WAYLAND SMITH
This Elf lives in a cave in Berkshire, England and acts as a supernatural
blacksmith, shoeing travellers' horses for no more than sixpence,
being offended when more is offered.
WEAVER GIRL
This Chinese fairy featured in the popular tale of the Weaver
Girl and the Cowherd. The cowherd saw the weaver girl bathing
in a lake with her friends, and stole her cloak of feathers so
that she would be unable to return to her home in the sky. He
made her become his wife, and they had a son and a daughter, but
one day the son found the cloak and she flew to heaven with it.
However, the cowherd managed to follow her, but, being happy to
see each other again, they neglected their work and so God had
them separated. We can see the weaver girl as the star Vega and
the cowherd as Altair, and the river separating them is the Milky
Way. Still, on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar
calendar, God sends the magpies from earth to the heavens to form
a bridge across the river so that the two lovers can be together,
and the tears of joy the weaver girl sheds at this time fall to
the earth as rain.
WICHTLEIN
These house spirits live behind walls and under floors in the
houses of Germany, and knock or tap three times to communicate
with mortals; this signal usually indicates the death of the head
of the household. Although amiable and industrious, they tend
to be extremely ugly, but have been known to fall in love with
young mortal girls, especially maidservants, and may appear to
them to declare their affection. If the girl should scream (and
she usually does), the wichtlein will wreak havoc in the house.
Wichtlein also live beneath mounds or stumps in the garden, and
will frighten away tramps and other visitors. They are frightened
of water and will avoid streams and creeks and hide when it is
raining, and holy water is instant death to them. A mast head,
anchor or other ship's artifact also tends to repel wichtlein
if displayed prominently near a house.
WILDE FRAUEN
German for "wild women", these entities have fineflowing
hair, are of great beauty and live in the hills. They are good
to mortals, and mostly live in Wunderberg or Underburg, a great
moor near Salzburg. This moor is hollow, and is supplied with
stately palaces, churches, monasteries, gardens, and springs of
gold and silver. Little men also live here, and take charge of
the treasures. Giants can also be found here, as well as Charles
V, who sleeps here with a company of knights. His beard has already
twice grown round the table at which he sits, and the thrid time
it does so will signal the Antichrist's coming. The wilde frauen
sometimes go out to the village and help people to reap the corn
or give bread to the children keeping cattle. they may sometimes
steal children, but only to give the children better lives, dressing
them in green and looking after them well.
XI WANG MU
The Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wang Mu is a great Chinese fairy
goddess who dwells in the depths of a cave in the Kunlun Mountains,
near the supreme ruler. She was usually thought of as a man eater
with wild hair, a leopard's tail and tiger jaws, as well as its
roar, and was believed to spread plagues. She is the goddess of
death, but also keep the herb of immortality, and sometimes holds
feasts high up on a jade tower. More recently, she has been portrayed
as a stately Chinese lady, balanced between maidenly delicacy
and matronly opulence, bearing the peach, a symbol of longevity,
and riding a phoenix. These peaches used to grow in her capital,
in Kunlun Park and Wide Wind Garden, but the Monkey God, Sun Wu
Kong stole them from her.
XIAN
Xian are Chinese immortals, men and women who developed supernatural
powers within their lifetimes and become a kind of Eastern parallel
to Christian saints and are elevated to the status of gods after
death. There are hundreds of them, and they lead happy carefree
lives for eternity in the Kunlun Mountains or on the Islands of
the Blessed in the Eastern Sea. The most famous are the Ba Xian,
or Eight Immortals, a group of xian whose membership has varied
over the centuries, but is presently made up of Zhang Gao Lao,
Zhong Li Quan, Han Xiang Zi, He Xian Gu, Lan Cai He, Li Tie Guai,
Lü Dong Bin and Cao Guo Jiu .
All have interesting stories behind their names, about their lives
on earth and in heaven.
YAKIRAI
The sky demons of the Kyakas of Papua New Guinea. They can cause
storms with thunder and lightning, and can kill people unprotected
by their ancestor spirits.
