In West Arnhem Land in Australia the local aboriginal people have a vampire demon called Namorado in their mythology. The namorodo is a skeleton with ligaments; its fingers are long and razor sharp.
By day it’s inactive but by night it flies through the sky searching for its newest victim. It enters a house and finds a sleeping victim, and drains the person of blood. It can create more of its own kind.
Namorodo are associated with sorcery and shooting stars.
Australia’s Aboriginal people have a vampire creature in their lore. This vampire spirit is called a Mrart. It believed the mrart is a restless spirit of a community member.
Their powers are strongest at night. It goes to campfires and pulls its victim from the light of the campfire.
Aborigines believe the mrart and other spirits can pocesses a body, even while the body’s original spirit still resides within. To make sure the body of a deceased person never rises again, Aborigines tie rocks to the corpse when placed in the grave. Sometimes the limbs are broken.
The deceased’s belongings are destroyed and their personal campsite is never used again.
Vampire Wednesday!!!
In Australia’s aboriginal cultures a vampire like being called the yara-ma-yha-who existed.
He was a small red man approximately four feet tall with a large mouth, but no teeth. It’s said he swallowed his food whole. As if that isn’t weird enough, the tips of his hands and feet have suckers like an octopus.
He lives in the tops of wild fig threes. It waits for its food to come to it. When a potential victim sits below his tree, he drops down on them. He puts his hands and feet on the m and begins to drain them of their blood. The victim’s left helpless, but not killed. The yara-ma-yah-who come back later to finish its meal. Ti drinks some water and takes a nap. When it wakes the undigested portion of the meal is regurgitated still alive (according to the legend.)
The story was told to young children who might wander away. Naughty children were told the yara-ma-yha-who would come and take them away. Children were told that it if the creature were to come for them they shouldn’t fight it. Their chances of survival were better if they allowed the creature to swallow them.
If a person happens to be captured various times, he will start to get shorter until he’s the same height as the yara-ma-yha-who. Their skin will get very smooth and then get hairy. Gradually they will turn into a yara-ma-yha-who.
Photo Credits:
http://www.bogleech.com/yaramayhawho.html
http://keenegallery.blogspot.com/2011/12/yara-ma-yha-who.html
http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Yara-ma-yha-who
http://tohdaryl.deviantart.com/art/Y-for-Yara-ma-yha-who-358156525
Mari Wells 