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Channel: House and Home – A Book of Creatures
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Pinaviztli

The Pinaviztli is an insect of ill-omen known to the Aztecs. It looks like a spider the size of a mouse, smooth and hairless and fat-bodied, red and black in color. The entrance of a pinaviztli into a...

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Great-hand

The Old Town of Edinburgh is honeycombed with cellars, passages, and tunnels. These subterranean labyrinths are home to ancient horrors long forgotten by the residents. Great-hand is one of these....

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Bøjg

Variations: Boyg, Bøjgen, Bojgen, Bøygen, Boygen, The Great Bøjg of Etnedal The Great Bøjg of Etnedal is a troll encountered by Peer Gynt in his Gutsbrandal adventures. It was memorable enough that...

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Osschaert

Variations: Osschaard Found in maritime Flanders, land of Waas, and especially Hamme, near Dendermonde, Osschaert is one of several mischievous shapeshifters that plague Belgium. He was particularly...

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Ilomba

Variations: Malomba (pl.); Mulombe, Mulolo, Sung’unyi (Kaonde); Ndumba (Alunda); Man-Snake The Ilomba is one of several familiar spirits associated with sorcerers and witchcraft in Zambia. Malomba...

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Nuppeppō

Variations: Nuppefuhofu (Mizuki); Nikubito (probably); Hō (probably); Nopperabō (probably) The word Nuppeppō is derived from nupperi or nopperi, meaning “flat-faced” and referring to a flat, dazed...

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Nartôq

The helping spirit Nartôq is “the pregnant one” or “the big-bellied one”. Iglulik Inuit shaman Anarqâq first encountered this spirit while out hunting caribou. Nartôq is a horrifying sight – its nose...

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Wulver

The Wulver lives alone in a cave halfway up a steep knowe on the Isle of Unst in Shetland. He stands upright like a man, but has a wolf’s head and a body covered in short brown hair. A peaceful loner,...

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Nkala

Variations: Crab-monster The Nkala is one of several sorcerous familiars associated with witchcraft in Zambia. A nkala kills people by eating their shadows. Anyone in possession of a nkala, therefore,...

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Gallo de la Muerte

Every hundred years, a kite in the Spanish mountains lays a red egg in a gorse bush. From that egg hatches a black and white bird, larger than a chicken, which lives exactly fifty years. When that bird...

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Fad Felen

Variations: Fall Felen When the Fad Felen, the “Yellow Pestilence”, “Yellow Death”, or “Yellow Plague”, came to Wales in the 540s, it took the form of a column of watery cloud, one end on the ground...

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Musca Macedda

Variations: Musca Macèdda, Musca Machèdda, Musca Maghèdda, Musca Manchèdda da Mancu A fabulous treasure awaits discovery in Sardinia. This treasure takes the form of two barrels, identical in...

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Cueille-Aigue Serpent

The small neighborhood of Cueille-Aigue, in the Montbernage area of Poitiers, was once witness to a reptile of extraordinary resilience. An event of this magnitude, of course, led to wildly divergent...

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Rhox

Variations: Rhax, Rhagion, Rhogalida (“grape-spider”) The name Rhox indicates similarity to a grape. It may be the same as the spider known as rhogalida or “grape-spider” on Crete, although nobody is...

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Bjarndýrakóngur

Variations: King of the Bears, Einhyrningur (Unicorn) The Bjarndýrakóngur, the “King of the Bears”, is the undisputed monarch of the polar bears of Iceland. It is born from a female polar bear and a...

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Worm of Haftvad

Among the many stories told in the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings, is that of Haftvad. Haftvad had seven sons, as his name indicates, and lived in a poor but hard-working town on the Persian...

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Yam Bhaya Akhoot

Variations: Abang Aku (Malay, corruption), A Bao a Qu (corruption) The Yam Bhaya Akhoot is a mysterious, amorphous being that lives at the bottom of the stairway of the Vijay Stambha, the Tower of...

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Lidérc

Variations: Ludvérc, Mit-mitke, Ignis Fatuus The Lidérc or Ludvérc is a polymorphic and polyvalent entity from Hungary. In its various guises, it appears as a will-o’-the-wisp, an astral phenomenon, a...

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Skvader

The Skvader is a taxidermist’s chimera found in Sundsvall, in the Swedish province of Medelpad. It is a winged hare, combining the skins of a European hare and a capercaillie. The original skvader was...

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Grand’Goule

Variations: Grand’Gueule, Grande Goule, Grande Gueule; Bonne Sainte Vermine (Good Holy Vermin) The Grand’Goule (corrupted from grande gueule, “great gullet” or more simply “big mouth”) is one of many...

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