YAKSHAS
Benevolent nature spirits, ykshas were the guardians of treasures
hidden in the earth and the roots of trees. Their ruler is Kubera,
who rules them from a mountain in the Himalayas. They are paid
homage to as tutelary deities of cities, districts, lakes and
wells, and are thought to have originated from a cult of the ancient
Dravidians.
YAMA ENDA
Appearing to men disguised as a beautiful girl, the Yama Enda
will seduce him, then devour him like a tigress. She comes from
the folklore of the Kyakas in papua New Guinea.
YARA
Yara is a vengeful spirit of a maiden murdered by her sweetheart,
and now lures young men to the water's edge in an attempt to drown
them. In order to be immune to her enchanting song, the youth
should wear around his neck a small shell which his mortal sweetheart
has sung into. When Yara's song begins to take effect, he should
take the shell and hold it to his ear, and this will strengthen
him against her charms.
YUMBOES
On Goree Island, south of Cape Verde Peninsula in Senegal, West
Africa, the Jaloff inhabitants believe in a folk called yumboes.
A yumbo is two feet high and has pearly skin and silver hair (in
Africa, all that is unnatural is associated with the colour white).
They are sometimes known by the Jaloffs as the Bakhna Rakhna,
literally the good people, an interesting parallel to the Scots'
calling British Fairies the Good Neighbours. They enjoy dancing
and feasting by moonlight and live in magnificent subterranean
dwellings in the Paps, a group of hills about three miles from
the coast. They have invited many people here, both native and
European. These guests tell tales of being served at richly furnished
tables where they were served by servants invisible except for
their hands and feet. Yumboes may come out to the village in the
evening dressed in pangs, oblong cotton cloths that the natives
manufacture and wear which, when worn, cover all of the body except
for the eyes and the nose. It is around this time when they obtain
corn for their food. After housewives have pounded the corn and
left them in their calabashes, the yumboes may steal this away,
and later use it for their own food. They also eat fish, which
they fish for themselves in their canoes at night and roast in
the fires left burning outside by the Jaloffs to keep away wild
beasts. Sometimes they bury palm wine in the ground, wait for
it to sour, then drink it until they become intoxicated and make
a great noise, beating their Jaloff drums on the hills.
ZASHIKI WARISHI
This Japanese poltergeist has been thought to be the spirit of
a little boy. Extremely mischievous, he often disturbs families
at night, but one should not try to scare him away as he brings
good fortune.
ZHANG GUO LAO
Some say he was a bat who changed into a man, others suppose him
to have been a woodcutter in Shanxi, China at the beginning of
the seventh century. Li Tie Guai presented him with a mud pill
which revived dead fish, which he swallowed, and he is now a member
of the Ba Xian, and rides on a white ass who can cover a thousand
miles a day, then be folded up like a piece of paper and put away.
He is symbolised by the bamboo cane, but is also shown with two
drumsticks, a phoenix feather, or a peach.
ZHONG LI QUAN
Recognisable from his bare belly and the fan or feather duster
he carries, which can bring the dead back to life, Zhong Li Quan
is one of the Ba Xian, and lived in the Han dynasty in China,
discovering the philosopher s stone (which could melt mercury,
burn lead and turn them into yellow or white gold) and how to
fly through the air. He is closely associated with Lü Dong
Bin, another of the Ba Xian.Alfar The Norse name for their Elves.
Their natures were good and elevated and they tended to be friendly
to men. They live in the city of Alfheim, and are divided into
the Liosálfar, the light elves, whose skins are whiter
than the sun, and the Döckálfar, the dark elves, whose
skins are darker than pitch.
ZWERGE
German dwarfs, these live within the earth where their apartments
and chambers are filled with gold and precious stones. At night
they may visit the surface, and at these times are silent, beneficient,
and willing to serve those who help them. If they are displeased,
they will vent their anger on man's cattle instead of on humans,
plaguing and tormenting them. They may also live in springs, wells,
clefts, holes in rocks, or ruined castles. They are of flesh and
bone, and bear children and die like men, but have the power to
turn invisible and pass through rocks and walls as we pass through
air, swimming through the earth as fishes swim through water.
When they appear to men, they may lad them with them into cliffs,
and give them valuable gifts. However, they have a habit of stealing
corn from fields. Not much is known of them, as they have no proper
communication with man.