Wendigo Legend
"The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody ... Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption."
Basil Johnston, an Ojibwe teacher and scholar from Ontario, gives a description of a Wendigo:
Summary
The Wendigo is a creature with origins in Native American myth and legend, specifically among the Algonquian people (and other Algonquian speaking tribes).
It is a malevolent spirit associated with gluttony, cannibalism and similar unpleasant conditions.
It poses a threat to all who encounter it, but those in particular danger of being taken over by the spirit's influence were those who were starving, greedy, gluttonous or who themselves, practiced cannibalism.
Its connection to the practice of cannibalism and famine led tribe elders to regard cannibalism as highly taboo, even in times of great hunger and famine within the tribe.
Not only could it draw a Wendigo's attention to one's tribe, but it could even result in a person turning into a Wendigo.
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