DAMA DAGENDA
Jungle spirits of Papua New Guinea, the dama dagenda resent intrusion
into their jungle habitat and will inflict painful sores and ulcers
upon those who dare to intrude. They understand the languages
of all the human tribes in the region, but it will be useless
to plead them for guidance as they will simply ignore you. However,
if you can learn a language that they do not understand, you should
sing or talk loudly to yourself in this language as you walk along,
as the spirits will waste time trying to decipher your gibberish
and by the time they catch on to the fact that you have tricked
them, you will already be beyond their reach.
DAMES BLANCHES
Literally white ladies, these Fées
lurk in narrow places such as ravines, fords and bridges in Normandy,
France. They have beautiful faces with hypnotic eyes, but often
also possess physical flaws such as snakes' tails or birds' feet,
and keep their garments white by meticulously washing them in
streams every evening. Travellers cannot avoid them in these places.
The dame blanche will ask the traveller to join her in a dance
or to hand her a plank. If he does so, she will make him many
courtesies, then vanish, but if not, she will fling him into a
ditch full of briars, or give him over to her evil spirits to
torment.
DEEVS
These cruel demon fairies can be compared with the evil Jinn
of the Arabs., and were part of the pre Islamic Persian faith
of Zoroastrianism. They live in Jinnestân, in the mountains
of Kâf, which are made of green chrysolite, the colour of
which the sky reflects. They are two thousand miles high, and
surround the flat disc of the earth with the ocean flowing around
them. Their capital is Ahermanabâd (Aherman's city) and
there the Deev monarch, Arzshenk, resides in a splendid enchanted
palace. They are constantly battling the Peries, and at times,
heroes have led battles against them. Like the peries, hey are
greatly superior to man, and have much longer lifespans (although
they are mortal in the end), but share human emotions and sensitivities
in their natures. However, they are known to detest perfume, which
is the food of the peries.
DOMOVOI
Slavic spirits of the home, the domovoi are active at night, when,
li\ke British Brownies , they
complete unfinished household chores. They live beneath the stove
or in the cellar, and when a family moves into a house, they should
put a slice of bread beneath the stove in order to attract a domovoi.
If the family wants their domovoi to serve them well, they should
treat them with great respect and leave offerings of fine food
out for them. However, if this practice of payment is discontinued,
they will use their nights to smash the household's crockery and
upset its pets. Although the domovoi are seldom seen, they are
generally considered to be small, grey bearded men covered with
tangled hair. Their female counterparts, the kikimora (sometimes
said to be their wives) are small with long hair. The sight of
a domovoi is an omen of great misfortune, and the sound of his
sobbing foretells a death in the family.
DRACS
In Arles, an area in South France, the dracs are said to sometimes
take the forms of golden rings or cups floating on rivers, and
when bathers try to take these the dracs seize them and drag them
to the river bottom, where they usually eat them. They can also
take on human form, and live in the caverns of the rivers. Sometimes
they abduct suckling women to act as wet nurses for them, and
when these women return after seven years, they are unharmed by
can hardly be recognised. These women will be able to see them
if they rub the grease of the dracs' food into their eyes, but
if the dracs discover they have done this, they will promptly
blind the woman in whichever eye has this power of second sight.
DRYADS
The Nymphs of the woods, the
dryads live in trees and will die when their tree dies naturally
or is destroyed. Some of them are Artemis' attendants, and some
follow Dionysius in his drunken reveries. One dryad, Syrinx, was
chased by the faun like god, Pan, and upon reaching a lake, called
upon the Limniads for help. They changed her into some reeds,
but Pan used these reeds to make the syrinx, more commonly known
as the panpipes, which he continues to play merrily through the
hills.
DUENDES
These house spirits of Spain resemble frail old men, and wore
long comical hats without brims, like many of the clergy. They
have been thought to be fallen angels. When buying things at the
market, they pay with fairy money, which turns insubstantial in
a matter of hours.
