“The scene within was horrible. A party of ghouls were assembled with the spoils of the graves they had violated and were feasting on the flesh of the long-buried corpses. His own wife, who, by the way, never touched supper at home, played a no inconsiderable part in the hideous banquet.
“As soon as he could safely escape Abul-Hassan stole back to his bed.
“He said nothing to his bride till next evening when supper was laid, and she declined to eat; then he insisted on her partaking, and when she positively refused he exclaimed roughly: ‘Oh yes, you keep your appetite for your feasts with the ghouls.’ Nadilla was silent; she turned pale and trembled, and without a word sought her bed. At midnight she rose, fell on her husband with her nails and teeth, tore his throat, and, having opened a vein, attempted to suck his blood; but Abul-Hassan, springing to his feet, threw her down and, with a blow, killed her. She was buried next day.
“Three days after at midnight she reappeared, attacked her husband again, and again attempted to suck his blood. He fled from her and on the morrow opened her tomb, burnt her to ashes and cast the ashes into the Tigris.”
There is a monstrous vampire which is said to delight in sucking the blood of children, and is known as a Pănangglan. It has also a liking for sucking the blood of women at childbirth; but, as it is also credited with a dread of thorns, the custom has arisen of placing thorns about the rooms of Indian houses on the occasions of births.
One of the Northern Indian witches—the Jigar-Khor or Liver-eater—is believed to be possessed of the power of being able to steal the liver of another by looks and incantations. A class of witches known as Bhúts are said to have an extraordinary fondness for fish, but also eat rice and all kinds of human food.
Hugh Clifford, in his interesting work In Court and Kampong, refers to the “Pĕnangal, that horrible wraith of a woman who has died in childbirth, and who comes to torment small children in the guise of a fearful face and bust with many feet of bloody, trailing entrails in her wake,” also of that “weird little white animal, the Mati-ânak, that makes beast noises round the graves of children; and of the familiar spirits that men raise up from the corpses of babes who have never seen the light, the tips of whose tongues they bite off and swallow, after the child has been brought back to life by magic agencies.”
In the Tamil dream of Harichándra, the frenzied Sandramáti says to the king: “I belong to the race of elves, for I killed thy child in order that I might feed on its delicate flesh.” The Vetala is said to feed chiefly on corpses. The Bhúts and other dismal ravenous ghosts, who are dreaded at the moon-wane of the month Katik (October-November), were not supposed to devour men, but only their food.
Then there is the Hántu Sàburo, which chases men into the forest by means of his dogs, and if they are run down he drinks their blood. The Hántu Dondong resides in caves and crevices in rocks. He kills dogs and wild hogs with the sumpitan, and then drinks their blood. The Hántu Parl fastens on to the wound of an injured person and sucks the blood.