HAWAII BOY IN WATER (LEGEND)

The village of Ola’a on the Big Island of Hawaii is a quiet community. In 1947, while neighborhood kids were playing on the shore of the local pond, one of them fell in and disappeared beneath the surface of the water. The boy, whose name was Tanaka, did not resurface. His companions rushed to find help, and when the divers entered the water, they were disturbed by what they saw.

The dead boy at the bottom of the pond, sitting upon a rock with his arms at his sides. His eyes and mouth were open. His body was swaying back and forth along the currents. It was as if he had calmly sat down on the rock and waited to die. The divers retrieved the corpse, and everyone tried to put the strange and tragic death behind them.

But, the drowned boy refused to let them forget. People who traveled by the pond complained that something would tug at the bottom of their pants as they walked. Rumors spread that the boy’s spirit is trapped beneath the dark waters and tries to pull unsuspecting victims into his watery grave.

THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY GLEN GRANT, IN HIS BOOK: OBAKE FLIES, GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS IN SUPERNATURAL HAWAII:

“On some evenings the villagers could hear a cry emanate from the pond in the middle of the night. At first most everyone believed that the haunting cry was the wind blowing through the tall sugar cane fields. But a few of the older people said they knew the spirit of the Tanaka boy- cold, wet, and desolate at the bottom of the pond. The soul was crying out for help and deliverance. Trapped in this world by accident, he sought someone’s spirit as a substitute. They would take his place at the bottom of the pond so that he could be free to go to the otherworld.

“Those who were present at the second accident swear that the other boy was pulled into the water against his will. It was the noon hour. He was walking about 50 yards behind his father along the edge of the pond, occasionally picking up a flat stone to skim across the water. When he fell, he screamed out to his father that something was pulling him into the pond. He clawed at the earth, trying to hold on, to fight back. But in what seemed like an instant, the force tugging at his legs pulled him into the watery depths of the pond. By the time the young boy’s body had been located, it was found sitting naturally on a rock on the bottom of the pond. He seemed so natural sitting there- arms placidly at his side, eyes and mouth open, swaying gently to and fro in a light current. Fortunately, the rescuers were able to bring him back to the surface in time to be resuscitated.

“A Shinto priest was brought from Hilo to bless the waters, and the haunting cries finally ceased. Yet, on peculiarly dark nights when the evening skies seem bathed in black ink, those who live closest to the pond say that they sometimes hear the Tanaka boy’s cry. But are the cries melancholy or sinister? And will the Tanaka boy ever find peace?”

“So what, we got a lake monster on a binge?”

LOCH NESS MONSTER

Nessie, a giant lake monster, supposedly inhabits Scotland’s Loch (Lake) Ness. Nessie is the world’s best known cryptozoological creature and has been sighted as far back as 656 AD. Nessie is described as being anywhere from twenty to fourty feet long, with two humps, a tail and a snakelike head. Nessie’s movements have been studied, and many films and photos analyzed, to determine what Nessie might be, if she exists. For the last seventy years or so, since she began receiving regular publicity, Nessie has been a huge tourist attraction.

There are numerous theories as to Nessie’s identity, including a snake-like primitive whale known as a Zeuglodon, a long-necked aquatic seal, giant eels, walruses, floating plants, giant mollusks, otters, mirages and diving birds, but many lake monster researchers seem to favor the plesiosaur theory. The case has been occasionally supported by indistinct photographic evidence, though a famous 1934 photograph was revealed to be a hoax.

THE CHAMP OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN

Something extraordinarily unusual calls America’s sixth largest freshwater lake home. Champ sightings are ancient, predating even the European arrival on this continent. The Abenaki spoke of a creature, known as the Totoskok, that periodically showed itself to hunters and fishing parties in the vicinity of Lake Champlain.

The first record of a Champ sighting by a European dates from 1609, by the man who “discovered” the lake itself: Samuel de Champlain. In his travel log he mentions seeing in the lake a large, strange creature, some twenty feet long and as thick as a barrel. Literally hundreds of people have claimed to have spotted the beast over the centuries.

The Plattsburg newspaper in the summer of 1819, told of one captain’s sighting of the infamous monster. This article sprung up thousands of relatively similar stories each differing in the predicted size of the creature, continuing into the twentieth century. Most of these sightings were around dusk, leading to the belief that Champ could be nocturnal. However, as time went on the Champ sightings have gotten less lively and reports of sightings became few and far between.

Until, in 1977 when the Mansi family witnessed Champ and took photographs that through tests have proven to be authentic documentation of the “monster” of Lake Champlain. Once the Mansi photographs came to light, many people came forward, telling of their encounters with Champ.

Whether there is some unidentified animal species living in Lake Champlain or not, four centuries of folklore have sprung out of the belief that a monster lives among us. From the Native Americans who hunted along Champlain’s shores to the modern Americans who vacation there, belief in Champ is still alive and well.

WATER WRAITHS

The idea of Water Wraiths originated in Scotland. A wraith is thought to be an apparition- a specter, a vision, an unreal image- and a Water Wraith is a spirit thought to preside over the waters. They supposedly take the form of skinny, old women with scowling features who dress in green. The Water Wraiths try to lure unsuspecting travelers to their death by drowning them.

PSYCHIC LINK BETWEEN CHILDREN AND THE SUPERNATURAL

It is a widely held belief that children are capable of having a stronger link to the world of the supernatural. One of the theories on why this might be is that many children have not yet been fully “programmed” into believing that ghosts are not real. A couple of ‘common’ occurrences around a child is that of having an “imaginary friend” or seeing the “boogey man” lurking from within a closet. Over the years, parents tell their children such key phrases as “there’s no such things in ghosts” and “it was just a bad dream.” Which consequently results in adults who program their thinking and refuse certain images, noises, and feelings as real simply because it is “impossible” or unproven science.

DIVE INTO THE DEEP END

Lady of the Lake

 

By Dean5339