The Spook's Bestiary Part 5

DEALING WITH WITCHES.

Unlike boggarts, witches cannot be confined using the power of salt and iron alone. But several techniques can be used to bind them successfully.

Symbols such as those sketched on the facing page are used to mark the pit of a bound witch. A Greek letter sigma is used to denote a sorceress, and a diagonal line sloping from right to left indicates a successful binding. Additionally, the type of witch (here the Greek letter lambda for lamia) and the ranking (1 being the most powerful) may be marked on the stone. It is vital to write the witch's full name below the symbols to identify her. Being women, they are subtle and may change over time. Each history must be consulted in my Chipenden library.

Finally, as with boggarts, the name of the spook who carried out the binding should be written directly under the witch's name.

Dealing with Dead Witches Witches are sometimes hanged, then given to their families for burial, but this achieves little.

One problem when dealing with witches is that for most, death isn't the end of them. They are bone bound, their spirits trapped in their corpses, so if a witch is simply buried, one night she'll scratch her way to the surface and go hunting for victims and suck their blood to renew her strength.

Witches vary in power. A really strong witch might roam for miles in a single night; others can only drag themselves a few paces and often hide under moldering leaves, waiting for someone to pa.s.s close to their lair.20 Below are the important stages in the process of binding a dead witch.

1. Hire a master mason and a blacksmith. Both tradesmen should have previous experience of the task at hand. Set them to work constructing a stone-and-iron cover for the pit.

2. Dig a pit to contain the body of the witch. This should be a shaft nine feet deep and six feet long by three feet wide.

3. Next, ease the body into the pit headfirst. When night falls, unaware of her orientation, the dead witch will mistakenly dig herself deeper into the ground.

4. Next the mason and blacksmith must work together to construct the thirteen bars that will cover the pit, each bolted to a rim of stones.21 Dealing with Live Witches First, a malevolent witch must be captured; This is best accomplished by use of a silver chain. The technique for casting the chain can only be acquired by hours of practice against targets: My apprentice must test his skills first against the post in my garden, then against moving targets. I also practice regularly, as it wouldn't do to let these skills get rusty. Below are the general principles involved.

1. The silver chain should be coiled about the left wrist.

2. It should be cast with a twisting upward motion of the hand so that it spins widders.h.i.+ns, against the clock.

3. Enough elevation should be gained so that it drops over the witch, tightening as it falls, but not enough that she has time to evade it.

4. It is important to achieve a degree of what we call spread. This means that the chain should bind the witch from head to knee. With sufficient practice, it is possible to ensure that the chain tightens against her teeth. Her silence is desirable. She may attempt to use dark magic.

Once captured, the witch must be dealt with. Burning, cruel though it is, destroys the witch for all time. Another good method is to eat the heart of the witch. This barbarous but reliable method is not usually practiced in the County, but some spooks kill a witch, then feed her heart to their dogs.22 One other reliable method of dealing with a witcha"the one I usea"is to keep her in a pit reinforced with iron bars.

Below are the important stages of the process of binding a live witch in a pit.

1. Hire a master mason and a blacksmith. Both tradesmen should be reliable and experienced. They should also have strong nerves because dealing with a live witch can be very dangerous.

2. Dig the pit. This should be nine feet deep, six feet wide, and six feet long.

3. With a strong witch, line the walls with a mixture of salt and iron. Leave the floor of the pit clear so that she can survive on a diet of slugs and insects. When dealing with feral lamias or water witches, a cage of iron bars needs to be constructed and buried in the ground (both types of witch can burrow).

4. The critical point is getting the witch into the pit. The silver chain should bind her until the very last moment. The skill lies in rolling the witch into the pit, simultaneously uncoiling the chain. This can only be learned by practice.

5. Finally, stay in attendance until the mason and smith have sealed the pit.

This technique has one serious but fortunately rare drawback. After being kept in a pit for many years, eating slugs and worms, the water seeping into her flesh and bones, an extremely strong witch starts to change. If she is then killed, she will become wicka" not only able to move her body great distances, but soft and pliable, with the ability to squeeze into a tiny s.p.a.ce. Entering a human body through the nose or ears, the witch can possess it and use it for her own purposes.

