Medieval Europe
A shape-shifting, genderbending demon; when in female form, called a succubus.
Infiltrates the minds and bodies of sleepers, producing erotic dreams. Harvests men’s semen for implantation in female victims, resulting in deformed semihuman offspring called “cambions.”
Early modern Malta
Gray and slimy, like a snail without its shell.
At night, squeezes its flexible body through cracks in search of people with guilty consciences, startling them by flashing a terrifying toothless grin.
Nineteenth-century Quebec
An elderly man dressed like a country doctor whose name (Seven-O’-Clock Gentleman) may be a mondegreen of bonesetter.
Knocks on doors and scoops up children in a sack. His motive is unclear, but it is said his victims emit terrible screams.
Ancient Persia
A gaunt demon with yellow skin and long arms.
Appears just before dawn, casting spells to make Zoroastrians oversleep and neglect their morning prayers. Also emerges during the day to cause procrastination.
Colonial French Caribbean
A floating ball of fire that wears the skin of an old woman during the day.
Enchants victims into a deep sleep and siphons out blood, leaving behind blue bruises; uses the blood to barter with other demons.
Eighteenth-century Japan
A gigantic bloody severed leg.
Appears in victims’ houses at night demanding to be washed; if denied, stomps about violently, breaking furniture.
Ilocano folklore, Philippines
An elderly obese woman who lives atop a tree.
If her tree is cut down and used in the construction of a house, she exacts revenge on the inhabitants in their sleep by producing nightmares and sitting on their chests, suffocating them.
Preconquest Chilean Andes
A disembodied head of a sorcerer that flies on huge winglike ears. Visible only to other sorcerers.
Wanders on moonless nights and makes anyone who hears its owl-like cry fall ill, then sucks their blood.
