According to
Cherokee legend, the Raven Mocker (also known as Ka’lanu Ahyeli’ski) is a shapeshifting witch or an evil death
spirit (sources seem to be conflicted in this regard) that preys on
the elderly, the very sick, and the dying, with the intention of ripping out
and devouring the unfortunate victim’s heart, and sometimes consuming their
blood and internal organs as well (Kilpatrick 9). The Kalona is able to
strengthen its own lifeforce in this way, extending its own life indefinitely.
For every year that the creature’s victim might have lived (if indeed they had
recovered at all), the Raven Mocker
adds another year to its own life. Some Cherokee believe that the Kalona
Ayélisgi belongs to a larger group of evil spirits that prey upon the very ill,
which the tribe calls Sunnayi Edahi,
“the Night Goers”, or the svnoyi anédohi,
the “night walkers” (Kilpatrick 9). The Raven Mocker can be either male or female,
appearing as a very old, withered-looking man or a woman when taking
a human form. This is said to be because the monster has stolen the lives
of so many innocent people in the past (Mooney 401). Otherwise, the Raven
Mocker appears as a demonic raven of monstrous proportions (Kilpatrick 9).
The Kalona
Ayélisgi is driven by hunger and its own selfish urges to steal the
lifeforce from other people. These people tend to be either very sick or on the
verge of dying (if not both), making them easy meals for the Raven Mocker. As
mentioned earlier, the monster steals the life from those it kills, increasing
its own life expectancy. The more people it kills, the longer it will live.
When hunting, according to James Mooney’s Myths
of the Cherokee (Dover Publications, Inc., 1995), the Kalona “flies
through the air in fiery shape, with arms outstretched like wings, and sparks
trailing behind, and a rushing sound like the noise of a strong wind.” While it
flies through the air, every now and then the creature cries out while diving
through the skies. This horrible cry isn’t like that of a raven, but is instead
a mockery of it, hence the creature’s
name. The sound terrifies everyone who hears it, warning them that someone will soon die (Mooney 401-402).
Others say that the Raven Mocker assumes the likeness of a true raven, and that
its shrieking warns evil spirits and other witches that the Raven Mocker is coming. These lesser evil spirits know
better than to test the Raven Mocker’s patience, and will flee immediately. This horrible shrieking
continues right up until the monster enters the victim’s room (Wellington
2015). Under normal circumstances, the Raven Mocker is invisible to human eyes,
and is thus able to enter a sick person’s home undetected. After having entered
the house and located its prey, the Kalona quietly moves in for the kill
(Mooney 402; Kilpatrick 9).
The Raven
Mocker is known for being sadistic and cruel, taking a great deal of pleasure
in tormenting and ultimately killing
its victims. The Raven Mocker is particularly fond of lifting its victims out
of their beds with its beak and throwing
them against the walls and onto the floor to hasten death (Mooney 402;
Kilpatrick 9). These attacks shatter bones and rupture internal organs, and
thus will kill the victim rather quickly. The Raven Mocker tries to kill its
prey as quickly (and as painfully) as possible, so that the victim doesn’t
linger in this world and waste their ebbing lifeforce. If the victim lives too long, the Kalona won’t be able to
steal what’s left of their life and add that life to its own. Therefore, giving
its prey a quick (albeit agonizing) death isn’t a gesture of mercy from the
creature, but is instead a necessary part of the Kalona’s survival.
Once the
monster’s prey is dead, the Raven Mocker wastes no time in taking what it
wants. The monster tears open the
corpse with its beak and the talons on its feet and proceeds with its feast,
consuming the heart, the vital organs, and even the blood of its prey
(Kilpatrick 9). Some people say that this act of mutilation doesn’t leave a
single mark on the body, but no trace
of the heart remains within the corpse (Mooney 402). The monster somehow
extracts the victim’s life essence from its gory feast, adding whatever years
that the person might’ve had left to its own lifespan. That is how the Raven
Mocker survives.
It should be
noted that the Kalona Ayélisgi is considered to be one of the most powerful and
the most feared of all the evil
beings in Cherokee mythology, and is greatly feared by evil spirits and even
other witches as well. Other such spirits that might be trying to kill a dying
person and thus claim the person for themselves will flee that area in a panic if they hear the Raven Mocker’s
cry (Wellington 2015). Other witches in particular are said to be jealous of
the Raven Mocker’s power, and are actually afraid
to be in the same place as the creature. It is believed that when one
Raven Mocker finally dies (there is said to be more than one of these creatures, after all), these witches will dig up the
creature’s corpse and violate it through mutilation, beatings, performing
bodily functions on the body, and so on (Mooney 402). Exactly why the witches and the Raven Mockers
hate each other so much is unknown, but it may have something to do with competition. Both factions target humans as
their prey, and since the Kalona scares away both witches and other evil
spirits alike, this act of desecration may very simply be revenge for the
witches.