The difficulty then is to identify the witch, but there are two ways: A body that is newly possessed has poor balance and may stagger as if dizzy or even completely lose its balance and fall over. There are often personality changes, too. Someone who was formerly kind, calm, and happy may suddenly become excitable and bad tempered.23 *

1 Testing a witch? Just never trust a woman. And never trust a woman who wears pointy shoes.a"John Gregory 2 The principle behind the swimming test is righta"it's just the practice that is wrong. Most witches cannot cross running water, so a stream or river would be a better place to test them. Witches also find seawater toxic because of its high salt content.a"Bill Arkwright 3 Agnes Sowerb.u.t.ts of Pendle could fall into the category of a benign witch, but her status is not certain. She is a healer but uses a mirror for magical purposes, something usually considered a tool of the dark.a"Tom Ward 4 Witches (with the exception of water witches) cannot cross running water. As the Pendle district has numerous streams, some means had to be found to enable witches to move about relatively freely. Thus witch dams were developed. A system of pulleys and a handle are used to lower a big wooden board into a stream to block its flow. The heavy board slides down between two grooved posts into a trench in the bottom of the stream, which is lined with wood to make a good seal. Water quickly builds and flows around the dam, but before it does so, several witches are able to cross safely.a"John Gregory 5 Now I know better. Time has shown that I was wrong to allow Bony Lizzie to escape, and I also should have killed Tusk while I had the chance. Years later, both returned to Chipenden in another attempt to free Mother Malkin. It almost cost me the life of my apprentice, Tom Ward. (How we finally dealt with Mother Malkin is chronicled in Tom Ward's own notebooks.) I have always had a tendency to be merciful. Sometimes it has cost both me and others dearly.a"John Gregory 6 From what has been learned since the return of the Fiend to this world, it is highly probable that Tusk was an abhuman, the result of a union between a witch and the Fiend.a"John Gregory 7 Inside the Ord there were hundreds of vaengir summoned by the Fiend to swell the ranks of the Ordeen's servants. This accounts for them rarely being seen elsewhere.a"Tom Ward 8 This is the account of my dealings with the lamia witch Meg Skelton. She has now returned to her homeland, Greece, and I do not expect to see her again. I include it now as a warning to my apprentices. a"John Gregory 9 Seawater, with its high levels of salt, is toxic for witches. They avoid the seash.o.r.e and cannot safely walk on sand even when the tide is at its lowest ebb. Even water witches die if immersed in seawater for too long. However, witches can and do make successful sea voyages. To do so, they must stay in the boat's hold as much as possible and dress to s.h.i.+eld their skin from the wind and spray. a"John Gregory Bill Arkwright uses a salt solution in the pits he uses to bind water witches. This makes them docile. He also has a salt moat around his garden to keep others at bay.a"apprentice Graham Cain 10 The current leader of the Mouldheels is Mab. She's a very young but powerful witch and an extremely skilled scryer. Bewarea"she will use fascination against a spook if she can!a"Tom Ward 11 The powerful witch Wurmalde journeyed from Greece to Pendle and succeeded in briefly uniting the three main clans to bring the Fiend through a portal to this world. That witch is dead now, and the clans are in conflict once more. We must be watchful lest another outsider comes to bring the Malkins, Deanes, and Mouldheels together again.a"John Gregory 12 These former appearances of the Fiend often lasted just a minute or so. Now, of course, he dwells in our world and threatens it with a new age of darkness.a"John Gregory 13 The witch Bony Lizzie had me trapped in a pit and was ready to take my bones. She was already sharpening her knives when Alice helped me escape. a"Tom Ward 14 Limbo comes from the Latin word limbus, which means the edge or fringe. Souls have to pa.s.s through it to reach the light. Some find it harder than others.a"John Gregory 15 When working with Bill Arkwright, I came into contact with a Celtic witch from Ireland, who used a curse to kill a County landowner. We called her a banshee witch because she behaved like that elemental, the difference being that she brought about the death rather than just foretelling it. In addition to the cursea"uttered in the Old Tonguea"and the wailing cries, she used a ritual that involved was.h.i.+ng and twisting a burial shroud. This caused the heart of the victim to rupture.a"Tom Ward 16 The water witch Morwena had a corpse fowl as her familiar. She used it to hunt for me on Monastery Marsh. It was slayed by Grimalkin, the witch a.s.sa.s.sin .a"Tom Ward 17 Alice Deane made a pact with the Bane, a very powerful spirit that had formerly been one of the Old G.o.ds. In giving it her blood and attempting to bind it to her will, she was in effect making it her familiar. She was in great danger, but the fact that she was able to deal with it in such a way is a testimony to her power. Alice Deane must never be allowed to turn to the dark.a"John Gregory 18 Bony Lizzie used long sniffing to foresee the danger from the Chipenden mob that eventually burned down her house.a"Tom Ward 19 Mab Mouldheel used mirrors twice, to my knowledge, to predict the future. In the first instance, she foretold the breaching of Malkin Tower and the threat to our lives by retreating witches. In the second, she foretold the near death of Alice Deane in Greece at the hands of a feral lamia.a"Tom Ward 20 Some witches are so strong that they can break free and be born into the world again. My master calls this reincarnation.a"apprentice Bob Crosby 21 In order to save money, some spooks place a large boulder over the witch's grave instead of iron bars. I would only use that as a temporary measure when dealing with a relatively weak witch. It's better to be safe than sorry.a"John Gregory 22 I was sent to work with Bill Arkwright for six months. He was a hard man who beat me badly on two occasions. One of the worst things I ever witnessed was the killing of a water witch that he'd had imprisoned in a pit for two years. She was still screaming when he threw her heart to his dogs.a"apprentice Jack Farington Mother Malkin, one of the strongest witches the County has ever seen, possessed the body of a pig butcher. After she was driven out by salt and iron, her heart was devoured by pigs.a"Tom Ward When the witch Wurmalde died, dropped by a vaengir lamia from a great height onto Gore Rock in Pendle, the Spook told me that her slayer had already ripped out her heart and devoured it.a"Tom Ward 23 As a young man, I wrote the definitive guide to possession. It is to be found in my Chipenden library and is t.i.tled The d.a.m.ned, the Dizzy, and the Desperate.a"John Gregory The Ghasts on Hangman's Hill.

