The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. John Matthews
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She tried to break her daughter-in-law’s carefully reined reserve but the effort of keeping in her laughter caused the girl to burst. The jaguar came home to see his wife dead on the floor and his mother being pecked to death by a falcon. He rushed forward and slit open his wife’s womb to help give birth to her twins. One of these children, Bakororo, ordered that animals should forever afterwards avoid eating human flesh as a result. In the dances of this region, Bakororo is celebrated as the one who can imitate all animals better than anyone else.
BAKRU
Bakru are the South American fairies that are created by magic to be familiars. They can be bought from magicians by the pair, and have the appearance of human children, though they are partially made of wood. It is not considered worth the trouble using them, since they are so troublesome. Only a powerful magician can keep them under control.
BAKU
In Japan, Baku is a great tapir with the body of a horse, the head of a lion, and the legs and paws of a tiger. His duty is to devour the nightmares that human beings have, so dreamers call on him to scavenge their bad dreams. Baku ensures that the day can then begin in peace and without the shadow of nightmarish fear. All you have to do is invoke him with ‘Devour them, O Baku’.
BALENA
According to the Alexandrian Phyiologus, Balena was a female sea monster encountered by travellers in European waters. The name is now used to distinguish one of the two kinds of whale, the baleen whales – the other type being the toothed whales.
BALI
In Hindu myth, Bali was the name of a giant prince of apes and monkeys. He had his birth from the hair of his mother, and resembled a hairy man with a long tail. He attempted to overthrow the rule of his step-brother, Sugriva. This usurpation was punished by the gods who sent Rama to shoot him.
BALOR
Balor was the leader of the Primaeval Fomorian people, an Irish giant of such hideous aspect that he is known as ‘Balor of the Evil Eye’. He acquired the ability to petrify and disempower people when he was a child. He peered into a forbidden room when his father’s druids were creating a powerful potion in the cauldron. As the potion bubbled to the boil, drops spurted out into his eye, which forever afterwards had the ability to bring fear and havoc to all who looked upon it. It was so baleful that Balor kept it lidded. When he needed to look with that eye, four men were required to lift up the lid.
Balor was the lord of Tory Island off the western coast of Ireland. Here he kept his beautiful daughter confined, safe from the society of men, because of a prophecy that his own grandchild would kill him. Cian swam out to the island and slept with the giant’s daughter, making her pregnant with triplets. She put the infants into a boat to save them from the wrath of Balor, but two of them drowned. The surviving child became Lugh Lamhfada. One day, the giant saw the young boy Lugh perform an athletic feat with his spear and gave him his nickname ‘Lamhfada’ (Long-Arm), not knowing him to be his own grandson. When the boy grew up, he defeated Balor in battle. Just as he was about to strike off his grandfather’s head, Balor begged Lugh to place the severed head above his own and he would become all-powerful. Fortunately, Lugh didn’t listen to his blandishments, for the severed head of Balor would have grafted itself onto Lugh’s own body. Lugh flung the head into the depths of the sea so that Balor could quell no more people with his evil glance.
(See Ysbaddaden Pencawr.)
BANEBDJEDET
The Egyptian ram god has a name meaning ‘the Soul Lord of Mendes’. Mendes, in present-day Tell-el-Ruba in Egypt, had its own cemetery for the burial of sacred rams. Banebdjedet was the god to whom god-judges appealed when Horus and Set struggled for possession of the throne. He was partial to Set who he felt should win since he was the elder brother of Horus. Banebdjedet is the consort of Hatmehyt.
BANNIK
The fairy or spirit that looks after saunas, bathhouses and freshwater ponds in Russia. He despises Christian symbols and will not enter any building where they are displayed. It is customary to offer him a pail of water and to vacate the sauna on the third firing of the heater, so that the Bannik may have his own bath. Banniks creep under the sauna bench, hissing and giggling. If he scratches your back, it is bad luck, but if he caresses you while you steam, it a good omen. Sometimes Banniks can be seen if you peer into the steam of the sauna, taking the shape of a known family member. Children were often delivered in the bathhouse, but they were never left there unattended in case they were abducted by fairies. Many people chose not to go to the bathhouse alone for fear of encountering the Bannik who tends to stay out of sight if you bathe in company.
BANSHEE/BEANSIDHE
It is the duty of the banshee or ‘woman of the fairies’ to foretell the death of an individual. Banshees are attached to particular families and their cry is only heard when a family member is about to die. Banshees are reported either to be young women of mournful aspect, or else to take the form of hags. With eyes red from weeping, she continually combs her hair with a gold or silver comb. The cries of the banshee are echoed by professional mourners or keeners, bhean chaointe, who were engaged to maintain high piercing cries and moans or ochone at a funeral wake. The very first being to set up a keening cry was the Irish goddess, Brighid, one of the Tuatha de Danaan; she wailed for the death of her only son, Rúadán, and that was the first keening ever heard in Ireland.
There is an account by Lady Fanshawe who stayed in the family house of the O’Briens during the 17th century. Lady Fanshawe was in bed when late at night she was aware of a woman with red hair and ghastly white face who mysteriously said, ‘A horse’, three times in a loud voice. In the early hours of the next morning, the lady of the house came in to see Lady Fanshawe, telling her that she had been attending to one of her O’Brien cousins who had died a few hours earlier, at the time the apparition had appeared. It is not clear what the banshee meant by her utterance, perhaps only that a mount was ready for the deceased to pass with the banshee into the Otherworld. (See Cyhyraeth.)
BAR YACHRE
In ancient Jewish myth, Bar Yachre took the form of a giant eagle-like bird. In a similar fashion to the Roc, it consumed herds of cattle and sometimes human beings.
BARGUEST
The Barguest is a native of Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham. It takes a variety of forms, predominantly as a black mastiff with fiery eyes, horns and fangs, but also as a bear with glowing eyes and huge claws. Reports state that it drags a chain, or that it is wrapped in chains like Marley’s ghost in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, symbolic of the chains of sin. Specific Barguests appear around their own locality; for example, the one in Leeds causes all the dogs of the city to bark when it makes its appearance. It has been suggested that the name has been derived from the German bahrgeist or ‘spirit of the bier’.
BARIAUA
In Melanesia, among the Tubetube and Wagwaga peoples, the Bariaua are the fairies who live in the trunks of ancient trees. They occasionally borrow people’s canoes. If they are observed by anyone, they immediately disappear.
BARNACLE GOOSE
The Barnacle goose that migrates from the Arctic down into southern regions of Europe was a great mystery to medieval people. Throughout Europe,