Monday, October 1, 2012

Apple - snitchers or Albatwitch





Dale Drinnon dug up the first item and I dug up the Pennsylvania references.  This all fits nicely with a totally independent eye witness report a couple of years ago made in Central Park of all places that I posted simply because it was too convincing.  Now I have defined a local phenomenon that conforms with the creatures described in Washington Irving’s tale of Rip Van Winkle to boot.  Pretty good for a day’s work.

What we appear to be describing is a small hominid operating in woodland and certainly partial to apples.  Recall that wild apples were pretty difficult to eat but stored well enough to act as winter food.  The pioneers used them to produce hooch.  Thus every farm had a small orchard and this was the only fruit actually grown to any volume.

This creature is surely one of humanity’s cousins and is likely similar to the creatures identified in Flores Island.  A living population in the Hudson River Valley changes the complexion of our study of this bit of pre history.

What is too easily forgotten is that we are blinded by our own stunning success as Homo Agriculturist to understand that natural populations are low.  Thus Bigfoot likely has a huge population base approaching 50,000 individuals.  Still scant in our terms but ample for a population of hunters wanting an ample range in which to forage and protect its troop.  This creature can be no different.

They are also clever enough to teach their young the fine art of avoiding human contact.  This is totally reasonable behavior for creatures that are also likely nocturnal in habit.

Eye witness reports are also far rarer which can hardly be surprising in view of size and that any tracks will look human like at best.  The compelling case for the Sasquatch has been its unique size which makes any other explanation of a natural source such as human hoaxer or bear so difficult.  A smaller creature fails to stand out unless the witness gets very lucky.

At least we now know what we are looking for and that it has red hair.  That adds the Albatwitch to a list including the Sasquatch and also the Giant Sloth as a group of forest exploiters who are nocturnal and are also adept at avoiding human contact.  I must say though that the Sasquatch has noticeably become rather relaxed about it all.


Apple-snitchers or Albatwitch

FRIDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2012

From the Facebook Page:




MegumoowÄ•soos are described as a bipedal humanoid about four-feet-tall and covered in reddish-brown hair is called an “albatwitch” (or apple-snitch) in Pennsylvania. The small, hairy creature might have been known to Native North American Indian tribes centuries before. In Algonquin legend, creatures called MegumoowÄ•soos (MEG-um-OH-wee-SOOS) were described as “small hairy creatures who dwelt among the rocks and made such wonderful music on the flute that all who heard it were bewitched”. Legend maintained that “several megumoowesoos dwelling on the summits of high hills and mountains in the almost unexplored region around Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.”

Dale Drinnon Comments:

This looks once again as if it might be the small-reddish-haired native ape said to live in the Eastern United States, often compared to an orangutan and said to be the same as the Skunk Apes of Florida. The part about playing flute musuc which bewitches humans is found also in faeriy stories from Western Europe and is not directly connected to them in reports, at best it shows a connection in the Folklore between the two areas.  I am simply running the material including the photograph as it came to me, I do not claim responsibilty for taking it or authorizing it as authentic. The originating site must take that responsibility.


Philadelphia Weirdness


Although slightly further afield from Philly, one of the most sinister of monster legends which has fascinated us for years concerns Lancaster County, a place which, over the years, has been known for its reports of ferocious werewolves and also Bigfoot. In the past at Phillyist we've discussed these eerie legends with brief mention of one of the strangest spectres known to haunt the county: The Albatwitches.
These spookily-named apparitions have been the belief and cultural dread of the Susquehannock Indians for many years, existing as local bogeymen but also with relations to hairy hominids such as Bigfoot. The Albatwitch however, is a slightly smaller form, around four to five feet in height, also sighted in York County.
The Indians paid homage to these elusive monsters by carving images of these fiends on their battle shields, to create fear and trepidation. Despite being reasonably small in stature and having such a fearsome reputation, the Albatwitch is said to mainly feast on apples and is often considered a cunning creature which steals, usually from those who are relaxing with a woodland picnic, only to find their apples missing. The beast lurks in the shade of trees and snatches the apples, and that's where its eerie name originates, deriving from "apple snitch." It seems that the critters have ape-like characteristics and have even been known to playfully throw the remains of the apples back at the people they stole them from.
The legend of the Albatwitch, which comes mainly from the area known as Chickie Rock, sounds like a vague yet unsettling spook tale. It is said that the monsters make their presence known by peculiar whip-crack noises which emanate from the dark woods, and although sightings still allegedly persist of these creatures it is believed they were driven to extinction during the early 1900s either due to lack of woodland or fading superstition, but the reality is, such mysterious forms resemble that faceless entity we all fear, that unnerving aspect of the unknown.
Surely it won't be long before a movie called The Albatwitch Project emerges, detailing the misty fantasy of this long forgotten woodland prowler.

The Albatwitches-Columbia, Pennsylvania

http://www.bfro.net/legends/iroquoian.htm

 

Local legends in the area of Columbia, Pennsylvania speak of a creature called an "albatwitch." The albatwitch is a small (about 4 feet tall), manlike creature which supposedly lived in wooded areas. Their main area of residence seemed to be near Chickies Rock, a heavily wooded area along the banks of the Susquehanna River about a mile or two north of town. Albatwitches were also reported from wooded areas all along the river's shore.
The creatures are named for a habit which they possess. Their bizarre common name is short for "apple-snitch", as they are reputed to have a taste for apples. Legends speak of how the albatwitches would oftentimes steal apples from picnickers, occasionally even throwing them at the startled people. Legends also record that the creatures often sat in trees, coming down only to find food.
Legend also says that the albatwitches either became extinct or were driven nearly into extinction in the later years of the nineteenth century. Chickies Rock, where the creatures supposedly lived, does have a tradition of strange sights and sounds - in the 1950s and 1970s, a manlike figure was seen several times, and local legends also speak of sounds like the crack of a whip heard in the woods at night. One can only wonder if these could be connected with the albatwitch.
Whether these stories are connected or not, several sightings of Bigfoot-types have been recorded from this area. A vague report concerning the sighting of a hairy humanoid came from Lancaster in 1973. Lancaster is a scant 10 miles east of Columbia. Another came from the town of North Annville (about 20 miles to the north) in the same year. In addition, a number of reports have surfaced out of neighboring York County.
Also, some sources say that the Susquehannocks, like many Indian tribes, had a belief in an apelike monster, and sometimes depicted it on their war-shields. The Susquehannocks were a local tribe - coincidentally, major evidences of their civilization (ruins of a village and burial grounds) were found at the base of Chickies Rock.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

my grown son saw something at chiques bigger than a dog run up a tree we never heard about the albatwitch before this 8-2014