DUERGAR
The dwarfs of the Norse, they live in the rocks and hills and
are brilliant metallurgists, and are smiths for the gods. They
were once the maggots in the giant Ymir's flesh, and became the
duergar when he died. They became the partakers of human knowledge,
and although they resemble man in most ways except for their short
legs, long arms which almost reach the ground when they are upright,
and grumpy dispositions, as well as the fact that they turn into
stone when sunlight shines on them.
DWARFS
The Finns only believe in a branch of this class of little folk,
who seem to be, like Gnomes, spirits of the earth. The main difference
betwen them is that while gnomes have no obvious physical defects,
dwarfs have twisted bodies, big heads and gnarled faces. Although
they usually live underground, they may emerge to the surface
for special occasions. If they choose to celebrate these in men's
homes, then the householder and his family are always welcome
to join in the festivities, and a rejection of one of their invitations
will be taken as an insult and will bring ill fortune upon the
family. Dwarfs are particularly skilful at mining, metallurgy
and metalworking. They will sometimes trade their crafts for human
goods, or help miners locate ore, and have a strong ability to
foretell the future, although they do not usually use this to
help mankind. In Finland, they sometimes invite mortals to their
magnificent underground kingdom, where they are sumptuously entertained
and given plenty of brandy, tobacco, and suchlike things.
DWARFS
There is a branch of the dwarf family that lives on the Isle of
Rügen, and it is divided into the White, the Brown and the
Black dwarfs. White dwarfs are delicate and beautiful, and have
innocent and gentle dispositions. During winter, they stay in
their homes in the hills making works of gold and silver too delicate
for mortals to discern, although they remain above ground for
the rest of the year, in the sunshine and starlight enjoying uninterrupted
revelry. Sometimes they just sit and gaze at budding or blossoming,
plants, sometimes they dance to sweet and delicate music in the
grass, the hills, the brooks and the springs, bewildering travellers
unable to see them. When humans can see them, they are usually
in the forms of parti coloured birds, butterflies, or snow white
doves. Brown dwarfs, less than eighteen inches high, wear little
brown coats, jackets and caps, their caps with a silver bell on
the top. Their shoes are black with red strings, although they
wear glass ones to dance. They are very handsome, with clear,
light coloured eyes and small, beautiful hands and feet, and are
cheerful and good natured, though at times roguish. They are also
skilful with gold and silver. At night, they may come out and
dance by the light of the moon and stars, and may come into houses,
invisible (except to others wearing similar caps) and shifting
their shape to slip through the keyholes. They may leave presents
behind for the children, but have a habit of capturing children
in their cradles and forcing them to work for them for fifty years.
They may also plague lazy servants with nightmares, biting them
like fleas and scratching and tearing at them like cats or dogs.
They also frighten people at night in the shapes of owls, thieves
or their lovers, and will lead them astray in bogs and marshes,
sometimes even leading them to the people they are running from.
The black dwarves are ugly with weeping eyes, and wear black jackets
and caps. They excel at working steel, which they shape nto swords
and shields which they may sell to humans. Interested buyers should
sit beneath an elder tree in the summer, as they often linger
here. They are mischievous, malicious and unsociable, keeping
mostly to their homes in the hills and never wandering far from
them in the daytime. They have no music or dancing, only howling
and whimpering, causing the strange noises in the forests that
humans hear.
EKIMMU
One of the uttuku, evil or vengeful spirits of the ancient Assyrians,
the ekimmu appeared wailing and crying outside a home to signal
an impending death, much like a British Banshee.
ELLEFOLK
These folk live in the moors of Denmark. The elleman is an old
man with a low crowned cap on his head, while the ellewoman is
young with a fair and attractive appearance, but hollow in the
back and with a cow's tail, and of course, heartless. Young men
should beware of her, as she possesses a string instrument that
she used to ravish their hearts, and can be seen lightly and gracefully
dancing by moonlight, tempting men to join them. If he refuses
to the latter proposition, the ellewoman may inflict a sickness
upon him. The elleman is also dangerous, as he will breathe upon
those who come too close to him while he sunbathes, producing
sickness and pestilence. If an animal comes to graze on a hill
where an elleman has spat or done worse, it will be be attacked
by the disease. Cattle may also contract this by mixing with the
ellefolk's cattle, which are large, blue, and survive on dew.
