There's a saying in the Appalachian Mountains.

It's old.

Older than most of the names you'll find on an Appalachian headstone.

It goes like this.

If you hear your name called from the woods, don't answer. This isn't treated

as just a story. It's a rule. The same way you would teach a child not to touch the stove,

or not to take candy from strangers.

It's also imperative to teach.

Don't answer the woods.

And in this episode, we're going to find out

why generations of Appalachian people have warned each other.

Additionally, we get into a 200-year-old haunting that killed a man,

and a chemistry professor who thinks she finally figured out how. We'll talk about a 10-foot creature

that emerged from a hillside in West Virginia in 1952.

We'll talk about a deer that's not a deer, a cat that walks on two legs,

a grandmother with a knife where her finger should be, and we'll talk about the mimic,

the thing that learns your voice, and the thing that

calls your name from the trees. This is the strange and unusual podcast with Allison Horrocks.

And welcome to this week's episode.

Ten Things in the Appalachian Woods that shouldn't be there. I'm going to be the I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm going I'm going I'm I'm going I'm I'm I'm This episode is one I've been wanting to do for a long time.

Because the Appalachian Mountains are, in my opinion, one of the richest folkloric

regions in North America. The Appalachian Mountains, a stretch of land that runs from

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