DCHP-1 Online

Weetigo Various < Algonk.: Cree wītiku evil spirit; cannibal

• 1 n. See quotes.

  See also: Wendigo (def. 1)  

  • The concept denoted by Weetigo and Wendigo varies from a personified Evil Spirit to a supernatural creature of which there are many, all having fearful characteristics including an insatiable appetite for human beings.

  • 1743  (1949)  [The Devil Whit te co].
  • 1748  They likewise acknowledge another Being, whom they call Wittikka, whom they represent as the Instrument of all Kinds of Mischief and Evil; and of him they are very much afraid; but however we know of no Methods made use of by them to appease him.
  • 1908  One Pahayo--"The Pheasant"--had gone mad and threatened to kill and eat people. Of course, this was attributed to the Weeghteko, by which he was believed to be possessed, a cannibal spirit who inhabits the human heart in the form of a lump of ice, which must be got rid of by immersion of the victim in boiling water, or by pouring boiling fat down his throat.
  • 1943  Among the unearthly inhabitants of the Cree spirit world are the dreaded witikos, cannibalistic creatures which fly through the night, breathing flame, in search of victims to satisfy their craving for human flesh.
  • 1956  There are others, all kin to these . . . the Weetigo of the Barrens, that horrible, naked cannibal, his face black with frostbite, his lips eaten away to expose his fanglike teeth. . . .
  • 1963  Above, the northern lights rush like squadrons en echelon, their cold silken banners faintly rustling, to do battle with the dark weetigoes.

• 2 n. usually weetigo, a man turned cannibal and believed possessed by an evil spirit.

  See also: Wendigo (def. 2a)  

  • 1798  (1916)  [The word Weetigo is one of the names of the Evil Spirit and when he gets possesion of any man, (Women are wholly exempt from it) he becomes a Man Eater, and if he succeeds, he no longer keeps company with this relations and friends, but roams all alone through the Forests, a powerful wicked Man, preying upon whom he can, and as such is dreaded by the Natives.]
  • 1908  But here, too, many years ago, a priest was murdered and eaten by a weeghteko, an Iroquois from Caughnawaga.
  • 1929  He was sure ha had now run upon a real weetigo (cannibal) and, being a plucky man, determined to hunt him and kill him.