ShortHand: Cajun Cryptids
7/14/202618 min
Louisiana has more than its fair share of real monsters hiding in its deep, dark bayous. So, settlers’ nightmares about what else was hiding there – spiced up with African folk beliefs, plus Cajun and Creole folklore and a dash of Haitian voudou – quickly became a rogues’ gallery of gruesome monsters that couldn’t exist anywhere else.
From a grim scaly monster, born in a voodoo ritual from the devil’s testicles, to a big hairy hominid known as ‘Swamp Thang’, these are the very worst of Louisiana’s cryptids.
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First 90 secondsSuruthi Bala· Host0:00
[rock music] Every culture has its boogeymen, and indeed boogeywomen, and boogeynights. And everyone's nightmares tend to reflect their very specific unconscious fears. Mostly though, they're pretty simple. Hardworking European peasant farmers inventing a monster who eats you for being lazy. Seen it all before. But what if you took that European farmer and sent him thousands of miles away to a strange far off land? A land totally unlike the rolling hills that he was used to. One made up of vast, dense, uncharted swampland with vicious sharp-toothed beasts worse than he's ever imagined, and dark, slow-moving water hiding who knows what. And what if the tales he then told were spiced up yet further with African folk beliefs and the rites and rituals of Haitian voodoo? Well, that's pretty much exactly what happened in the murky bayous of Louisiana. Louisiana's culture stands totally alone in the US, a hazy blend of stories, songs, and ideas from all over the world. Beat that, Wyoming. Hm. So let's head to a place steeped in folklore, the home of jazz and magic, Cajun and Creole,