The Unquiet Dead.

The unquiet dead form a large part of the work carried out by spooks. Being seventh sons of seventh sons, we can see and hear the dead and have conversations with their spirits. Ghasts we can do nothing about, but with ghosts our rate of success is high.

Unlike priests, who try to exorcise ghosts using the ritual of bell, book, and candle, we talk directly to them, as you would to a living person. Our first priority is to find out why they have become trapped on earth. This is usually a consequence of some crime they have committed or their own sudden violent death. Many do not even realize they are dead. After convincing them that this is so, the next step is to persuade them to think of a happy memory from their former life. Concentration upon that usually solves the problem and gives them sufficient peace of mind to be able to find their way through the mists of limbo to the light.

The art of speaking to the dead must be practiced and the necessary skills developed. Some spooks are better at this than others. To be effective in this regard, we must empathize with ghosts and understand their pain and disorientation.1 SYMBOLS USED FOR THE UNQUIET DEAD.

These are usually marked close to where the spirit lurks, perhaps carved into a tree or door. A Greek letter gamma (see opposite) is used for both ghosts and ghasts. The type of spirit is indicated at the top right. In this case, the letter sigma labels it as a strangler ghost.

Note the ranking system used: to the bottom right of the main symbol is a number; ranks 1 to 5 are ghosts; 6 to 10 are ghasts. In the example here, the strangler is a rank 3.

Abhuman spirits are indicated by the Greek letter alpha. They are not cla.s.sified into types, but a ranking is given from 1 to 10.

