These monster spirits, at least in Armenian mythology, stand close to the dragons-vishapakar. The word means in Persian, "crocodile", and the language has usually held to this matter-of-fact sense, although in the Persian folk-tale of Hatim Tai, the Nhang appears in the semi-mythical character of a sea-monster, which is extremely large and which is afraid of the crab.

The Armenian translators of the Bible use the word in the sense of "crocodile" and "hippopotamus". However, the Nhangs of Armenian mythology, which has confused an unfamiliar river monster with mythical beings, were personal^* and incorporeal: "Նայական շոգւով խոնաւութիւն" — "Humidity with intense heat" (1731: p.70). They were evil spirits which had fixed their abode in certain places and assiduously applied themselves to working harm. They sometimes appeared as women (mermaids?) in the rivers. At other times they became seals (phok) and, catching the swimmer by the feet, dragged him to the bottom of the stream, where, perhaps, they had dwellings like the fairies^*.

In a geography (still in MS.) as cribed to Moses, the Nhangs are said to have been observed in the river Aragani (Murad Chay?) and in the Euphrates. After using an animal called charchasham for their lust, vampire-like they sucked its blood and left it dead. The same author reports that, according to some, the Nhang was a beast, and according to others, a Dev.

John Chrysostom (in the Armenian translations) describes the daughter of Herodias as more bloodthirsty than "the Nhangs of the sea" (1730: p.89-90 cit. 1731: p.69-70).