The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. John Matthews
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and medicine to the people. He also presides over birth and his court included a lizard and a dog. He is represented on the four-faced pottery vessels made by the people of northern Peru as a human being with the face of the cat on the back of his head; the cat’s face has the eyes of a god.
AI TOJON
A giant two-headed eagle that perches on the top of a mountain and sheds light over the world in the folklore of the Yakut peoples of Siberia.
AIATAR
A creature resembling a giant serpent or snake found in Finnish folklore. Known as the ‘Devil of the Woods’, this creature is said to suckle small snakes. These snakes can cause sickness in the person who sees them. In some areas of Finland, especially along the edge of the Arctic tundra, the Aiatar is seen as a destructive female force that brings bad luck to all who encounter it.
AICHA KANDIDA
A predatory water demon or Afrit of Moroccan folklore which lurks along the banks of the River Sebu, around the Aquadel at Marrakesh, and even in the grounds of the Sultan’s palace in the same city. She appears as a beautiful young woman who lures lonely men to their death. Once her victim is within reach, she transforms into a gigantic monster and drags her victim away to consume him beneath the water. The only way to escape her is to find another human being or an inhabited dwelling, since the Aicha Kandida is apparently able only to attack one person at a time. Occasionally she will relinquish her prey if bribed by a sufficiently generous gift.
AIDA HWEDO
The great Rainbow Serpent of Dahomy mythology.
Aida Hwedo carried the creator Mawu from place to place as she went about creating the Earth. Whenever they stopped for the night, in the morning there were mountains – the piles of excrement left by Aida Hwedo. When the creation was completed, Mawu realized that there were too many large objects on the surface of the Earth and that it was likely to break apart as a result. So she brought Aida Hwedo and commanded him to coil around the inside of the earth’s crust. To prevent the serpent from being overcome by the heat, Mawu placed the sea around him to cool his skin. However, if he gets too hot and shifts in his place, he causes earthquakes. Aida Hwedo lives on a diet of iron bars, but when these are exhausted he will begin to swallow his own tail, at which point the world will be destroyed.
Belief in the rainbow serpent survives in both Surinam and Haitian Voodun belief, and great efforts are made by these people to ensure that the creature is never angered. Thus, before young people marry, if either of them is devoted to Aida Hwedo, they make special offerings to prevent jealousy or resentment in the god.
AIGAMUXA
In the mythology and folklore and of the Khosian people of South Africa, the Aigamuxa are man-eating ogres who inhabit the dunes of the Kalahari desert. Though human in appearance, they have eyes in their instep or in the heels of their feet, so that they are constantly forced to stop and lift a foot in order to see where they are going. Despite the fact that they appear human, they are huge in stature with gigantic hands and feet and enormous sharpened teeth. Whenever they catch human prey, they tear them in pieces and devour them. However, like most ogres, there are very stupid and easily tricked. One story tells how the trickster god Jackal was being pursued by a troop of Aigamuxa. Jackal scattered tobacco dust in his wake, which irritated the eyes of his pursuers and enabled his escape.
AILLEN TRECHENN
A three-headed monster that emerged every Samhain (Hallowe’en) from a mound at Cruachan in County Roscommon to ravage Ireland. It hated all human beings, especially the heroes of Emain Macha and the ancient stronghold of Tara. It was eventually killed by the poet and warrior Amairgen.
AION
The lion-headed god of time in classical Greek and Gnostic traditions. Sometimes shown with four wings or arms (representing the fourfold division of time) or standing on a globe encircled with the signs of the zodiac (representing his reign over the year and the ages). He carries two keys, which unlock the two solsticial gates – a silver key opens the Gate of Cancer and a golden one of the Gate of Capricorn. These gates lead beyond the circle of ordinary time into the infinite realm of the soul.
AIRAVATA/AIRAVANA
In the Hindu mythology of India, Airavata is one of sixteen giant white cosmic elephants who support the Earth on their backs. Airavata stands at the eastern quarter of the world with the god Indra upon his back. The name Airavata comes from the word iravat meaning ‘Child of the Water’. According to Hindu mythology, this wondrous beast was created from the churning of the waters at the beginning of time. He takes the form of a milk-white elephant with wings and was so beautiful that Indra chose him as a personal war elephant. As Airavata flew through the air, he sucked up all the waters from the Earth and sprayed them over the surface to bring the gift of rain to the human race.
Airavata is also seen as the father of all elephants and initially his many children were also winged; they subsequently lost the ability to fly after interrupting a class being taught by a sage after landing in a tree above him. The sage decreed that henceforward they would serve mankind in whatever way they were required. To this day, white elephants, which are extremely rare, are considered to be descendants of Airavata and as such are reserved for the use of royalty, often being given as gifts between kings. The origin of the term ‘White Elephant’ probably originates here, since the beasts in question were valuable but could not be used in any other way.
In the great Hindu mythological epic Mahabharata, a different origin is described for Airavata. Here we are told how the god Brahma took a cosmic egg and opened it, holding one half in each hand while chanting seven mantras over them. From the right-hand shell came eight pure white male elephants, each with four tusks; the chief among these was Airavata. From the left-hand shell emerged eight pure white female elephants. Together these sixteen cosmic creatures stood at the eight cardinal compass points to support the Earth. This idea almost certainly influenced the writer Terry Pratchett, who describes four elephants holding up the Discworld in his series of novels of that name.
AITVARAS
In Lithuanian folklore, the Aitvaras is a creature whose natural form is that of a dragon, but which also takes on other forms including those of a black cockerel or a black cat. It is a type of luck-bringer, of which there are numerous instances in European folklore. Often, a person will bring it home unknowingly, and once there it takes up habitation and begins to work on behalf of its new owner. The Aitvaras’ one objective is to bring well-being and plenty to the house in which it lives, but it usually does this by robbing neighbouring houses. In return, it demands only the sustenance of an omelette every day, but the household suffers the worst side of the bargain since in time it will take the souls of everyone there.
One story tells of a recently married woman who was mystified by the way in which her husband’s corn store never seemed to run dry. Eventually, she took a consecrated candle and went out at night to explore the barn. There she found the Aitvaras, in the shape of a black cockerel, disgorging endless amounts of grain. When it saw her and felt the power of the candle, it flew into the air and vanished, never to be seen again. The woman survived but her husband had already signed away his soul. The earliest reports of this evil creature come from an account of 1547, when a man was investigated for a sudden and unexpected increase in his wealth. It was revealed that he had signed a pact with the devilish Aitvaras, pledging his soul in return for wealth.
AJA EKAPAD
In Hindu Vedic