12. The Wendigo, the North American nightmare that forced its victims to murder and cannibalize.
In the folklore of the Algonquian Native American Indian tribes, the Wendigo was a man-eating evil spirit who haunted the forests along the northern Atlantic coasts and the great lakes of the US and Canada. The demon could shapeshift into a gaunt human-like monster. However, it also liked to possess human beings and work their will through them. This generally involved them forcing their victim to break cultural taboos, including murder and cannibalism.
The wendigo generally struck during the winter, when food was short, and life was on a knife-edge. Whichever form of manifestation it chose, its appearance was always the same. It would have a corpse-like appearance, its skin drawn and dry, its eyes sunk deep in its sockets. It also gave off a smell of decay and decomposition. Once it fed on human flesh, it would start to grow in size. However, it could never lose its corpse-like appearance- or its desire to feed.
Demonic possession by a Wendigo could be a way of explaining the extremes people were pushed to when on the edge of survival in a harsh climate when they were forced to abandon cultural norms to survive. So, in times of famine, certain tribes such as the Cree and Ojibwe performed ceremonial dances to reinforce tribal cohesion and ward off the Wendigo. Today, uncontrollable craving for human flesh is viewed as a mental illness known as Wendigo psychosis.
Other demons had a more seasonal nature.