Fact Monster's Menacing Monster Guide News Weather Horoscopes E-mail Visit our sponsors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Although he is one of literature's most enduring monsters, Frankenstein was not his original name. In Mary Shelley's 1818 horror story, Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus , Frankenstein was a Swiss student who discovered a way to create a living man.
Ghosts often haunt a location or someone living, and they sometimes appear as a warning.
Ghosts can also be invoked to help the living, sometimes with mixed results. In the late 19th century, the Paiute Indians of North America practiced a ghost dance, including trances, lasting five days. Believing it would stop the westward expansion of white settlers other tribes adopted the ghost dance. Just before their tragic 1890 battle with the U.S. cavalry at Wounded Knee , South Dakota, Sioux warriors performed the ceremony, and entered battle wearing ghost shirts to protect them against bullets. Nonetheless, they died by the score.