Sandman the Urban Legend

Sandman-

The Sandman Of Legend that gave
Good Dreams

Good evening & Welcome my dearest Friends and Followers to my humble Blog. I have an interesting Urban Legend for you all today. I thought I had done this one, but I had a peek on my Labels and it seems that I haven't come across the 'Sandman' just yet---There seem to be many different versions of this popular western folklore legend that brings good sleep and dreams to children. However, there are other tales of the Sandman that aren't so nice and don't give good dreams.

The Sandman
of Legend that would
give Good Dreams

Originally the Sandman was a character in the western world who would give sleep & good dreams to all children by sprinkling magic sand onto the eyes of children. He was traditionally a character in many children's stories, invoked to help or lull children to sleep[Helping parents to get their children to go to bed then fall to sleep quickly]. It was said that he would sprinkle sand or dust on or into the eyes of the children at night to bring on dreams and sleep. The grit or 'sleep' in one's eyes upon waking is supposed to be the result of the Sandman's work the previous evening.

The Darker Sandman
That would take
and not give.

There was another creature that bore the name 'Sandman', but this creature they called Sandman was very different & quite creepy so have said. Its skin is that of a dead person, decayed and discolored. It has very long fingers and many sharp teeth. This Sandman hides just out of sight in the dark and whispers, "tik toc, tik toc'' to its unlucky victims. This strange chant quickly puts his victims into a deep sleep. Once asleep, This Creepy Creature of a Sandman will come out of hiding and devour the sleeping victim with its sharp teeth. It only needs to feast once per night, but it will sometimes choose to kill for fun. This creature can only come out in the dark. It is said to be the evil brother of the Good Sandman, but some disagree. So what do yu think?

 In the Sandman
origins in ancient
 Greco-Rome times
the God of Sleep

It is said that the sandman's origins can be traced back to ancient Greco-Rome and the God of Sleep.
Scandinavian Folklorist Hans Christian Anderson Danish folktale
is another of the earliest recorded tales of the Sandman.
There was another Sandman in Urban legends of German folklore that was quite horrific they say---some have said he would steal the eyes of children who don't shut their eyes while going to sleep & then feeds them to his children on the moon. It is a very stark contrast to the Has Anderson's Sandman story. The German Fantasy was written by author E.T.A Hoffman in 1776-1822. Hoffman's tale, known as the Der Sandmann of 1816 tells, of a more sinister sandman who comes into the children's rooms, only at night, of course, throw very coarse sand into their eyes which caused them to fall out of their sockets.

The Der Sandmann of Germany

After that, the Der Sandmann scoops the children's eyes up and places them in a bag. Then takes them back home to the crook of the crescent moon where he feeds them to his bird-like progeny. Yes, it's a terrifying tale, but can you image the European children of the 18th to 19th centuries being actually told this tale by their caretakers as a warning as to why they should go to bed when they were told!  As far as today, the Sandman is still an important figure in the western folklore and in pop-culture, appearing in films, books, and songs too.

As far as the Scary version of the Sandman, it seems that there are a few filmmakers that are still interested in making unusual plotlines and visuals with this scary creature. One of these Filmmakers is Dario Argento who is known for his Giallo Italian Horror movies.

I found this video of one person 

a version of the Sandman by

KingSpook 

-It's very interesting -

This is my favorite Sandman!

Baku Dream Eater

Baku Dream Eater-

Good Afternoon my dearest friends & followers, Today I thought I would bring you into the world of
Japanese folklore/urban legend. They have so many different stories that are so interesting, so I hope that you like them too! This one is called the Baku the Dream Eater. Which in some ways I could use this spirit if it is a good one. You see I have had bad dreams most of my life and I take medication to stop the bad dreams, which works most of the time. When I started doing the research for this post I tend to look for the images first, this gets my interest going. Then I look-up the legends. I found many different kinds of images of the Baku Dream Eater. Some were even a bit scary as other were more kinder looking. So on with the tale of the Baku Dream Eater of Japan.
In Japan if a child wakes from a nightmare, he/she knows what to do. They been told by their parents or grandparents of the Baku dream eater if they were to ever have a nightmare what to do. And this is what the children of japan do 'Hugging their face in the pillow after they awake, the child will whisper 3times- Baku-san, come eat my dream. Baku-san, come eat my dream. Baku-san, come eat my dream. As you see in the drawing to the left, if the child's request is granted, the monstrous Baku will come to the child's rescue and suck the bad dream away. However, a word of caution- You must remember that the Baku is a monster and cannot be summoned without consequences. What I mean by this is: If you happen to summon a hungry Baku, he might not be satisfied with just a single dream and suck away the child's hopes, ambitions & soul along with the bad dream, leaving them hollow.
What is the Baku Dream Eater-

