From the Cape region of South Africa comes the impundulu (see AFRICAN VAMPIRE WITCH and VAMPIRIC WITCH). A vampiric creature only about three inches tall in its true form, it usually stays in its shape-shifted form — that of a bird with a red bill, legs, and tail. In addition to its shape-shifting ability, it can also spread “the wasting disease” (tuberculosis), cause infertility in cattle and men, and cause near instant death in a person through a sudden pain in his chest. In its natural form, the impundulu can fly through a small flying machine that is powered by human blood.
At night it attacks both cattle and humans, drinking their blood and consuming their flesh. A lone impundulu can kill an entire herd of cattle in a single evening, as its hunger is that insatiable. Additionally, it enjoys the pain and torment it causes.
An impundulu makes an excellent familiar for a witch, as it is loyal by nature, cannot be destroyed, and can be passed down from mother to daughter, even if the child is not a witch herself. However, if a nonwitch comes to own one of these prized familiars, it must be used or it will turn and kill its master. When bound as a familiar, it will only show itself to its master in its bird form. The impundulu must be fed every night or at least allowed to hunt for itself, or it will turn on the witch and kill her. Obligated to protect the witch as well as her family line, the impundulu can only be passed on to the next master at the time of the witch’s death. If not done so, then the impundulu is freed from its obligations and is now referred to as an ishologu and will do at it pleases.
Source: Hodgson, God of the Xhosa, 32, 47-48; Laubscher, Pagan Soul, 128, 131, 151, 153; Marwick, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 371, 427
A vampiric spirit from Japan, the ikiryoh has a most uncommon method of creation. It comes into being when a person has evil thoughts and bad feelings about another person for a long time. Eventually, these thoughts can gain enough power to become an entity and leave to possess the person its host hated (see ASTRAL VAMPIRE). Once it has done so, it begins to drain away his life-energy (see ENERGY VAMPIRE). An ikiryoh is exceptionally difficult to exorcise from a person. Rites involving the reading of Buddhist teachings are necessary.
In Romania and throughout Eastern Europe there exists a vampiric, bipedal cat known as an iele. Standing about four feet tall and built rather lithe and thinly, it travels in small groups of three to seven members, looking for prey near crossroads, fields, village fountains, woods, or anyplace where they may find a person alone and fairly well isolated. Although it feeds mostly on human and sheep blood, it will also entice children into dancing with it, and as it does so, drains away their life-energy (see ENERGY VAMPIRE).
Fond of music and dancing, the iele are occasionally taken to falling in love with a beautiful young person, taking one as its lover and placing itself completely under the person’s control. Shepherds who play their pipes exceptionally well are placed under the protection of the iele, whether they know it or not. The iele have their own music ability and are known to join in and play along with the shepherds. Iele are also known to set fields on fire and can cause insanity and paralysis in people.
Source: Ankarloo, Early Modern European Witchcraft, 211, 213; McNally, In Search of Dracula, 68; Senn, Werewolf and Vampire in Romania, 24, 41; Stratilesco, From Carpathian to Pindus, 185-186
The Xhosa people of Bantu descent in southeast South Africa must contend with the VAMPIRIC WITCHES of the region (see AFRICAN VAMPIRE WITCH). In doing so, they must also confront the ichanti, a snake that is often summoned and kept as a generational familiar; there is a saying that accompanies this idea —”Witchcraft goes through the breasts”.
Ichanti snakes tend to be very beautiful, their skin patterned in many attractive colors, and they make for one of the best familiars a witch could ever want. They can shape-shift into any object that is desired and some even have telepathic abilities. Ichanti also have a powerful hypnotic stare that they use to paralyze their prey; even a brief glance into their eyes can cause this effect. Touching one can also be dangerous, as it may drive a person insane, if not killing him outright. Only the person who controls the snake knows the antidote to its poisonous touch and how to naturalize the effects of its glare.
The snake seldom leaves its river home, unless its witch sends it forth to do some harm. If a person is ever attacked by an ichanti, the only way to protect himself is an earnest prayer to God for assistance. If He blesses him, then any means that would normally kill a typical river snake will also kill an ichanti.
