Bele Sheephead haunts Broughton Moor road near Flimby in Cumbria. Bele was a young girl who discovered her pet lamb killed by a fox. She felt a strange and irresistible urge to drink its blood, and from then on her thirst for fresh sheep's blood was insatiable. Eventually she become a half-sheep, half-human creature, and continues to haunt the road and terrify motorists. According to one local legend, one couple were stranded on the road when their car ran out of petrol. The man went off to get help while his wife dozed off in the car. She was later awoken by the arrival of the police and an ambulance. A policeman told her to get out of the car and not look back – but of course, she did look back, to see her husband's decapitated body lying in the road and his head stuck on a nearby fence. The locals believed Bele Sheephead had been at it again.
Source: Alan Murdie, Ghostwatch, Fortean Times no. 299, May 2013.
Saturday, 9 February 2013
Children at Uruti School took part in a best-dressed possum competition as part of a fundraising drive. The events centred on animals that are pests across New Zealand: while the adults went out hunting pigs, the children dressed dead possums.
The results are stunningly beautiful. Possums were dressed as sunbathers, hospital patients, babies, brides, an artist ... Congratulations to the prizewinners Hannah Harrison (up to 6 years), Lydia Hansen (6-9 years) and Levi Oxenham (10-14 years).
RUMOURS circulating in Dar es Salaam about a woman said to have disappeared mysteriously after giving alms to a beggar at Salender Bridge in the city has brought mayhem to some beggars and the disabled, saying it has robbed them of their daily bread.
The beggars condemned the rumours claiming that they are malicious and intended to starve them. Speaking on behalf of her colleagues who had gathered outside the department of information (MAELEZO) today, Neema Robert claimed that the wicked reports spreading in the city like wildfire were designed to chase them from city streets.
“People in Dar es Salaam now look at us as evil people who are not supposed to live among other human beings. They have made life difficult for us because we are being abandoned,” she complained.
“Since the incident occurred, we have been facing so many difficulties, apart from being abandoned, we are not given any support by the society and some of us have been thrown out of the houses we had rented”, lamented Ms Neema Robert.
She further said that they believe that the rumours were purposely set off because there was no evidence which could prove that the incident really happened.
One week ago it was reported that a beggar at Salender Bridge asked for money from a woman who was in a car and after she gave him money her hands grew hairs like a cat and could not drive her car.
It was further alleged that the beggar asked the woman to step out of his car and kiss him so that her hand could return to normal but immediately after the woman fulfilled what she was asked to do, she and the beggar disappeared into thin air.
Ms Neema Robert urged the people not to believe the story and instead they should accept beggars and people with disabilities who ask for alms and treat them just like human beings.
“We are human beings just like anyone else. I believe if such a thing happened to well-to do person, it could not affect them the way it has affected us,” she said.
From the Daily News, Tanzania, 23rd February 2010 See also the comment piece on this news story in The East African, 1st March 2010
"Seeing your item regarding warning notices for ceiling fans reminded me of a time some years ago when my children came home from high school saying a teacher had been decapitated by a ceiling fan. As I knew the teacher in question I thought I'd better call and see if his head was still attached. He was still alive, but he'd had to go to hospital for stitches - obviously he didn't read those directions as he stood on a chair to open a window, not noticing the fan. His blood was sprayed and he received a nasty cut, but the way rumours work it became a decapitation. By the next day the story ran that he was still speaking as his head rolled across the classroom floor."
There were two little sisters a-walking alone Hey the gay and the grinding Two little sisters a-walking alone By the bonny bonny bows of London
And the eldest pushed her sister in Hey the gay and the grinding Pushed her sister into the stream By the bonny bonny bows of London
Oh she pushed her in and she watched her drown Hey the gay and the grinding Watched her body floating down By the bonny bonny bows of London
Oh she floated up and she floated down Hey the gay and the grinding Floats till she come to the miller's dam By the bonny bonny bows of London
And out and come the miller's son Hey the gay and the grinding Father dear here swims a swan By the bonny bonny bows of London
Oh they laid her out on the bank to die Hey the gay and the grinding Fool with a fiddle come a-riding by By the bonny bonny bows of London
And he took some strands of her long yellow hair Hey the gay and the grinding Took some strands of her long yellow hair By the bonny bonny bows of London
And he made some strings from this yellow hair Hey the gay and the grinding Made some strings from this yellow hair By the bonny bonny bows of London
And he made fiddle pegs from her long fingerbone Hey the gay and the grinding Made fiddle pegs from her long fingerbone By the bonny bonny bows of London
And he made a fiddle out of her breastbone Hey the gay and the grinding Sound would pierce the heart of a stone By the bonny bonny bows of London
But the only tune that the fiddle would play Was Oh the bows of London The only tune the fiddle would play Was the bonny bonny bows of London
So the fool's gone away to the king's high hall Hey the gay and the grinding There was music dancing and all By the bonny bonny bows of London
And he laid this fiddle all down on a stone Hey the gay and the grinding Played so loud it played all alone By the bonny bonny bows of London
It sang yonder sits my father the king Hey the gay and the grinding Yonder sits my father the king By the bonny bonny bows of London
And yonder sits my mother the queen Hey the gay and the grinding How she'll grieve at my burying By the bonny bonny bows of London
And yonder she sits my sister Anne Hey the gay and the grinding She who drownded me in the stream By the bonny bonny bows of London
The Bureau of Surrealist Ethnology was founded in July 2007 in Devon, UK. Our investigations encompass myth, legends, calendar customs and the ritual year, murder ballads, jokes and proverbs, dancing, graffiti, and all other outbreaks of the Marvellous in vernacular culture. This collectanea project brings together a wide range of data, from various sources, which all have one thing in common: poetry. These data in turn form the basis of our more theoretical elaborations and investigations.
