Aliases: Brahmarakshasa

The brahmaparusha is an Indian male vampiric spirit. The Indians believed it was a demon who could possess the living and destroy them slowly from the inside. His appearance is described as terrifying. For example, he would wear animal and human intestines around his head like a crown and also wore them around his neck. He did this to show off his killings like trophies.

He first attacks the victim, then he would pour the blood from the victim into a skull that he would carry around, and drink from it like a cup. He would then eat the brains and sometimes eat the whole body. After he was finished he would take the intestines and wrap them around his entire body to perfrom a ritual around the dead body. The brahmaparusha doesn’t get full on one human, it takes many humans for him to be satisfied.

There is no known protection against this blood thirsty vampire. The brahmaparusha is closely related to the Indian spirit the bhuta.

The succubus rarely discloses her true form.
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The succubus is a demon, stemming from medieval legend, that takes the form of a woman in men’s dreams with the purpose of having sexual intercourse with them. They are often depicted as having demonic wings and hooves, and a purplish complexion or skin tone. They might also appear as red, like a devil or demon spirit. They survive by feeding off the man’s energy, and will feed for several nights until there is nothing left of him.

The succubus is thought to be an allegory to unclean thoughts. If you dream of lustful acts it may come back on you as a curse. Tales of succubuses help men from being overwhelmed with sexual thoughts, by identifying those thoughts and dreams with evil, and stopping them from reoccurring. In modern times succubi (plural) are a term for women who drain energy from their companions.

The Hannya is often seen characterized on Japanese masks.
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Introduction

The hannya is a demonic woman with vampire-like qualities from Japanese lore. She is very jealous and is described as having two sharp horns poking from her head, eyes that are known to glare, and a large mouth. When opened, the mouth stretches from ear to ear. She eats children and drinks their blood. She is very popular and can be seen in many mask designs throughout Japan. The masks expression has her mouth open and is suppose to capture her anger and wrath. The oldest hannya mask is from 1558.

The Mask

When the mask is used in popular plays the coloration of the mask will depend on how angry she is. The redder her face the more angry she is. For example in a play known as Dodoji, which is a play about a woman who falls inlove with a priest from the Dodoji Temple, the hannya is very violent. She turns herself into an evil serpent and slithers up to the bell at the top of the temple. She wraps herself around it and eats it then turns against the priest and devours him as well. In other plays when she is not so angry her face is portrayed with a paler yellow mask.

Interesting Fact:

In modern day Japan when a wife gets angry or jealous the man will put his two index fingers out from his forehead to symbolize the hannya.

The Blackman, from Mayan lore.
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The Blackman, also known as the H?ki’al is from Mayan lore, from the Chiapas highlands of southern Mexico. It is described as a cannibalistic black demon with wings and a deadly penis reaching six feet long, which he uses for his unsatisfied sex cravings. He kidnaps women at night and takes them to his cave where he rapes or seduces her. She will have a curse upon her, that is if he doesn’t eat her first. She can never return to her village, she will have a very bad smell, and her children will all look like the Blackman. The only way to destroy him is to impale him, burn him, or cook him.

The Bhuta, often seen as a flickering light.
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Bhuta, from Indian lore, is a flesh-eating spirit or demon. The bhuta is considered a vampiric demon, they are said to be the restless souls of people who died from either suicide, execution, or violence. They haunt day and night usually in forests or abandoned houses and appear as a mist or flickering lights that hover above ground without casting shadows. They like to haunt people who do not perform the right funerary customs for the dead. The bhuta can be avoided by lying flat on the ground, since they are above ground and never rest. They are blamed for ruining crops, causing illness, disease, plagues, and insanity, just like the European vampire. They can enter human bodies causing sickness and/or death. They can be scared away by burning turmeric. The demon version of the Bhuta is very similiar, although they were never alive.

The Empusa is a vampire from Greek lore.
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The Empusa when directly translated from Greek, means simply “vampire.” In Greek legends, vampires are demons that takes over a corpses. It has no particular shape, but it sometimes takes the shape of a young woman or a phantom. It enters a human’s body and drinks all of their blood. It prefers blood from a young healthy person, and the Empusa believe that a youthful person’s blood is more pure and strong.

