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Goat Man of the South West

USA
November 2003

This story was told to me by a friend just recently, while we were trading ghost stories. Just hearing it sent goose bumps up and down my body! This is what he told me:

He and his cousins were playing football out in the street, just messing around one summer evening, when they began to hear music playing around them. One minute it would be behind them, but when they went to investigate, it would be across the street. It was a strange, piping flute sound, very high and almost luring them to keep chasing it. Finally, they heard it at the end of the street, and turning to see what was playing it, they saw what my friend could only call 'the little goat man'.

He was up on two legs, but his legs were hairy and his feet were hooves. He stood about three feet tall, and the top of his body was that of a man, muscular yet hairless. He smiled and danced and played his flute, slowly coming toward them. They started backing up, and he played faster and picked up his pace. They ran into my friend's house, but all the while they could hear him playing outside, and they could hear the sound of his hooves hitting their porch. For several nights after that, they often heard him tapping and dancing up on the roof, playing the same tune over and over again. Sometimes he jumped off the roof and played under my friend's window, or his cousins'. They often found his hoof prints under the windows. Finally, though, the little goat man stopped coming at night, and he never saw him again.

While my friend told this tale, my mother came in and abruptly sat down at our table. She was staring, a little pale, at my friend, and we asked what was wrong. She told us that as a child, she and her siblings had often seen the goat-man. He played a tune that haunted her still; she even managed to whistle a little of it for us. My friend said that was the same tune he had heard! Intrigued and thoroughly creeped out by this point, I went to my computer and began searching through some Greek mythology sites I am fond of visiting. I found a picture of 'Pan', the goat-god. Both my friend and Mother said it was the same creature, except he was much more masculine, and frightening, than the picture depicted.

I have heard others in my small town tell of the goat-man, and am wondering if others in the Southwestern area have seen the goat-man.

USA
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