Abhuman Spirits.

Abhuman spirits are human souls that have degenerated and fallen so far from their former condition that they are more akin to beasts, sometimes taking the form of hybrids, half human, half animal. This is often a result of spending a long time trapped in limbo or having committed some terrible crime on earth.

An Abhuman.

A Group of Abhumans Although a spirit can usually be persuaded to go to the light by focusing upon a happy memory of its former life, this always proves far more difficult when dealing with abhuman spirits. Often they cannot remember much of their existence on earth, much less any brief periods of happiness.

Most of these poor unfortunates cannot be helped by a spook and are doomed to exist in that tormented condition until the end of time itself. Nevertheless, if the opportunity presents itself, it is still worth making the effort to free them from that miserable existence.2 Ghasts.

Ghasts are fragments of spirits that have been able to move on to the light only by leaving the evil part of themselves behind. Their behavior is repet.i.tive and compulsive: Over and over again they repeat some act that they once performed when they were alive. Often it is a crime such as murder, but occasionally they are the victims.

The largest ghast visitation in the County takes place on Hangman's Hill, where, after a savage battle during their civil war, a large number of soldiers were executed. They can sometimes be seen there, hanging from the trees as they slowly choke to death.3 Ghasts feed upon terror. It makes them stronger. They are ranked from 6 to 10. Most people would be hardly aware of a 10, but those of the highest rank sometimes drive people insane from pure fear. Sometimes they try to touch the living with their cold fingers or even squeeze the throat or press on the chest to make breathing difficult.

The house in Horshaw, where I was born, harbors the ghast of a miner in the cellar. As soon as their training commences, I take all my apprentices there to see if they have sufficient courage to face the dark. I also attempt from time to time to deal with ghasts myself, but so far without success. As yet a spook can do nothing about such ent.i.ties, and we must continue to search for a way to get rid of them. It is fortunate that they fade slowly over time, eventually disappearing altogether.

Ghosts Ghosts are full spirits still trapped on earth and unable to pa.s.s on, either because they are victims or have committed some heinous crime. Some may be bound to the scene of their crime; some to their own grave. Occasionally they have a message for those still alive and may linger for years, waiting for the opportunity to pa.s.s this on.

Ghosts are ranked from 1 to 5; strangler ghosts are always ranked from 1 to 3. A rank 1 strangler, although rare, is extremely dangerous and can asphyxiate its victims. Ghosts can choose whether or not to make themselves visible.

There are, very rarely, other visitations from beyond the grave. These never make themselves directly visible but sometimes cast a shadow. More usually there is a noise in the aira"a cracking or tearing sound, as if the very fabric of our world is being ripped asunder and an entrance created. Very occasionally there is a physical sensation of warmth that announces the presence. I have never experienced such a phenomenon myself but have spoken to other spooks who have, and I'm convinced of the truth of such encounters. I suspect that such visitations come directly from the light and are both powerful and benign.4 A CONVERSATION WITH A STRANGLER GHOST.

In the third year after the death of my master, Henry Horrocks, I was summoned to Balderstone to deal with a suspected strangler ghost. Three deaths had occurred in less than a year, in a hamlet that had only forty remaining inhabitants. I was able to view the most recent corpse but was unable to interrogate its spirit, which had already moved on to the light.

Only rarely can strangler ghosts kill people; I knew that if this was what I was dealing with, then it must be exceptionally powerful, because it had exerted enough pressure to actually leave finger marks on the victim's throat. And there was a chance that the murderer was human. There are many examples in the County record of killers who have attempted to blame supernatural agencies for the deaths they have been charged with. But in this case all the victims had died on the western edge of the hamlet, close to a small dell, and that's where I eventually found the strangler.

There was no moon and the night was dark, with heavy cloud cover and hardly a breath of wind. I saw the ghost as a faint column of light moving through the trees toward the village. The strangler was no doubt seeking out its next victim. When I called out to it, the column of light halted and then proceeded swiftly in my direction. No doubt it thought I'd be easy prey. Stranglers and other ghosts are deterred by groups of people and are always more likely to manifest themselves to lone humans.