However, if a farmer is uneasy about letting his livestock feed
upon a hill, he need only ask the ellefolk if it is safe to do
this, and if he is not prevented from doing so, he can put his
mind at rest. They tend to steal dough and other food from mortals,
and are believed to be the descendants of Adam and Lilith, his
first wife.
ELLYON
Welsh elves, tiny with thin high pitched voices, they sup on toadstools
and fairy butter ( a yellow fungus found in the roots of old trees).
Well intentioned towards mortals, they sweep and clean the kitchen
and tidy the shelves cheerfully each evening, dancing and talking
all the while, but will vanish for good if the householder tries
to spy on them during this time.
ELVES
Called the huldrafolk by the Norwegians, the elves perpetuate
the whole of Scandinavia and are classified into the White and
Black Elves, being good and evil respectively. White elves dwell
in the air, and make dance in the grass or sit in the leaves of
trees, while black enjoy inflicting sickness and injury on mankind.
An intermediate class of Högfolk or hill people also exists,
and their singing can be heard from out of the hills at night,
especially during summer. This music is in the minor key, and
is a dull and mournful sound. However, they also know of a tune
known as the Elf King's Tune, which can make everything and anything
(including inanimate objects) within earshot, dance. The dancing
can then only be stopped by playing the tune backwards or by cutting
the strings of the fiddle on which it is played. Black elves often
live under the houses of mankind, being sportive and mischievous
and often imitating the actions of men. They love cleaniness,
and will reward the neatest servants, but will punish those who
will not listen to their requests. Elves enjoy dancing in the
meadows, and the touch of their feet helps grass to grow, thus
producing a ring of brighter green in the grass of meadows and
woods. Mortals will be able to see them if they go to a center
of a circle at midnight, and though it need not be exactly midnight,
it should be quite some time before cockcrow, as this is when
they will vanish. However, not all people can see them, and you
are only assured of this ability if you were born on a Sunday
or have had the gift of this sight bestowed upon you.
ELVES OF LIGHT
A tiny people in the legends of the Alongquins, they live in the
forest and enjoy dancing. Their Queen is summer, a tiny but exquisitely
beautiful creature who was once captured by the god Glooskap,
who kept her in a moosehide as he entered the wigwam of the giant
Winter. Her very presence caused Winter to melt away and spring
to come, woke the elves in the earth who had been hidden in the
winter.
EMPUSAE
In their natural state, the empusae of Greece have the head and
the breasts of a girl but the body and legs of a donkey. However,
this does not deter them from seducing and murdering lone male
travellers in the forms of beautiful maidens. They wait silently
by the roadside for their victims, and if asked to speak, reply
with a loud bray.
ÉTAIN
A lovely member of the Tuatha de Danaan in Irish mythology, her
jealous rival turned her into a fly, and she was blown by the
winds for seven years until she was blown into the Great Hall
of Inver Cechmaine and was swallowed by the wife of that nobleman,
and was reborn nine months later, again with the name Étain
and growing to be an exquisitely beautiful woman. All the while,
her lover King Midhir of the Fairy Hill knew where she was, and
eventually reclaimed his lost bride with the aid of fairy magic
and wisdom.
FADAS
These were phantom lovers of men in North France. If their amours
married others, the fadas ensured that he would die before consummating
his marriage. If he did not, the lovers would inevitably drift
apart anyway with the men losing their purpose of life without
the fadas. Fadas were often worshipped with sacrifices, and were
said to bring fertility. On 31st December, the fadas would enter
the houses of their worshippers bearing good luck in their right
hands and bad luck in their left hands. The rooms would have been
cleansed with the doors and windows left open and a white cloth
on the table. Also on the table would be a vessel full of water
or wine, a cup, some food, and a lighted candle or a wax taper
in the centre. Families who left good food for the fadas would
receive good fortune, while those who gave them poor food would
recive the opposite. Fadas were only occasionally said to be miniscule
like British Fairies.
