Alternate Spellings: Yenosu’riye, Yehasu’rie

Also known as: Wild Indians, Little Wild Indians, Wild People, Not Human Ones, Little People

Etymology – “wild little people”

Pronunciation: yay-hah-soo-ree

The Yehasuri are a race of small (roughly two feet tall), hairy humanoids from the Catawba legends of South Carolina in the United States.

It is said that the Yehasuri live in tree stumps and eat a variety of different things like acorns, roots, frogs, fungi, turtles, and insects to name a few.

While the Yehasuri are not known for being dangerous, they are known for pulling a lot of mischievous pranks and tricks. Some of these pranks include: stealing children’s footprints and shadows, outright kidnapping children, tying people by the hair to trees, and undoing people’s work if they aren’t properly respected or avoided. Sometimes these pranks can get rather destructive.

It seems to be that Catawba parents use stories of Yehasuri, portraying them as a type of bogeyman, to keep children in line and from misbehaving themselves.

Protection from Yehasuri

The only way to stop the Yehasuri is to rub tobacco on your hands and to say an ancient Catawba prayer:

“dugare ini para’ti na yehasuri deme hana te we stere yanamusi sere.”

Other precautions against Yehasuri were to make sure that nothing is left out where they can’t mess with things, bring in clothing at night, sweep away the tracks and footprints of children before night, and avoid potential places in the forest where they might be encountered.