Hyenas, or hyaenas, are feliform carnivoran mammals of the family Hyaenidae. With just four extant species, it is the fifth-smallest family in the Carnivora and one of the smallest in the class Mammalia. Despite their low diversity, hyenas are unique and vital components of most African ecosystems.
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods which they inhabited while they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. Vampiric entities have been recorded in cultures around the world; the term vampire was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in Southeastern and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. Local variants in Southeastern Europe were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania.
Choctaw mythology is part of the culture of the Choctaw, a Native American tribe originally occupying a large territory in the present-day Southeastern United States: much of the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. In the 19th century, the Choctaw were known to European Americans as one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" even though controversy surrounds their removal.
Zulu traditional religion contains numerous deities commonly associated with animals or general classes of natural phenomena. Unkulunkulu is the highest god and is the creator of humanity. Unkulunkulu was created in Uhlanga, a huge swamp of reeds, before he came to Earth. Unkulunkulu is sometimes conflated with the sky god Umvelinqangi, god of thunder, earthquake whose other name is Unsondo, and is the son of Unkulunkulu, the Father, and Nomkhubulwane, the Mother. The word nomkhubulwane means the one who shapeshifts into any form of an animal. Another name given for the supreme being Unkulunkulu is uSomandla, the ultimate source of all existence.
The striped hyena is a species of hyena native to North and East Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is the only extant species in the genus Hyaena. It is listed by the IUCN as near-threatened, as the global population is estimated to be under 10,000 mature individuals which continues to experience deliberate and incidental persecution along with a decrease in its prey base such that it may come close to meeting a continuing decline of 10% over the next three generations.
In Zulu mythology, Tikoloshe, Tikolosh, Tokoloshe, Tokolotshe, Thokolosi or Hili is a dwarf-like water sprite. It is a mischievous and evil spirit that can become invisible by drinking water or swallowing a stone. Tokoloshes are called upon by malevolent people to cause trouble for others. At its least harmful, a tokoloshe can be used to scare children, but its power extends to causing illness or even the death of the victim. The creature might be banished by a pastor, who has the power to expel it from the area. It is also considered a part of superstition and is often used in a satirical manner as a reference to overcome.
The strix, in the mythology of classical antiquity was a bird of ill omen, the product of metamorphosis, that fed on human flesh and blood. It also referred to witches and related malevolent folkloric beings.
A hellhound is a mythological hound that embodies a guardian or a servant of hell, the devil, or the underworld. Hellhounds occur in mythologies around the world, with the best known examples being Cerberus from Greek mythology, Garmr from Norse mythology, the black dogs of English folklore, and the fairy hounds of Celtic mythology. Physical characteristics vary, but they are commonly black, anomalously overgrown, supernaturally strong, and often have red eyes or accompanied by flames.
A shtriga is a vampiric witch in Albanian mythology and folklore that sucks the blood of infants at night while they sleep, and then turns into a flying insect. Only the shtriga herself could cure those she had drained. The shtriga is often pictured as a woman with a hateful stare and a horribly disfigured face. They usually live in hidden places in the forest and have supernatural powers. The term shtriga is used also with the common meaning of "witch", referring to a bad and ugly old woman who casts evil spells upon people. The male noun for shtriga is shtrigu or shtrigan.
Were-hyena is a neologism coined in analogy to werewolf for therianthropy involving hyenas. It is common in the folklore of the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Near East as well as some adjacent territories. Unlike werewolves and other therianthropes, which are usually portrayed as being originally human, some werehyena lore tells of how they can also be hyenas disguised as humans.
Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire is a 2003 American direct-to-video animated adventure film, and the fifth in a series of direct-to-video films based upon the Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons. It was completed in 2002, and released on March 4, 2003, and it was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, but included a copyright for Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc..
The soucouyant or soucriant in Dominica, St. Lucian, Trinidadian, Guadeloupean folklore in Haiti, Louisiana, Grenada and elsewhere in the Caribbean or Ole-Higue in Guyana, Belize and Jamaica or Asema in Suriname), in The Bahamas and Barbados it is known as Hag. It is a kind of blood-sucking hag.
Legends of vampires have existed for millennia; cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demonic entities and blood-drinking spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century Southeastern Europe, particularly Transylvania, Romania as verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or a living person being bitten by a vampire themselves. Belief in such legends became so rife that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires.
Bantu tradition is the system of beliefs and legends of the Bantu people of Africa. Although Bantu peoples account for several hundred different ethnic groups, there is a high degree of homogeneity in Bantu cultures and customs, just as in Bantu languages.
West African mythology is the body of myths of the people of West Africa. It consists of tales of various deities, beings, legendary creatures, heroes and folktales from various ethnic groups. Some of these myths traveled across the Atlantic during the period of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to become part of Caribbean, Cuban and Brazilian mythology.
Daayan, Ḍāin or Ḍāini is often mistakenly regarded as a rendering for a witch in Indian folklore, the term has been derived from the Sanskrit word dakini, which refers to a female paranormal entity from patala. Dakinis have been described in medieval Hindu texts such as the Bhagavata Purana, Brahma Purana, Markandeya Purana and Kathasaritsagara as female fiendish spirits in the train of Kali who feed on human flesh.
The Guajona or Lumia is a mythological creature in Cantabrian legend, resembling a disfigured human female. It is thought to resemble one of the many forms of witches and hags of medieval Europe.
Harriette Emily Colenso was a British Christian missionary in southern Africa. She was the eldest of five daughters of John Colenso, the first bishop of Natal, and continued his work, interceding on behalf of the Zulu people before the British Government. She made representations to the Crown on behalf of Dinuzulu and his uncles, in exile on St Helena from 1890 to 1897.
