Raven Mocker

What it is

The Raven Mockers are beings in Cherokee mythology. The tradition classes them as witches or evil spirits. They are pictured as withered and aged, and they are said to fly by night with a cry like a raven's. In these accounts they feed on people who are sick or dying and take the victim's heart. By doing so they are believed to add the dead person's remaining years to their own. Most people are held to be unable to see them. Medicine men with special knowledge are said to notice them and to keep them from entering a home. A Raven Mocker seen in its true form is said to die within seven days.

Where it comes from

The figure belongs to Cherokee mythology and is placed in Appalachia, in the United States. Its first attestation is given as pre-colonial Cherokee folklore. Cherokee names for it include Kâ'lanû Ahkyeli'skï, glossed as The Death Spirit, and Tsundige’wi, glossed as He Who Covers His Face. English titles such as Death Caller and Heart Eater point to its feared work. The stories about it concern sickness, death, medicine men and the effort to protect a dying person. James Mooney's Myths of the Cherokee (1900) and Terry L. Norton's Cherokee Myths and Legends (2014) are published collections that treat the subject.

How it is done

At night the Raven Mocker is said to travel through the air in a fiery form. Its outstretched arms look like wings, sparks trail behind it, and a rushing wind goes with it. Its cry is compared to a raven's dive call and is treated as an omen of death. The being is said to gather at the home of a dying person. There it presses on the chest to make breathing hard, or throws the person to the ground. After death, the heart is held to be removed and eaten. If the being is seen as it truly is, tradition says it will die within seven days.

Tools and materials

In the stories, a medicine man uses a special tea made from duck-root so that he can see Raven Mockers. A renowned Cherokee shaman, Gunskaliski, is said to have destroyed several of them this way. Elsewhere, two men fast for seven days and receive a vision-enhancing remedy made from muskrat brain; the preparation lets them witness creatures near a grave. A gift of beadwork also appears in one tale, given by an old man who warns the hunter to keep quiet.

What it is for

The being is feared as a threat to the sick and dying. Its aim in the stories is to lengthen its own life by taking the years left to another person. The heart is the means: once it is eaten, the victim's remaining span is held to pass to the Raven Mocker. The cry is also read as a death omen. People who are already ill are the ones in danger, and medicine men are called on to keep the being out of the house. Other witches are said to avoid it.

Who does it

The Raven Mockers themselves are described as witches or evil spirits. They are said to act at night and to prey on the dying. Against them stand medicine men, who use special knowledge to detect and repel them. Gunskaliski, a renowned Cherokee shaman, is said to have destroyed several with a duck-root tea that let him see them. One story gives the pair as an old man and an old woman. Another shows a medicine man protecting a dying person while a Raven Mocker waits outside. Other witches are said to scatter when one is near.

Peoples and places

The tradition is Cherokee and is set in Appalachia, in the United States. The names Kâ'lanû Ahkyeli'skï and Tsundige’wi belong to Cherokee speech. The stories place the being in Cherokee homes, at graves and in hunting country. A young hunter shelters in an empty house and meets an old couple. Two men are prepared by a medicine man and keep watch near a grave. A family leaves a dying man alone because they fear the Raven Mockers. These settings are local and specific, and they shape how the being is imagined.

What people believe

The stories assume that a person's remaining years can be taken by another being. The heart carries that span: once it is eaten, the victim's life is held to pass to the Raven Mocker. The creatures are mostly unseen, and their call is read as a sign that death is near. Seeing one in its true form is believed to be fatal to the being within seven days. Medicine men are thought to have the sight and knowledge needed to oppose them. Even other witches are said to keep their distance.

When it is done

Encounters are set at night, usually at the bedside of someone who is sick or dying. The raven-like cry is treated as an omen of death. A sighting in true form is followed, by tradition, by the being's death within seven days. Two men in one story fast for seven days before they are given a vision. In another, warriors find an old couple dead seven days after a hunter reports what he saw. The being is tied to moments of illness and death.

Compare and confuse

The Raven Mocker is grouped with witches and evil spirits. Cherokee names for it are Kâ'lanû Ahkyeli'skï, glossed The Death Spirit, and Tsundige’wi, glossed He Who Covers His Face. English titles include Death Caller and Heart Eater. These names point to the same figure: a night flyer whose cry marks death and whose feeding takes a heart.

Today

The figure has passed into modern fiction. Manly Wade Wellman's The Old Gods Waken (1979) puts Raven Mockers among the creatures met by Silver John. Scott Nicholson's They Hunger (2007) uses similar beings in a gorge like Linville Gorge Wilderness. P. C. Cast's House of Night series makes them antagonists and spirit children of Kalona. Marly Youmans's The Curse of the Raven Mocker, an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger, Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series, Mountain Monsters and a short film also use the figure.

Questions people ask about Raven Mocker

Good reading and sources

• Raven Mocker on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data