Windigo Nation
Today the AskOxford Word of the Day in email is windigo, defined as “(in the folklore of the northern Algonquian Indians) a cannibalistic giant; a person who has been transformed into a monster by the consumption of human flesh.” The word comes from the Ojibwa wintiko. In this Marvel illustration the Windigo resembles an albino werewolf hippie, sort of like Johnny Winter, if he were a cannibal shooting steroids. Ojibwa legend describes the Windigo as “a large creature, as tall as a tree, with a lipless mouth and jagged teeth. Its breath was a strange hiss, its footprints full of blood, and it ate any man, woman or child who ventured into its territory.” Not the sort of thing I’d want to meet in the deep dark woods. And all the result of eating human flesh.
The choice of words seemed especially ironic today (and this is merely an observation, not an editorial comment), since millions of Christians around the world will be consuming Body of Christ as a part of their Sunday ritual.
Imagine a nation of Windigos.
I’m shuddering even as I type.
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