cream or food. The Russian domovoi is particularly fond of cows that match his coloring. The Swedish tomte is a farm spirit who rewards farmers who show kindness to their animals and good husbandry. The Cornish pisky threshers help with the threshing of the grain in return for new suits of clothes.
Aguane
Shapeshifting female fairies of Italian and Austrian folklore who dwell in the hills and streams of the Alps. Described as beautiful women with bewitching voices and cloven hooves, they are guardians of streams. Those who try to harm them or enter the waters without their permission may meet with a watery end.
Aibell
(Also Aoibheall or Aeval.) The Irish fairy queen of north Munster, County Clare, part of the Tuatha de Danann, and guardian spirit of the O’Brien clan. Her name probably derives from the Gaelic aoibh, meaning “beauty,” or the proto-Celtic Oibel-a, literally meaning “burning fire.” She lived at Craig Liath (Gray Rock), where she held a midnight court to determine if husbands were satisfying their wives’ sexual needs. If found to be lacking, the man in question would be ordered to overcome his prudishness. The lover of Dubhlainn Ua Artigan, a young warrior from Munster, Aibell played a magic harp and it was said that whoever heard its music would not live long afterward. She appears in many works of Irish literature, including the eighteenth-century comic poem Cúirt an Mheáin Oíche, or “Midnight Court,” by Brian Merriman.
Aigamuxa
Demons in the Saan mythology of Namibia and South Africa. Cannibalistic and with eyes on the soles of their feet, they inhabit sand dunes and chase the unwary.
Aiken Drum
A name best known in the Scottish nursery rhyme:
There cam’ a man to oor toun To oor toun, to oor toun, There cam’ a man to oor toun An’ his name was Aiken Drum.
In more recent versions, the words have changed to “There was a man lived in the moon …” and Aiken Drum wears edible clothes: a cream cheese hat, a roast beef coat, and penny loaf buttons.
Aiken Drum is also the name given to the “Brounie [Brownie] of Blednoch” in the ballad by William Nicholson (1878). This fairy is naked except for a kilt made out of green rushes.
Aitahqa-a-nukumaitore
(Or Nuku-mai-kore.) Tree fairies of Maori mythology, whose name means “Not inclined this way.” Described variously as having large chests and waists and small heads, having no head at all and very short arms and legs, or as all hands, elbows, and shoulders, they dwell in trees and parasitical plants such as wharawhara and kiekie and are said to subsist on uncooked food, namely kumara, a type of sweet potato, and whale meat.
Aitvaras
A fiery household spirit in the folklore of Lithuania. The aitvaras is a shapeshifter who manifests in different forms according to his environment. He appears as a cockerel when inside the house and as a dragon when outside. Sometimes only his fiery, comet-like tail is visible. He brings prosperity to his owner, often at the expense of the neighbors, from whom he steals gold, milk, and food. In exchange for his endeavors, he requires only to be fed on a diet of omelets. However, employing the services of an aitvaras comes at a price: it is said that an aitvaras is obtained from the Devil, hatched from the egg of a seven-year-old cockerel, in exchange for one’s soul.
Here is one tale of an aitvaras:
A newly wed bride was given the task of grinding corn for her mother-in-law. No matter how much she ground, the corn basket remained full and her work was never done.
By the light of a consecrated candle from the church, she saw an aitvaras in the form of a cockerel spewing forth a constant stream of grain into the basket.
However, the aitvaras perished in the holy light of the candle, much to mother-in-law’s horror, for she not only lost her source of wealth but her soul went to the Devil in exchange for the loss of the “luck-bringer.”
Aka
(Or Akari.) According to Carib folklore in Guyana, Akari resides in the head and is one of many spirits inhabiting the body. Dreams and nightmares are considered to occur when the hairy bush spirit Yurokon captures Akari from the head of a sleeping person and takes him for a walk into the forest. As long as he remembers to return Akari to his rightful place, the person will experience it as a dream; if he forgets and leaves Akari in the forest, the person will die.
Akari
See Aka.
Akakasoh
Tree spirits, or nats, in Burmese folk beliefs. Similar to the hamadryads of Greek mythology, the akakasoh dwell in trees. They inhabit the uppermost branches and their presence can be detected by the rustling of a tree’s leaves.
Other types of tree-dwelling nat, such as the shekkasoh and the boomasoh, make their homes in other parts of the tree.
Alan
Part-bird, part-human spirits in the folklore of the Tinguian people of the Philippine Islands. Described as a human–bird hybrid with backward-facing fingers and toes, the alan dwell in the jungle, where they hang, batlike, from the trees to rest. When not suspended from the trees, they reside in houses made of gold.
According to Mabel Cook Cole in Philippine Folk Tales (1916), the Tinguian people often slighted or mistreated lesser spirits such as the alan.
In one tale, two hunters enlist the help of an alan to provide them with a fire over which to cook a swine. When the alan asks one of them to take the swine’s liver to feed her baby, he eats it on the way and throws the alan’s baby into a cauldron of boiling water.
The two hunters hide up a tree. When the furious alan comes looking for them, she tries to climb up a vine, but they slash it and she falls to her death.
The hunters then go to the alan’s house, where they find a jar of beads and jar of gold and return to the village with their bounty.
Alven
Also