FAIRIES
Fairies occupy the whole of Britain, save the counties of Devon,
Cornwall and Somerset. They usually assume the forms of perfect
miniature humans, and are able to increase and decrease their
size at will., and may sometimes even appear the height of a human
adult. They possess the inborn characteristic of glamour, which
enables the fairy to remain invisible to humans while actually
occupying a parallel dimension running beside ours and to reveal
themselves when tehy please. It also enables them to make themselves
totally irresistible to any human, putting him or her at their
beck and call, and to cast their various bewitchments on humans,
as well as bestowing gifts on human children. It is also possible
to see a fairy during a full moon at Misummer Eve, or by looking
at them through a hole in a stone which has been bored naturally
by erosion. Fairies usually dress in green with red caps each
ornamented with a white feather, and live inside hollow hills
or great mounds of earth known as barrows. Each tribe of fairies
is governed by a king and queen, and the entire race is under
the command of King Oberon and Queen Titania (or Queen Mab, according
to other sources). They rule from the fairy kingdom of Hy Brasil.
Their currency is fairy gold, which has the displeasing habit
of turning into dead leaves when brought into the mortal world.
Fairies often undertake the tasks of ensuring a mortal's good
fortune (or bad fortune, depending on how the mortal had pleased
or displeased the fairy folk), or sometimes simply play tricks
on them. Occasionally intermarriages between fairies and humans
take place, usually between a female fairy and a mortal male,
but such relationships are doomed to failure, for reasons such
as the fairy spouse's inability to attend church with her husband
(fairies can only pay homage to the Old Religion) and her hopeless
housekeeping. Fairies are often portrayed as flimsy and feckless,
but the fact is that many of the males are heroic warriors, protecting
the tribes from threats of Goblins, Pixies and the like. Fairies
love singing and dancing, and have often been seen engaging in
these activities together. Their diet of fairies consists of honey,
various birds' eggs, berries, fruit, grain, assorted garden produce,
cake, dew and nectar, the last of which they drink as an intoxicating
beverage. They do not like milk, as they find it too thick for
them. They often steal food from farmers, beekeepers and gardeners,
but reward them by encouraging the produce to grow. They may also
steal a housewife's baking, so it is wise to mark it with a cross
to ward them away. However, the most anti social activity which
fairies indulge in is the theft of babies before their baptism
and leaving ugly, deformed changelings behind, which some people
think is a way to increase their numbers. They certainly need
as many of their race as possible, though, what with their having
to pay a tithe to Satan of a fairy every seven years, and of course,
bearing the destructive forces of mankind.
FATAE
These fairies of Italy may have been personifications of fortune
and have been confused with witches. They appear in a household
soon after a birth, and bestow gifts upon the child. If the family
is pleasant, the child would receive good qualities, if not, they
might bestow a taboo or embargo upon the child for life, and the
family might find itself afflicted with baldness, deafness, rheumatism,
or suchlike ailments. Every fifth year they were to appear before
the Demogorgon at his temple in the Himalayas, and travelled there
through the air in various strange conveyances. There were two
classes of them; one beneficient and protective, looking after
heroes and maidens, and the other seductive and injurious. Fatae
sometimes appeared as snakes, and have also been called Magae
or Incantrices.
FAUNS
Spirits of agricultural fertility, these are sometimes confused
with Satyrs, but have the legs, tails and ears of deer rather
than goats and have the bodies and faces of handsome youths, their
skin and fur both being smooth. They are gentle and harmless,
and Nymphs enjoy their company, and they may be seen dancing gracefully
together as the faun plays his shawn, a kind of flute their founding
deity Faunus invented.
FÉES
Fairies of Normandy, the fées are a small and handsome
folk ruled by their Queen, Abundia, and enjoy dancing at night
in circles (or fairy rings). Anyone who sees them is irresistibly
impelled to join them. He is let in, but the whirling movement
increases so that he feels giddy, and finally falls to the ground
exhausted. The fées may then amuse themselves by taking
him and flinging him up to a great height in the air, severely
bruising and sometimes even killing him. They live in the hollows
of rocks or barrows, and and may haunt springs, where they wash
their linen, hanging it out to dry on the Druidic stones. They
may make use of a farm's horses or utensils at night, but leave
no trace of their work in the morning, unless they break a utensil,
in which case it will have been mended good as new. Originally
nature spirits, they have the power to turn into small trees,
moss or stones. They may also hold fairs on cliffs, selling marvels
and magical enchantments, but if a mortal tries to buy something,
they will seize him and throw him down the cliffs.