From what I could discover, the Baku Dream Eater is said to be a legend according to
Japanese. As to how it was created, one legend says, it was the Gods of Japan when they were finished creating the animals of earth- they took all of the odds and ends lying around - then put them back together creating the Baku Dream Eater. What the Gods of Japan ended up with was your classic Baku- the body of a bear, the nose of an elephant, the feet of a tiger, the tail of an ox and the eyes of a rhinoceros. But of course there is the dark side to everything, as there is to the Baku the Dream Eater. As I said earlier in the post, the Baku eats all dreams, not only night mares. This includes dreams of aspirations, dreams of your future and dreams of hope too.
History & Legends of the Baku Dream Eater-

As for the History, legends, & folkloric of the Baku Dream Eater, there are many different creatures of the Baku that have changed over the centuries. It was said in some of the most ancient Chinese legends, the Baku were hunted for their pelts. Why? Well, Some said by using a blanket from a Baku, was a Talisman. And it could be used against illness & other malice evil spirts too.  However, due to the lack of the unavailable Baku pelts and hunting the creatures were eventually none to find...
The Baku was change to an image of the Baku over the bed to afford you equal protection.
During the Tang Dynasty 618 -907, it was very popular to have folding screens that were decorated with the Baku Dream Eater to protect the Emperor & his Dynasty. Later the legend of the Baku  transmitted to Japan. This is where the beast became associated with the Dream Eater Monster Baku that is best known today.
Since the Tang Dynasty the Legend of the Baku Dream Eater has stayed consistent with Japan.
However, I did discover in this post and my research of the Baku Dream Eater that there are not just one way of summoning the Baku. Yes, there's a variety of ways.  

1- In Fukushima they say, if you wake after a bad dream and say, 'I give this dream to the Baku'
    Then that dream will never trouble you again.
2-Other ways of summoning the Baku is if you repeat, 'Baku-san, come eat my dream' three times 
    in a row'. He will come eat your nightmares, A word of caution- You must remember that the Baku is a monster and cannot be summoned without consequences. What I mean by this is: If you happen to summon a hungry Baku, he might not be satisfied with just a single dream and suck away the child's hopes, ambitions & soul along with the bad dream, leaving them hollow.
3-During the Muromachi Period of Japan-1337 to 1573, it became popular for people on their
   death bead to hold an image of the Baku as a Talisman.
4-Finally during the Edo period 1603 to 1868 there were pillows in the shape of the Baku Dream Eater, that were said to protect the sleeper from bad dreams.
Baku Dream Eater in Modern Japan-

Many of the legends have faded away in time, but the Baku Dream Eater has not. It is still a
popular figure in Modern Japan.
It appears in many modern animations, comic books, trading cards too, Although in appearance they look more and more like authentic tapir and less and less like the folkloric monster on the ancient times.
So that is the tale & legend of the Baku Dream Eater of both China and Japan. I hope that you enjoyed the tale.
Love you all. Your Friend Always... Wendy.. 

PELE'S CURSE

Pele's Curse

Good evening my dearest Friends, Supporters, Followers and Readers to my humble blog, I thought I would bring you to the Islands of Hawaii one more time for another Urban legend. As I was telling in my last post I would try to find different urban legends/folktales of different countries. Since Hawaii is close to my heart being that my family on my husband side lives there it is fun to do. This one has some truth to the legend & many stories too. Pele is very ancient when it comes to the Hawaiian islands. They say that she is the one that created the islands with her lava. This is another tale that I will look in my archives to see if I have written about the

Goddess Pele for you. Now  from what Hawaiian legend says and anyone who is born an raised on the island of Hawaii knows the tale like my husband when I first meet his family in 1990 and then when we went there on our honeymoon to never pick up any of the lava rock or sands to bring home which I have never done. There are other superpositions that you should be aware of too. but I will put that in another post. So in the Hawaiian legend; anyone that removes a piece of lava rock  from the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park will incur the wrath of The Goddess Pele. Supposedly she will cause terrible curses upon you following those that do prompt them to soon abandon the rock or rocks that they had taken from her volcano as a self-preservation.

So can a souvenir  that is casually pocketed on a Hawaiian beach bring such misfortune to one person? Though the more skeptical person, they may scoffingly dismiss the notion off as pure hooey, However, there are thousands that have come to believe that by taking the Goddess Pele's volcanic rocks they will fetch with them a curse of impressive proportions. The only way to undo the jinx or curse is to return the purloined items whence they came. It is said that in the legend that the Goddess Pele of Fire & Volcanoes is so angered when her rocks --- which she sees as her children --- are taken from her that she exacts a terrible revenge on the thief or thieves.

So she is especially protective of the volcanic rocks and the sand, items that the tourists almost think nothing about when the mindlessly pocket as mementos of  their vacations. After all, who would miss a little old rock?

