Every ghost story on Earth, checked against the record.
573 legends. For each one we separate what the documents actually say from what people tell each other after dark.
Violet of Fisherpond: Barbados’s Locked-Door Ghost
She doesn't moan or rattle chains. She locks the bathroom door. Violet is the ghost of Fisherpond Great House, a 1635 sugar-plantation manor in Barbados's Saint…
Ebigane: Gabon’s Shapeshifting Bat-Buffalo Vampire
In the epic songs of the Fang people of Gabon, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea, an ebigane (also spelled ébigane) is not one fixed monster but a…
Chipekwe: Zambia’s Unverified One-Horned Lake Monster
Fishermen on Lake Bangweulu in Zambia used to talk about something in the water that hippos would not go near. They called it chipekwe — a…
Bibi-Khanym: The Kiss Legend That Birthed the Veil
She kissed a stranger through her veil, and the mark it left is why, legend says, Central Asian women started covering their faces. That is the…
The Veli: Fiji’s Hairy Little People of the Forest
Fijian villagers still leave a plate of food at the treeline when someone new arrives, and old hunters still refuse to whistle after dark in certain…
Foolhudhigu Handi: The Maldives’ Umbilical Cord Monster
Foolhudhigu Handi doesn't crawl or lunge. It digs. A creature trailing its own umbilical cord, scooping mud and sand over its body with a human skull,…
Dab Tsog: The Hmong Nightmare Spirit Blamed for 117 Deaths
Dab Tsog doesn't knock, and it doesn't need a door. It comes while you sleep, sits its full weight on your chest, and presses the breath…
Kanaima: The Guyanese Sorcerer Legend That Killed a Scholar
Deep in the highland interior of Guyana, people speak of a kind of sorcerer called a kanaima (also spelled kanaimà), said to carry out slow, ritualized…
Not on Wikipedia yet
Legends famous in their own language that English reference sites haven't caught up to. We write them first.