When it was no more than a staff's length away, it halted for a moment, at which point it became aware that I was not the easy victim it had antic.i.p.ated. Nonetheless it attacked me, and I felt it place its cold fingers around my throat. It tried to choke me, but a seventh son of a seventh son has a degree of immunity, and it lacked the strength to do me any serious harm. So I tried to talk to it.

"How came you here?" I demanded. "Why are you bound to this place?"

"Love this dark dell," replied the strangler. "Killed many here before they caught me. Three women, a child, and an old man. Put my hands around their necks and squeezed until they struggled no more. But they caught me at last. . . ."

"Did you hang?"

"Nay. They kicked me with their heavy boots until all my bones were broken. Battered me until my spirit fled my body to escape the pain. Here I am now. Can't go too far from this place, but it's not so bad. Not so bad at all. Three I've taken in the last few months. So good, it is. So nice to put my cold fingers around warm plump necks!"

"You must leave here now," I warned him. "Each life you take only makes it harder for you. Go to the light. Go now while you still can!"

"What chance have I got of ever reaching the light?" the strangler asked in a melancholy voice.

"It's difficult, but it can be done," I explained. "Think of a happy memory. The moment on this earth when you were most happy!"

There was silence for over a minute; then at last the strangler spoke. "I remember one summer's morning when I was hardly higher than my mam's knee. She'd just given me a good slapping for doing something wronga"I can't remember whata"when I saw a large b.u.t.terfly hovering over a clump of long-stemmed dog daisies. It had red wings that shone in the sunlight, and I remember feeling so jealous that it should look that way when I was ugly and misshapen myselfa"my mam always said I should never have been born. It just didn't seem fair that it should be able to fly as well, when all I could do was hobble about.

"So when it settled on a flower head, I seized it quickly and pulled off both its wings. That showed it! Now it was just an ugly little insect and couldn't fly. I felt happier and better than I had in a long time. Aye, I remember that morning well. It taught me how I could make myself feel better by hurting others."

At that, I knew that the strangler was beyond salvation. Part of me felt sorry for that poor twisted spirit. It sounded as if he had endured a difficult childhood. But others are afflicted by worse and yet still rise above their pain. My duty was clear.

"Look toward the light!" I cried. "You should be able to see it now . . ."

"I can't see the light. Just a gray swirling mist . . ."

"Enter the mist and you'll find it. The light is just beyond it. Do it now!"

Within moments the column of light faded. But I had tricked it. The ghost was too tainted by its evil ways to ever reach the light. I had sent it off into the gray mists of limbo. The light did indeed lie beyond that regiona"I hadn't lied about that. But the strangler ghost had no hope of reaching it and would wander in limbo, perhaps for all eternity. It was cruel, but it had to be done. My first duty is always to the County and its inhabitants. No more people would die in that dell at the hands of the strangler.

This sketch is of a creature I glimpsed at dusk on the edge of Crow Wood. Whether demon or elemental, I am not sure. I raised my staff toward it and it flittered away into the gloom, never to be seen again. There are many unknown ent.i.ties at large in the County. We must continue to observe and record; a spook's work is never done. a" John Gregory *

