John Matthews - The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures - The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic

Belief in the rainbow serpentsurvives 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.

In the mythology and folklore and of the Khosian people of South Africa, the Aigamuxa are man-eating ogreswho 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 Jackalwas 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.

A three-headed monsterthat 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.

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.

In the Hindu mythology of India, Airavata is one of sixteen giant white cosmic elephantswho 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.

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 cockerelor 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.

In Hindu Vedic tradition, this one-footed goatwas the symbol of swiftness because it was the force of lightning itself and hit the Earth in a single place with the ferocity of its kick.

The god of the Earth in Egyptian mythology. Aker is represented as a narrow strip of land with a human or lion’s head at either end, or sometimes as two lions back to back and joined in the centre. One lion faces the west where the sun rises, the other faces east where the sun sets. The two lions or lion-headed beings are almost certainly the same as those who guard the entrance and exit to the underworld in this tradition.

A strange beast described by medieval travellers to the Middle East, the Akhekhu resembled a serpent,but had four powerful legs and clawed feet. It almost certainly derives from the folklore of Egypt. It is similar to the Griffin.

A gigantic killer whalementioned in the folklore of the Inuit, especially those who live along the Bering Sea coastline of Alaska. While its home is the sea, it takes on the form of a giant white wolfin order to prey on humans. Inuit who see large wolf tracks ending suddenly at the edge of an ice floe refer to these as the ‘tracks of the Akhlut’.

In Hindu mythology, this is the name of a giant cosmic tortoisethat supports the entire Earth on its back.

Al is a terrible fire-eyed demon from Armenian mythology. Originally a demon which carried diseases, the Al is now associated with ill-luck in childbirth. It is said to blind unborn children in the womb and cause miscarriages. It also steals seven-month-old children. As well as its fiery eyes, it has snake-like hair, fingernails of brass, iron teeth and it carries a pair of iron scissors with which it cuts the umbilical cord of its chosen victim, inflicting poison on both mother and child. To shield themselves from its evil influence, pregnant women surround themselves with iron weapons that keep it at bay. The Al have a king who is chained in a hidden abyss, from which he can be heard shrieking constantly. In Afghanistan, the creature is represented as a young woman with long teeth and nails. Her feet are reversed.