at a rapid rate. Smearing the skin of a jiang-shi with the blood of a recently dead dog will also put a jiang-shi to rest, although exactly why is a very different matter. Mind you, providing it worked, would you even care why? No, you probably would not. You would simply be glad to be alive!
Chupacabras
See also: Berwyn Mountains Zombie Dogs, Black Dogs, Zombie Dogs of Texas
Since at least the mid 1990s, the island of Puerto Rico has been the home of a terrifying, marauding animal that reportedly sucks the blood out of farm animals, chiefly goats and chickens. Its name is the Chupacabras, a Spanish term meaning—very appropriately—Goat-Sucker. Whatever the true nature of the monster, it’s clearly as unique as it is hideous. It sports fiery red eyes, a row of sharp spikes running from the back of its head to the middle part of its spine, pointed fangs, razor-like claws, and brings nothing but death and disaster to whomever or whatever it crosses paths with.
While the answers are few and far between concerning the true nature of the Chupacabras, the theories are many. For some, the Chupacabras is a giant bat. For others, it’s an extraterrestrial entity. Then there is the theory it’s something infernal and paranormal-based, something that was conjured up by occultists; but from where, exactly, remains unknown. There is, however, an explanation that is acutely different to all of those above, one which, in many ways, is even more disturbing. It’s also one that the average zombie aficionado can likely relate to and appreciate.
The Chupacabras, or Goat-Sucker, is sometimes described as a giant bat or extraterrestrial, but more often it is seen as a creature resembling an ugly canine.
Situated on Puerto Rico, and established back in the 1930s, is a facility called the Caribbean Primate Research Center. By its own admission, the work of the CPRC is focused upon “the study and use of non-human primates as models for studies of social and biological interactions and for the discovery of methods of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases that afflict humans.” And its work is very well-respected: both the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Research Resources provide significant funding for the center.
One of the most controversial aspects of the work of the Caribbean Primate Research Center is that devoted to the study of SIV, which is the monkey equivalent of HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS. Such work is undertaken by staff in the CPRC’s Virology Laboratory. There are longstanding rumors on Puerto Rico that the Virology Laboratory has been engaged in something else, too; something profoundly disturbing. According to the locals, back in the 1990s, highly secret research was undertaken at the CPRC that revolved around the deliberate infection of monkeys—specifically Rhesus Monkeys—with a real-life equivalent of the “Rage Virus” of 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later infamy.
The story continues that not long after the experimentation began, some of those same Rhesus Monkeys escaped from the CPRC—or were deliberately released from it—and made new homes deep in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque rain-forest. Savage, violent, and deadly, they were avoided at all costs by the staff of the CPRC, who knew only too well of their marauding, zombie-like behavior. To cover its tracks, however, the CPRC did something ingenious: it carefully spread stories that the monkeys were, in fact, Chupacabras—and lots of them, too. Circulating fear-filled tales of monsters would hopefully achieve three things: (a) it would keep people out of the area; (b) it would prevent people from becoming bitten and infected by the rage-inducing virus; and (c) it would ensure the CPRC received no backlash for its fringe-research into dangerous viruses. If the story is true, then the ruse worked very well, indeed. Belief in the Chupacabras quickly became widespread on Puerto Rico, and pretty much everyone forgot about the CPRC and its weird experimentation.
Civil War Zombies
According to the research of historians at Haunted America Tours (http://hauntedamericatours.com), many Voodoo and Hoodoo Kings and Queens became wealthy during the Civil War in the 1860s by reanimating fallen Confederate and Union soldiers and selling them as zombie slaves. The sorcerers mixed up dead things in a big black stew pot. They ground up corpses and zombie fingers and toes to make special Zombie Brand powders that only the very rich could afford and only the very evil would want to employ.
For some, this was the Golden Era of Zombies. Half white/half black Creole queens and kings plied their special dark swamp medicines, amulets, charms, and zombified wares from coast to coast after Ulysses S. Grant became president.
Experts on the history of Voodoo, such as Lisa Lee Harp Waugh, Karen Beals, and the noted New Orleans artist Ricardo Pustanio, have observed that the deep dark secrets of a Voodoo-Hoodoo person at the time was always well accepted. These special Creole people were never more sought after and revered than those of the Great White Mambas whose names are still remembered and honored today.
The old red-bricked, crumbling, white-washed tomb of Marie Laveau is the spot where many say the eternal Voodoo queen still grants wishes from beyond the grave. However, some say she will grant your wish only if you promise to come back to the tomb no later than one year and a day. If you do not show at the allotted time then you might just find that you have lost all you gained. Even worse, is the curse that the one you love most will become a real zombie when he or she dies.
Many researchers in certain Voodoo-Hoodoo circles believe that real zombification came to America through the teachings of Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. Others believe it was her teacher and mentor Dr. John who first taught Marie. Still others claim that the Great Texan Voodoo Queen Black Cat Mama Couteaux was the ultimate zombifier.
Black Cat Mama Couteaux, according to Lisa Lee, was the ultimate Voodoo-Hoodoo Queen in Marshall, Texas. The stories of her in the state are often told as far away as Abilene and Fort Worth. They say she even rode out the Great Storm of 1900 in a row boat. The woman was said to have been married to her zombie lover. The dead Mamba husband zombie is said to still be around, guarding the treasures she amassed.
Texan Lisa Lee Harp Waugh states that the old spells that they speak of in her part of the United States seem to have originated from Black Cat Mama Couteaux. But if you listen to most of the old stories, Waugh notes, they suggest that she was actually taught by a great Voodoo-Hoodoo king from New Orleans who had a secret circle of Voodoo-Hoodoo Queens that gave him all their personal attentions as they sat at his knee begging him to teach them more. That great King would, of course, be Dr. John.
Coffins
See also: Burial Traditions, Cemeteries and Tombs, Cremation, Funerals, Mummies
If there is one thing that can be said with certainty about the human race, it’s that each and every one of us is on a time limit. Not to be gloomy about it, but sooner or later—and hopefully the latter—we will all shuffle off of this mortal coil. And, when we finally do go, there are two primary
