Folklore: Plat-Eye

One of the evil spirits that the blue bottle tree is believed to trap is the Plat-eye. The plat-eye has been described as the unsettled spirit of a person wronged while alive, or who wasn't buried properly, or without any care.

The Plat-eye can take the form of animals, or the spirit form of the recently deceased. There are times that the plat-eye has no shape, it's just mist, which is said to be freezing and suffocating. The plat-eye can also be invisible except for glowing, fiery eyes. If you are haunted by a Plat-eye that is in human, or animal form, it is said to have front teeth, but no back teeth. If the plat-eye isn't in the form of an animal, or human ,it has one large eye that is the size of a plate, hence the name. This is said to be the plat-eye truest form.

The unsettled haint, mostly hunt the people who have done them wrong while they were alive, or the people who buried them incorrectly. The plat-eye is so vengeful that it's said that it torments a person until they go insane, or until they die. Some are even said to be able to suck the souls out of their hunted.To get rid of a plat-eye you have to either bury a person correctly, or right the wrong that you have done to the offended, somehow. 

Though you should treat people with care, and respect, not to worry SOME say that the plat-eye only lurks around swamps, and old rice fields. 

Blue Bottle Tree

      

The blue bottle tree is another one of those southern tradition that many people don't know the complete history of.  Having a blue bottle tree in the yard is a old Gullah/Geechee custom. The trees are used to capture evil haints for getting into one's home. The haints are lured inside the bottle by light reflected thru the blue bottle at dusk. Once the haints are inside the bottle they are trapped. What happens to them are up for debate. Some say that they are trapped in the bottles forever, and the noise you hear are the haints moaning, and crying. Others say that once the sun rises the haints are vaporized by the sun's light. 

Today, people use different color bottles, but blue was the choosen by the Gullah/Geechee people for a reason. The Gullah/Geechees used blue because of their belief that the color blue wards off evil spirits. 

Do you know anyone with a blue bottle tree in their yard?

 

Gullah/Geechee Folklore: Boo Hag

Geechee Folklore: Boo Hag

  The Geechee/Gullah people are full of beliefs and traditions. One of those beliefs is of the legend of the Boo Hag. The Boo Hag is an evil spirit that uses someone's skin to move among people unnoticed. Without the stolen skin, The Boo Hag is red,and is very warm to the touch. Once night falls, they shed, and hide the skin. Boo Hags are said to hide their skin under porch steps, and under beds. Boo Hags can enter a person's house through the smallest of openings. Once the Boo Hag is inside they sit on the victim's chest and steals their breath. This is known as "ridin'". Boo Hag doesn't kill the person that they ride, because it can come back over, and over again to steal the person's breath, which is how it sustains itself. The Boo Hag rides it's victim all night, and before the sun comes up the Boo Hag has to return to it's skin because it can't survive without skin in the daytime.


 Legend has it that there are warning signs that a Boo Hag might be near. The warning signs are the air will feel damp, and hot, and will smell as if something is rotting. There are a few ways to help prevent a visit from Boo Hag including putting a loaded gun across the head of the bed, as a Boo Hag doesn't like that smell of gunpowder. The Boo Hag is quite nosey so it stops and count things. You can use a brush, or put salt near the bed. The most commonly used way to prevent a Boo Hag from ridin' you is to place a broom by a door, or near you when you sleep so it stops and count the straws until dawn, when it needs to return to it's skin. Since it an evil spirit, using haint blue also helps. It's said that if you wake up in the morning, after having a full night's rest feeling exhausted, there is a chance that you have been visited by Boo Hag. 

Boo Hag story from The Moonlit Road