Churel

Akpọkwa ya: chudail, churail, petni, shakchunni, pichal peri

Akụkọ ifo na akụkọ ọdịnalaNwụrụ anwụDị iche icheỌnwụ ma ọ bụ olili ozu ọjọọ1500 ruo 1899

The churel is the dangerous dead woman of South Asian folklore, the returned form of someone who died in childbirth or through ill-treatment. She seduces and destroys men, beginning with her own male relatives. The precautions taken against her are aimed squarely at the corpse: it is pinned, bound, broken and buried face down under thorns and stones. Those measures closely match anti-revenant burial practice in Europe.1

Mee ha lụọ ọgụ

Mgbe e dere ya nke mbụ

1880

Described in colonial-era ethnography, including William Crooke's study of North Indian folklore (1894)

Mmalite

South Asian

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal

Ihe na-akpata ya

Ọnwụ ma ọ bụ olili ozu ọjọọ

A woman who dies in childbirth, in pregnancy or during ritual impurity, or by cruelty, returns.

Otu i si abụrụ otu

Death in or around childbirth, or any unnatural death; in Bengal, dying unmarried or with desires unfulfilled.

Otu o si agagharị

Dị iche iche

Waits near trees and lonely places and leads men away into woods or hills.

Ọgụgụ isi

Nwere ọgụgụ isi

Ebe adịghị ike

filling the grave with thorns and piling stones on top
nailing or binding the fingers and toes with iron
breaking the legs, sewing the eyes shut with thorns and burying the body face down
sowing mustard seed along the funeral route
carrying the body out through a side door