Appalachian and Cherokee folklore, told as exactly that
Up the Appalachian hollows they tell of the Wampus Cat, a fearsome half-woman half-mountain-lion that screams in the night, born, the tale says, of a Cherokee woman cursed for spying on the men’s sacred hunt. Panther screams that sound like a woman in terror are real enough in this country, and they are most of where the legend lives. Told here as the mountain folklore it is.
The southern Appalachian hollows (East TN and western NC)
See it on the map
Other places on the map within a couple of hours of here.
