The adze slips through keyholes or under doors and preys on unsuspecting victims (naturally, it has a proclivity for children’s blood most of all) by biting them and draining them of life or possessing them. The fearsome Adze can shapeshift and appears in the form of a mosquito or firefly. This monster hails from West Africa, notably Togo and Ghana, and for centuries has struck fear in the Ewe people of the region.

So if you see a woman in white crying near the water, better not take any chances and high-tail it in the opposite direction, whoever you are. Some accounts claim that she'll indiscriminately drag passing children to a watery grave, some that she specifically targets adulterous men or, well, that anyone is fair game. She roams in white robes, wailing near bodies of water. Unable to enter the afterlife, she returns (or is condemned) to wander the land in search of her children. When she realises what she's done, she is so overcome by grief that she takes her own life next. She leads her two children into a river and drowns them both. The gist of the story is that La Llorona had two children with her husband until one day, he leaves her for another woman and in a blinding moment of rage, commits the ultimate act of revenge. This legend has been told for hundreds of years and of course, varies slightly on who's telling it. Well, one such story that has been putting the heebie-jeebies in the children of Mexico (and other Central/South American countries, and the USA) for generations is that of the weeping woman, La Llorona. Isn’t it interesting that one of the stranger things that unite human beings across the globe is the culture of telling scary stories of ghosts and monsters to keep children in check? It’s comforting that no matter our differences, we can find camaraderie in dousing young minds with nightmare fuel.

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