1 Having completed my training as a spook, I was very disappointed to be unable to send the ghosts of my mam and dad to the light. Abe died in an accident; Amelia killed herself because she could not bear to live on alone. Still they haunt the mill. I have returned to Chipenden to ask my former master, John Gregory, to see if he can do anything for them. a"Bill Arkwright I tried my best but could not send them to the light. The dead husband could leave but refuses to do so without his wife. For some reason all my skill and experience in dealing with such matters proved useless. a"John Gregory The water witch Morwena revealed that the Fiend had prevented Arkwright's mam, Amelia, from going to the light. That explains why all the efforts to free her came to nothing. Then I bargained with the Fiend, agreeing to go out onto the marsh and face Morwena if, in exchange, he would release Amelia's soul. Now at last she and her husband, Abe, are at peace. a"Tom Ward 2 Within the Ord, the citadel of the Ordeen, I saw a large number of abhuman spirits. They had degenerated as a result of pa.s.sing back and forth between this world and the realm of the dark. It would have been impossible to free them by the usual means of talking them through to the light. a"John Gregory 3 As a child, I was terrified by the ghasts on that hill. I could hear them swinging on the branches and choking as they hanged. When it got really bad and I couldn't sleep, my mam went alone up the hill and made them quiet for more than a month, something that not even a spook can do. a"Tom Ward 4 On the way back from Greece on board the Celeste, I had such an experience. I believe it was Mam returning briefly to say good-bye and let me know that she was all right. a"Tom Ward The Minotaur.

Demons.

Demons, like boggarts, are spirit ent.i.ties, but they are much more powerful and intelligent. They have complete control of their shape and appearance, becoming visible or invisible at will. They also have highly developed language skills. Some of them aspire to be G.o.ds, like the Old G.o.ds, and spend their time trying to augment their power at the expense of their human victims. The stronger ones want to be wors.h.i.+pped.

They do not dwell in the dark like the Old G.o.ds, who pa.s.s into our world through portals. Demons are bound to this world, usually frequenting a particular location from which they cannot wander far.1 Although they are less powerful than the Old G.o.ds, they can be extremely dangerous.

Bugganes.

The buggane is a category of demon that frequents ruins and usually materializes as a black bull or a hairy man, although other forms are chosen if they suit its purpose. In marshy ground, bugganes have been known to shape s.h.i.+ft into wormes (see under Water Beasts, page 200).

The buggane makes two distinctive soundsa"either bellowing like an enraged bull to warn off those who venture near its domain, or whispering to its victims in a sinister human voice. It tells the afflicted that it is sapping their life force, and their terror lends the demon even greater strength. Covering one's ears is no protectiona"the voice of the buggane is heard right inside the head. Even the profoundly deaf have been known to fall victim to its insidious sound. Those who hear the whisper die within days unless they slay the buggane first. It stores the life force (see Animism Magic, page 120) of each person it slays in a labyrinth, which it constructs far underground.

A Buggane.

Bugganes are immune to salt and iron, which makes them hard to kill and to confine. The only thing they are vulnerable to is a blade made from silver alloy, which must be driven into the heart of the buggane when it has fully materialized.

Another source of their strength is the alliance they sometimes make with witches or mages: In return for human sacrifices, they will destroy an enemy.

They are most common on the Isle of Mona, which lies to the northwest of the County coast, where a particularly dangerous one haunts a ruined chapel at the foot of Greeba Mountain. Bugganes, like some types of boggart, are occasionally open to persuasion or may be prepared to move location in exchange for something they badly want.

Harpies These are said to be female; they are winged, and descend upon their prey faster than a stone falls through the air. The only warning that they are heading in your direction is a stench that is carried toward the victim no matter which way the wind is blowing. Sent out by Zeus, the former leader of the Old G.o.ds, they hunt down those who have displeased him, to rend and tear them apart with their sharp claws. The bodies of the slain are contaminated by their visit, along with the surrounding land; plants and animals die, and nothing will grow in the soil there for many decades afterward.

Harpies These observations were recorded from the ancient writings of the Greek spooks, but it seems likely to me that harpies never existed. Sightings of flying lamias probably gave birth to this legend. Without evidence we must always be skeptical. Note also that Zeus is no longer the leader of the Old G.o.ds and through lack of wors.h.i.+p has declined in power.

Kelpies The kelpie is a type of malevolent demon that lives in rivers and lakes and has a great hunger for human flesh. It's a shape s.h.i.+fter that usually takes the form of a black horse or pony. It allows a human to ride on its back before galloping into the water to drown him. If particularly hungry, it bites off the feet of its victim.