From the movie the Exorcist, the ekimmu spirit is often the source of possessed victims.

The ekimmu shows up in Babylonian and Assyrian demonology. The name means “that which is snatched away.” This invisible spirit is not allowed into the underworld, so it wanders around on earth. Usually people that are buried improperly, or not buried at all, or dying a violent death can become ekimmu. This includes people that died in battle, murder victims, drowning, etc. They will go to their family’s house at night and cause major damage and destruction. They sometimes cause death to everyone in the house. They can also take possession on a person, which is difficult to exorcise it out. They can be destroyed with wooden swords, or any other wooden weapons.

Incubus, a painting of the late 19th century.

The case of Johannes Cutius occurred in 1653 in Silesia, present day Poland. Cutius was a 60-year old man that got kicked in the groin by his horse and fell fatally ill. Right before he was about to die, he said that he was an evil man and made a pact with the devil. His oldest son witnessed a black cat scamper up to his body and furiously scratch the old man’s face right after he died. There was also a violent storm that lasted until he was finally buried on the right side of an alter, which was considered a hallowed spot.

Only 2 days after he was dead, the town started rumors that the form of the old man was seen at night as an incubus. He began to sexually assault woman, and acted as a poltergeist, by beating people up, throwing things across the room, and even shaking houses. It was also said that he put blood all over the alter at the church, turned milk into blood, sucked on the utters of a cow, ate chickens, and created awful smells. They dug him up and saw that he was bloated and fresh blood came out from a vein in his leg. They cut him into many pieces and burned his body. They then threw the ashes into the river.

The afanc, a welsh lake monster, often described as a hybrid between a crocodile and a beaver.
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Aliases: Addanc

Introduction

The Afanc is a lake monster from Welsh mythology. It is believed to exist in a few different lakes in the United Kingdom such as Llyn Llion, Llyn Barfog or in Llyn yr Afanc. It has various descriptions which include a combination of a beaver, crocodile, and a dwarf-like creature. It is also said that this monstrous beast will eat anything that falls into the lake. There several very old legends for the Afanc based on regional folklore, but primarily, it is considered to be a demon responsible for flooding.

The First Afanc Legend

The first afanc legend states that a young lady was taking care of the monster and let it cradle on her lap asleep. When the maiden’s village saw the beast they were angry and bound the beast in chains. The Afanc started thrashing about and ended up crushing the lady, apparently because it was still on her lap. It was dragged by the men to the depths of lake Cwm Ffynnon, which is located in Snowdonia, UK.

The Second Afanc Legend

In the second legend it is believed that King Arthur or Percival (one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table) slayed the Afanc. In the national park in Snowdonia, Wales, there stands a gigantic rock with an imprint on it that resembles a hoof-print. Some say this imprint was made by King Arthur’s horse, Llamrai, while they struggled to take the beast out of the lake with chains. The Afanc was so massive that it caused the horse’s hooves to press down and make an indentation on the rock. After a long struggle, King Arthur succeeded in slayed the beast. The rock with the hoof print can be seen today and is called “Carn March Arthur” or “Stone of Arthur’s Horse.”

The location where Arthur battled with the afanc. His horse left a hoofprint in the rock after struggling with it.

In the third legend a Welsh poet named Edward Williams, (aka Lolo Morganwg [job mor'yaung])described as a famous forger of myths and folklore, believed that the Afanc’s swimming rapidly and thrashing about caused immense flooding during the time. According to legend, the flooding led to the death of every inhabitant of Britain except for two people, Dwyfan and Dwfach. All of the Prydains are said to be descendants from those two individuals.

The Final Afanc Legend

Another of the Afanc legends occurred in Llyn Llion’s lake with Hu Gadarn (“Hu the Mighty”), a man in Welsh Mythology. He was credited with inventing a song to help improve memory and for teaching people how to plow. Much like the previous legends, this afanc was said to flood the land. One day, after a massivel flood, Hu the Mighty pulled the creature out of the lake with the aid of his oxen. Once out of the water, the Afanc was helpless and very easily killed. After the Afanc was dead, the flooding was said to have stopped.