FENODEREE
Tall, with twisted, ugly features and a body covered with black
hair, the fenoderee is a Brownie who dwells on the Isle of Man
. Originally, he was a handsome prince from the proud Fairy tribe
of the Ferrishyn, and his present looks are a punishment for failing
to attend a fairy festival, preferring to spend his time with
a mortal maiden. He possesses great strength and is favoured by
farmers for helping with heavy agricultural tasks, and are famed
for their skill, thoroughness and efficiency in harvesting crops.
He may mishievously shake hands with someone, easily crushing
the person's hand with his grip. However, people can take advantage
of his dullness and instruct him to gather water in a sieve or
round up a hare with a flock of sheep in revenge. Like all brownies,
he is offended by thanks or gifts, especially of clothes, and
will not tolerate criticism either.
FINVARRA
The High king of the Irish Fairies, Finvarra was the leader of
the tribe of the Daoine Sidhe, originally the Tuatha de Danaan,
and lived in the Hollow Hills. The palace court, known as Finvarra's
Rath, was below the Hill of Knochma. He possesses great intelligence
and is a famed chess player, and many mortals have lost all they
owned including their lives in a game with him. Although both
he and his court have diminished in size since the coming of Christianity,
his looks and virility have not been impaired, and although married
to Oonagh, the most beautiful woman who ever lived, he frequently
gives chase to mortal maidens, who, after a night with him, rarely
wish to return to their mortal husbands.
FIR DARRIG
This odd little Fairy of Ireland with a blue nose and a red coat
help mortals trapped in Fairyland to escape or show them antidotes
to spells or curses for a fee paid in whisky. However, he also
enjoys the art of "pishogue" the art of bemusing man's
sense so that things seem to be their opposites so it is unwise
to trust him too much.
FOLLETS
A Northern French demon which inhabits homes of country people
and cannot be kept away with water or exorcism, the follet has
a habit of pelting people with sticks, stones and domestic utensils
as the people come in through the door. They are invisible, but
speak like humans.
FORSO
Ghosts of the islands off northern Australia and some parts of
New Guinea. Although rarely seen,they can be likened to the East
Asian Spirits of Accident because of their habit of causing things
to go wrong in its descendants' homes. They do this mainly because
of boredom andloneliness rather than an evil nature, wanting to
remind their descendants of their existence, and thus can be averted
by making frequent visits to their graves or bringing their remains
into the house, both of which will give the forso lots of company.
FOX FAIRIES
Foxes are traditionally creatures of cunning, and according to
Northern Chinese myth, when a fox reaches fifty years of age,
it will be able to turn itself into a woman. At the age of a hundred,
it will be able to transform into a young girl. At a thousand,
it will become a celestial fox, and will have grown nine tails.
They often appear in the form of girls to scholars studying in
the evening, and seduce them. The scholar makes love to the girl,
and finds that she has disappeared in the morning, but she returns
once more in the evening to to do the same thing. The scholar
finds himself getting weaker and weaker, until he learns from
a Taoist that the girl is a fox who is sucking him dry to obtain
the essence of immortality. In case you find yourself in a similar
position, other signs that the girl is a fox fairy are her surname,
which she will say to be Hu, meaning fox, and the fact that she
never changes her clothes, but they never seem to get soiled.
Fox fairies also lived invisibly with people in houses in old
Beijing, with a fox official keeping watch in the tower at the
eastern sidegate of the city. Families who share these houses
were to put out food for them and not complain when they made
noise at night, or else the foxes would put filth in their food
supply. The Japanese also beleieved in fox fairies, which they
called koki teno and assumed human form by entering the bodies
of mortals or by finding a skull in a cemetry and facing the North
Star. They could be recognised by their fear of dogs.
FRIDEANS
These Scottish Elves live beside roadways
and travellers should offer them bread and milk before starting
on a journey.