High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Wampus cat is a creature in American folklore, variously described as some kind of fearsome variation on a cougar. The wampus cat is often compared to the Ewah of Cherokee mythology, in that it was a woman who disguised herself in the skin of a cougar to spy on the men of the tribe, as they sat around the campfire and told sacred stories on a hunting trip. When the woman was discovered, the tribe`s medicine man punished her by transforming her into a half-woman, half-cat, who supposedly still haunts the forests of eastern Tennessee. In folklore, it can be seen as one of a number of fearsome critters. In some sections of rural eastern Tennessee, the legend of the Wampus Cat takes on a more sinister tone. It is said that the Wampus Cat is a spirit of death and the earth, and when her cry is heard, it means someone is going to die and be buried within the next three days.