The Raven
Mocker’s powers, in comparison to other supernatural beings, seem to be rather
limited. The monster has great strength, especially in its legs and the beak.
It can use its beak to punch through
wooden doors, and is able to fling grown men and women through the air
with considerable force. The Raven Mocker is thought to be a shapeshifter,
able to change its form at will. However, the Kalona seems to be limited to the
form of a person, a raven, or a birdlike monstrosity. In addition, the creature
can sense those who are very sick and on the verge of dying. Any other powers
that the Raven Mocker may have remain unknown.
The Raven
Mocker seems to have only a few vulnerabilities, and there are even fewer ways
to kill it. Only a Cherokee medicine man can protect the sick and the dying
with his wards and rituals. The family can hire a shaman for this reason (as
only he can see the Kalona in its
invisible form), and he will watch over the Kalona’s prey until that person
makes their recovery, keeping the monster at bay all the while. If the worst should happen and the person dies,
then the medicine man will watch over the corpse until burial. Once the body is
buried, the Raven Mocker cannot steal the heart (Mooney 402). This could be
because Cherokee burial rites prevent it from desecrating the grave. Either
that, or the monster doesn't know how
to dig.
There seems
to be one specific ritual that is able to actually kill the Raven Mocker. However, the ritual is very elaborate and
should only be performed by a
Cherokee medicine man. When the shaman first arrives at the house, he drives a
sharpened wooden stake into the earth at each corner of the house. And then, at
around noon, he prepares a special tobacco known as Tsal-agayu’nli (literally “Old Tobacco”) and fills his pipe with
it, reciting a certain chant all the while. After that, he wraps the pipe in a
piece of black cloth. It should be known that the tobacco is smoked only for this purpose. He then walks into
the woods (if there are any around the house), returning just a little bit
before sundown (as the Raven Mocker is believed to be nocturnal). He then
lights his pipe and slowly walks around the house, blowing the smoke in every
possible direction from which the creature might approach. He then walks into
the house and patiently waits for the Kalona to arrive. When the Raven Mocker
finally makes its presence known and approaches the house, one of the wooden
stakes on that particular side of the house quite literally shoots out of the ground like an arrow,
coming down on the creature and piercing its skull. This will kill the Kalona
in seven days’ time. Afterwards, the sick person’s family and friends will
make inquiries as to whether anyone died specifically
within that timeframe, and it will then be obvious that the deceased
person was the Raven Mocker. Some say that if the Kalona Ayélisgi is seen by a medicine man, it will have the
same effect. The corpse, like that of any other supernatural creature, should
be dismembered and burned afterwards.
The ashes should then be scattered to prevent the monster from resurrecting
itself.
The Raven
Mocker has received quite a bit of attention in popular culture. It has
appeared in a number of novels, including The
Old Gods Waken (Manly Wade Wellman, 1979), The Curse of the Raven Mocker (Marly Youmans, 2003), They Hunger (Scott Nicholson, 2007), and
P.C. Cast’s House of Night series
(2007-present). The creature has also appeared in the hugely popular
roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons.
Most notably, the Raven Mocker was seen in the immensely popular television
series Walker, Texas Ranger. In the
fifty-seventh episode (Season 3, aired on November 4th, 1995), “Evil in the
Night”, the Raven Mocker appears as a shapeshifting medicine man named Running
Wolf, who resurrects himself from his desecrated gravesite with the power to
induce hallucinations in the minds of his victims. But even today, the Raven
Mocker is still feared as a bringer of death. Although sightings are few
and far between, many people still believe that the Kalona is out there,
patiently waiting for someone to grow sick and to start wasting away. At that
point, the Raven Mocker will strike, and that person will die. And only
those who remember the old ways and the ancient stories will know that the
Kalona Ayélisgi has killed once again…
Sources
Kilpatrick,
Alan. The Night Has a Naked Soul:
Witchcraft and Sorcery Among the Western Cherokee. Syracuse, New York:
Syracuse University Press, 1997. Pages 9-10.
Mooney,
James. Myths of the Cherokee.
1900. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995. Pages 401-403.
“Raven
Mocker.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. June 8th, 2015.
Accessed on November 12th, 2015.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven_Mocker>
“Kalona - Raven Mocker (Imitator).” Cherokee Heritage
Documentation Center. Accessed on November 12th, 2015. <http://cherokeeregistry.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=215&Itemid=292>
Wellington, Oscar. “Cherokee Legends Raven Mocker.” Pitlane
Magazine. August 17th, 2015. Accessed on November 12th,
2015. <http://www.pitlanemagazine.com/cultures/cherokee-legends-raven-mocker.html>
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