Source: Broster, Amagqirha, 60; Hammond-Tooke, Bhaca Society, 285-287; Hodgson, God of the Xhosa, 32; Oosthuizen, Afro-Christian Religion, 51; University of the Witwatersrand, African Studies, 22; Wilson, Reaction to Conquest, 286
An iara is a vampiric spirit or VAMPIRIC WITCH from Brazil, depending on the way it died. If a person dies violently, or before his time, or outside the Catholic Church, or if a body is not given a proper Catholic burial or is buried in the jungle, that person will become the vampiric spirit type of iara. However, if a living person sells his soul to the devil for power, he will become the VAMPIRIC WITCH kind of iara (see LIVING VAMPIRE).
The iara, no matter how it came to be, can, in its human guise, sing a beautiful, sirenlike song that will lure men out into the jungle. There is a protective chant that can be uttered as soon as a man hears the iara’s song, but he must be quick, otherwise he is doomed to fall prey to it. Once the iara has secured a victim, it shape-shifts into a snake with red eyes and, using a form of mesmerism, hypnotizes its prey, after which it will drain off his blood and semen. It leaves the bodies of those it has killed near waterways.
Source: Bryant, Handbook of Death, 99; de Magalhães, Folk-lore in Brazil, 75, 81; Prahlad, Greenwood Encyclopedia, 160
In China, a type of vampiric spirit known as a huli jing (fox fairy) is invisible in its grave by day, but at night it becomes apparent, and its bushy fox tail is easily seen unless great measures are taken to hide it. Each evening it rises from its grave and shape-shifts into an appropriate form in order to find its prey, preferring to look from a perch up on a rooftop. Huli jing are particularly fond of the life-energy of scholars because of their virtue (see ENERGY VAMPIRE). It seduces them, and during sexual intercourse, drains them of their life-energy. One of its hunting tactics is to shape-shift into a person who has died a long time ago and return to their home, haunting it.
Huli jing can shape-shift into a number of forms, including a beautiful woman, a scholar, or an old man. It can live to be over 1,000 years old, has the ability to see miles away, and can pass through solid walls as if they were not there. It has been known to possess a person and drive him insane, as well as bestow the gift of flight onto a person who worships it.
The vampiric spirit can be bribed with offerings of food and incense. Also a potion can be made and consumed to keep the huli jing away. To make it, take prayers that have been written on rice paper, burn them to ashes, and mix them into tea.
Variations: Jiangshi (“stiff corpse”), Pinyin, XI XIE GUI (“blood-sucking ghost”)
The myth of the hopping corpse of China comes from a story titled The Corpse Who Traveled a Thousand Miles. It is a tale about a wizard who enchants corpses to hop home so that they may receive proper burial and their P’O (soul) can be laid to rest. It has been speculated that if smugglers did not invent the tale, they most certainly capitalized upon it by dressing up as these corpses and hopping to scare away superstitious local law enforcement.
According to the myth, a corpse that has had its yin shocked and its P’O disrupted will become a vampiric REVENANT. Events that can cause this to happen are if a cat jumps over a corpse, moonlight falls on it, or the body was not sent back to its home for proper burial. If the P’O will not leave the body, the soul cannot be laid to rest.
A hopping corpse is described as wearing burial clothes from the Qing Dynasty and is accompanied by monks, mourners, and Taoist priests. Its eyes are bulging out of its sockets and its tongue is lolling from its mouth. Its arms are outstretched and it smells horrible enough to make a man fall unconscious.
A hopping corpse hunts by its sense of smell, and when it finds someone, it goes right for the throat, either biting right in the jugular or strangling the person to death. It has the power to kill a person instantly with a single touch, never grows tired, and can fly if need be.
Yellow and red Chinese death blessings placed on its forehead will slow it down, as will throwing long-grain rice at it, since it will be compelled to count them. It can be warded off for a while, as it is afraid of chicken blood, straw brooms, and Taoist eight-sided mirrors. However, to destroy a hopping corpse, only long- term exposure to dawn’s light or by burning it and its COFFIN to ash will work.
In Burma, there is a vampiric spirit that attacks the people in the village where it used to live. The people it pays particular attention to are those who caused it the most strife during its human life. The hminza tase will possess the body of a crocodile, dog, or tiger and use it to attack people. There are death dance rituals and sacrifices that can be made to prevent its return, but these do not always work. If the spirit returns, a person can remove its grave marker in the hopes that the vampire will forget who it was since it only haunts the place it used to live and attacks the people it used to know.
Source: Burma Research Society, Journal of Burma, vol.46-47, 4; Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion, 30; Jobes, Dictionary of Mythology, 1537; Leach, Funk and Wagnalls, 1104
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