Terrifying Tales: The Tailypo

“At night when the moon shines, and the wind blows, you can hear a voice say: Tailypo, tailypo, now I’ve got my tailypo.”

Tailypo is a North American folktale with roots both in Appalachia and the South. There are many versions of this story.

Johanna and Paul Galdone's version.

Most versions include an old man or hermit that lives in a small log cabin in an isolated area-- in the woods or near a swamp. He has three hunting dogs named, Uno, Ino, and Cumptico-Calico.

It was late in autumn, and the old man had not had much luck with his hunting. He prepared a meager meal of one thin rabbit for himself and his dogs.

Heading for bed, he spots a strange cat-like creature entering his cabin through a crack in the floor.

It was fat with a dark coat of fur. Its tail was large and bushy. The man still hungry grabbed a hatchet and chased the strange creature. He chopped off its tail and then it left the cabin the way it entered--screaming.

The old man then cooked the tail and ate it—it tasted so good he does not share it with his dogs. He then went to bed. Within the hour, he awakens to the sound of a loud thumping. He hears something scratching on the cabin wall.

A shrill voice says, “Tailypo, tailypo, who has my tailypo?”

He calls his dogs, “Here, here, here” and opens the cabin’s door. Chaos ensues with the dogs barking wildly, trying to follow the creature up the wall of the cabin. Their barking becomes faint as they chase the beast into the swamp.

When the dogs return, Uno is not with them—the man is unconcerned for his dogs often hunt on their own-- he returns to his bed as he hears the other two dogs settle down on the porch.

Around midnight he is awakened once more by a loud thump.

This time the scratching sound is at the back of his cabin—near where he lay. It sounded like the wood was being shredded and torn away fiercely.

For the second time, he hears, “Tailypo, tailypo, who has my tailypo?” His dogs rush around the side of the cabin barking and growling. He gets up in time to see just Cumptico-Calico chase the dark figure back into the swamp.

When Cumptico-Calico doesn’t return-- the man reassures himself that Calico like the other dog was hungry and had found something else to hunt—exhausted the man goes back to bed.

Just before dawn, he is awakened for the third time. Now the thumping is at the foot of his bed, and he once more hears the scratching. He watches as his covers are pulled off. Frightened, the man dares not look anymore.

He feels the creature jump on the bed and then it pokes him with its sharp claws as it walks from his feet to his neck.

It then demands loudly, “Tailypo, tailypo where is my tailypo?” The man unable to move spots its' gleaming yellow eyes.

Several days later, a neighbor found the old man’s bed shredded to pieces with random bones laying about. His dogs were never seen again.

They say when the moon shines bright, one can hear way off in the swamp, “Tailypo, tailypo, now I have my tailypo.”

Here is a link that lists several versions of this folktale.

One favorite version of this story is presented in Johanna Galdone’s picture book entitled, The Tailypo: A Ghost Story. Her tale leaves so much to the reader’s imagination that it actually is one of the scariest versions.

Traditional Versions: Knife in the Grave

One modern day version of this story was retold in Alvin Schwartz’s book “Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark.” 

The basic structure of this story begins with a group of teenagers who are attending a Friday night party near a graveyard. The conversation always evolves into a discussion about the cemetery
One teenager states that you should never stand on a grave after dark because the dead occupant will pull you under.

At this point in the story a brave person in the group, usually a girl announces that she doesn’t believe this—it is just a superstition. The group then always “dares” the brave one, in this scenario a girl, to stand on a grave that very night. 

She accepts announcing she isn’t scared. The group gives her a knife and tells her to stick it in a grave as proof she was there.

This brave teen then has no choice but to follow through on the group’s dare because if she doesn’t, she will lose face. 

So the story follows the “girl” into the graveyard where she tries to put up a brave front, but she is terrified. She reassures herself by talking aloud she hastily picks out a grave bends down and sticks the knife into the soil.

The catch here is as she turns to leave she finds that something is holding her. In a panic, she struggles in the dark but whatever has her will not let her go. She screams in terror and collapses. 

Meanwhile, at the party, it is getting late, and her friends notice she hasn’t returned, so they go look for her. They find her body sprawled across the grave. 

It seems that when she had plunged the knife into the dirt, it had caught her skirt pinning her to the ground. At this point, the reader is told she died of fright.

Marie Laveau's grave.

Another version of this story takes place in New Orleans in the French Quarter. This story involves three young male tourists who have drunk too much. They are bored, so their talk turns to one of New Orleans’s famous Voodoo witch queens “Marie Laveau.” 

One of these three men is enticed into a wager—thirty dollars if he dares to climb the wall of St. Louis Cemetery #1 and drive an iron spike into Marie Laveau’s final resting place. Courage is needed for this task because Laveau’s tomb is considered haunted.

The foolish young man takes the thirty dollars and throws himself over the wall. His friends wait for him to return for over an hour. They drink more and pass out. 

In the morning they curse their friend for he has not returned. Angry now, they walk through the cemetery gates calling to their inconsiderate comrade. 

They find him by the side of the witch’s grave dead—thirty dollars in coins strewn about. In his drunken state, he had hammered the spike through his coat and into the stone sarcophagus.

The misguided nail had held him in place as he rose to leave. Panic and fear settled over his drunken hazy mind for his stressed heart gave out as he struggled to free himself. 

When his friends find him dead, his frozen features tell the story of his last emotional moments: horror and despair.