A Kelpie The kelpie loves extreme weather conditions and often manifests itself during thunderstorms, when it shape s.h.i.+fts into a very hairy man, leaps out of the water and crushes its victim to death, snapping every bone in the process. Whether in the form of a man or a horse, however, a kelpie's teeth are barbed and slope backward. Once it has bitten into flesh, it is almost impossible to pry its jaws open. A kelpie can be bound with a silver chaina"though only with difficulty, because of its great agility. Like other demons, it is vulnerable to a silver blade.

Selkies Selkies are water demons and usually live in the sea, appearing in the shape of a seal. But they can also take the form of a beautiful woman and live on land undetected. In this guise, selkies have been known to live with an unsuspecting man for years at a time. Selkies are benign creatures and like music, particularly sad songs. They are essentially lonely and thrive on human companions.h.i.+p. But they age very slowly indeed, and if one does choose to live with a man, her youth can attract the attention of neighbors, particularly jealous women. Although harmless in themselves, their presence makes people uneasy and nervous, given that they are a type of demon. Then a spook may be called in to help.

The best way to deal with a selkie is to hunt the creature, usually with dogs, which attempt to catch it and tear it to pieces. If the selkie escapes, she returns to the sea and again takes on the shape of a seal.2 Strigoi and Strigoica Strigoi are masculine; strigoica are feminine. These vampiric (blood-drinking) demons live in Romania, mostly in the province of Transylvania. Often content to exist for years in spirit form, many eventually choose to possess the living; when their host dies, they move on to seize another body. Others prefer to animate the dead and choose a corpse soon after it has been buried.

These demons enter a living host through a cut or wound. Romanians are so fearful of this that they will endure the pain of cauterizationa"the wound being burned with a hot poker to seal it against that threat. The dead have no defense, and strigoi and strigoica follow wormholes into a corpse.

Strigoi and strigoica demons often work in pairs. One animates a living host, guarding and protecting the other during daylight hours. Many live in grand, isolated dwellings and have acc.u.mulated wealth acquired from the living hosts they have possessed.

Once clothed in human form, living or dead, they exist on a diet of human blood, but sometimes eat raw flesh, hearts and livers being considered particular delicacies.

It is the practice of Romanian spooks to dig up bodies one year after they have been interred. If decomposition is under way, the corpse is considered to be free of possession. However, if it has changed littlea" and especially if the face is pink or red and the lips swollena"it is deemed to be possessed by vampiric demons and the head is cut off and burned.

A Strigoi.

There are many ways to deal with strigoi and strigoica, both the living and the dead: They can be decapitated; a stake may be driven through the left eye; or they can be burned. They also can be kept at bay using garlic, roses, and the same method employed against water witchesa"a salt-filled water moat. Only a demon possessing a dead body can be destroyed by sunlight.

Minotaurs.

Minotaurs once roamed the southern islands of Greece, particularly Crete. They were carnivorous, terrorizing isolated villages into making human sacrifices to appease them. Each had the body of a very strong and muscular man but the head and horns of a bull. They would let out a tremendous roar, which transfixed their victims to the spot with fear.

There is a tale of a king who constructed a complex labyrinth and placed a savage minotaur at its center, sending those who displeased him in to meet their death. It is said that a Greek hero called Theseus slayed the terrible demon. He solved the problem of the labyrinth by using a ball of thread, one end of which he tied to a post at the entrance, unraveling the ball as he proceeded. Once he had slain the minotaur, all he had to do was follow the thread back to the entrance.

As no reports of sightings have been made for at least two centuries, minotaurs are now presumed to be extinct.

Cyclops.

These demons take the shape of one-eyed carnivorous giants who feed upon sheep and other livestock, considering mountain goats a great delicacy. They are found in the accounts of the early Greek historians and storytellers. It is possible that they are now extinct in that land, but there is some evidence that they have migrated northa"there are records of sightings in southern Romania. In my opinion all accounts of "giants" are greatly exaggerated. No doubt there are humans and other creatures in this world that exceed normal dimensions, but the capacity of the human mind to embellish and exaggerate what already is a wonder in itself never ceases to amaze me.

A Cyclops.