So the Goddess Pele who lives not far from the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park & not far from all the many hotels that receive a never -ending stream of packages containing sand, shells and most important of all lava rock Pele's children from the guilty-minded vacationers who are intent upon reversing they're sudden downpours of terrible bad luck.  Many of these were returned with notes begging forgiveness by the Goddess Pele herself.

So have said please take this sand and put it back somewhere on your island. I have had very bad luck since it came into my life and I am very sorry I took it Please forgive me and I pray that once I send it back where it comes from my bad luck will go away. It seems that thousands of pounds of stolen lava rock have been returned to Hawaiian islands by mail each year because fo former tourist fear that the Goddess Pele will change their lives by here wrath.

So apparently many folks and I believe this too. Not that I have taken any lava rocks but by removing one of the cool looking black lava rocks from Hawaii can really piss off Pele, the

Hawaiian Goddess of fire and volcanoes. It would seem that people from all over the world have pocketed rocks either by accident or on purpose and then blamed their life going to sh*t on the lava stones because of the ancient Hawaiian Goddess Pele who believes that they are all her children and will curse anyone who takes them from her. My advice is  to all

Volcanic Gold not
 worth your life

those couple on their honeymoons just like my -self in 1996 you might want to think twice before getting your hands on those lava rocks or lava black sand. It could really bring you bad luck. So please return the soil or lava rocks if you have been having bad luck. For a few examples from folks that have had Pele's wrath; I will put a few stories for you;

This is one tale of an couple bad luck with the Goddess Pele~

It seems that ever since they took a few items from the land of Hawaii they have nothing but bad luck and lots of medical problems. They want to apologize for taking the items and they are returning them to Hawaii.

What they had done with the lava rock last fall was but the lava rocks on the cast iron chair in their garden, Then in the spring one of  the chairs's, mind you that they were cast iron chair's. And in the spring, one of the cast iron chair's leg had just fallen off. That just doesn't happen that often. Apparently that was the least of they problems they had since they had taken the lava rock from Pele. These curses from Pele's are not mild-mannered at all, from the one's who have gone through her curse. Those who have been afflicted by it have felt the pain of her wrath. There is another tale of Pele's wrath's, this one was reported in the Los Angeles Times. It was a sad case of

Timothy Murray. Timothy 32 years old who scooped some of the unusual black sand from the Hawaii Volcanoes in the National Park into a bottle and brought it back with him to his home Florida. Well, from that day everything in his life immediately went into a nosedive; his pet died, his five-year relationship  with a girl he was to marry ended and the FBI arrested him in a computer copyright infringement case.

The native Hawaiian view of taking such souvenirs is that it's tantamount to stealing from their Goddess Pele while visiting her home. And the only way to appease her wrath is to return the stolen items.  

I HOPE THAT YOU ALL
ENJOYED THE LEGEND 
OF THE GODDESS PELE
YOUR FRIEND ALWAYS
WENDY

BROILED TANNING BEDS-

Broiled Tanning BEDS-

Hello, my dears as I have figure out through the years it seems that you all like the many different Urban Legends Posts that I've done/or at least most of you! This one that I have found is a bit creepy in a weird kinda way. I have found a few images to add to the tale from a very creepy movie series called Final Destination. There was a Tanning bed seen. So I thought it would be fitting to put a few of those images in this post. In this tale, the tanning bed was mistakenly taken that it could generate enough energy to overexpose a person so much from ultraviolet rays that it could actually cook the insides of that person without them even knowing it. Just a foul odor was all they would notice; even after bathing.

This would be all be done not knowing that he/she would only have 2weeks to life after a visit to the doctor.
Now for the tale-
Recently my secretary told me the story, sent to me in 1988 from Wisconsin. It was told to her by a girlfriend who heard it from a coworker who said she heard it from a friend who was in the same wedding party as the victim.
A young woman was going to be in a wedding party, but she was very unhappy with her pale un-tan body. Since there are only 30min per day limits sets at the tanning salons she decided to visited several of them each day, to increase the speed of her tanning in a shorter period of time.
So after several weeks of ding this routine- she had her result however, she wasn't feeling well at all. She also had a very foul odor about her even after taking long baths or showers. After a week she decided to make a appointment with her doctor and after he finished his examination he told the young woman that she had managed to cook her internal organs by over-exposure to the tanning rays. And the foul odor that wouldn't go away, well that was actually the rotting of her organs. The doctor then sadly had to tell her that she only had two weeks to live and would probably would not make it to the wedding.
There was good to this tale, in 1994 a student at the West Liberty State College reported that everyday tanning in these tanning beds has been tested to cause skin cancer.
So the moral of this story is to stay away from this things. they could kill you.

I do hope you enjoyed the Urban legend my dears so here are a few images from the creepy movie series called Final Destination Tanning bed-

Things start to get Bad!

TO KILLER TANNING BED

SO BEWARE OF THE TANNING BEDS!