was five years old. You might say we’ve both grown up in the family business. Neither one of us has ever held an honest job, except for Sam briefly while he was off deluding himself that he could lead a normal life. The murder of his girlfriend Jessica—in exactly the way our mother was murdered—put an end to that dream, and he rejoined the firm of Winchester and Sons. Then, last year, the family business was cut back down to two. Our dad sacrificed himself to save Dean. Cut a deal with the same demonic bastard that killed our mother and killed Jessica. Now vi we’re out to get that Yellow-Eyed Son of a Bitch, and we’re taking down every evil thing we run across along the way. We’re not the only ones. You might not see them, or recognize their work, but there are other hunters out there. People who have dedicated their lives to keeping you safe from things you didn’t know existed and wouldn’t want to believe in if you did. Some of them taught our dad the ropes: Daniel Elkins, Bobby Singer—good people. And some of them have helped us along the way, like Jo and Ellen Harvelle. And some of them have let hunting turn them into the kind of monster they spend their lives trying to snuff. Yeah, Gordon. We’re