Truth is stranger than fiction and reality TV stars know this better than anyone,

but what you may not know about them or even believe is actually criminal behavior.

I'm Kaelin Miller-Keeze and on my new podcast True Crime Reality, I will be joined by

reality TV stars as they dive deep into the details of the crime they have a direct connection to.

Listen to True Crime Reality on the iHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHard Radio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lam and this is The Artifact, a short forum series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind

focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. Once upon a time, a rice dealer

of Shaozing province of Zizian had to cross a yellow muddy canal in which many persons had been

suffocated. As he rode across it on his buffalo, a black hand rose from the mud to grasp his foot.

As he drew up his legs, the hand seized the hoof of the buffalo and held it fast.

The rider called for help, and after much effort, the buffalo was dragged out.

An old broom was found attached to its body. The broom was so putrid and offensive

that it was hardly possible to approach it. When it was struck with sticks, it made a moaning sound

and black blood trickled from it. Knives were brought and the thing was cut off and burnt,

but it left an evil stench for some time. Since then, no more people were suffocated in the yellow mud

canal. These are the words of folklorist Gerald Willoughby Mead from his 1925 book Ghosts and Vampire

Tales of China. In it, he writes of various superstitions and traditions involving wooden utensils,

mainly in Chinese traditions, but he also compares them to various western superstitions as well.

He writes of a Chinese tale concerning a length of rotten rope, so haunted that it bled when

shocked. He also writes of a haunted wooden pillow that takes on a shadowy humanoid form.

The tradition also includes tales of tree and plant ghosts, but inanimate objects of organic

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