Ambi Jakbyryt

In the folklore of the Atong people of Meghalaya — a subgroup of the Garo tribe — Ambi Jakbyryt is a ghostly hand, with no body attached.

When people walk on jungle paths on dark and moonless nights, the Ambi Jakbyryt will begin to follow them, floating silently behind in mid-air. When they least expect it, it reaches forward and claws their back.

When the person turns around, yelping in pain and alarm, they see the disembodied hand flying into the shadows.

Ref.: 51. van Breugel, Seino. (2014). A Grammar of Atong. Brill.

Alvantin

This name is used in Goa and other parts of Western India for the ghost of a woman who died in childbirth, but whose child survived. In some communities, it can also be used for a woman who died just before she was about to be married.

These spirits are incorporeal and invisible, and usually don’t bother the living. They never haunt strangers. Alvantins only cause trouble to members of their own family, and even then only if someone is about to experience the major life event which fate denied to the deceased.

Suppose a woman dies in childbirth. When her widower remarries, the ghost of the dead woman might become envious at the idea of a different woman mothering her child. The Alvantin may then possess the new wife and harass and torment her.

Or suppose a woman dies the night before her wedding. Then, when a younger sister or a niece gets married, the Alvantin may return to haunt the bride.

An Alvantin may haunt a family for centuries, over many generations, even after the name of the deceased is long forgotten and the house she lived in has crumbled to dust. But the ghost only troubles women — that too, only those women fathered by, or married to, members of the male line of descent from her father or her husband. For example, the dead woman’s brother’s daughters, or her brother’s sons’ wives, are at risk; but her sister’s descendants are immune.

A woman exorcist is required to drive an Alvantin out of a possessed person. Male exorcists are ineffectual against this spirit.

Ref.: 29. Bernadette, Maria. (1993). Ethnomedicine and healing practices in goa [Doctoral dissertation, Goa University]. Shodhganga; 92a. Maharashtra State Gazetteers (Facsimile Reproduction), Kolaba.