The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. John Matthews
to those who understand her true function, but which appears evil and repellent to those who fear her.
Despite her reputation for enticing and devouring human victims, Baba Yaga nevertheless recognizes good housekeeping and simple-hearted perseverance, as is seen from the story of Fair Vassilisa, a maiden who is sent by her stepmother to fetch light from Baba Yaga’s house, meaning for her to die there. Vassilisa serves Baba Yaga so faithfully that the hag gives her a lighted skull to take home; this horrid sight so terrifies the stepmother and her nasty daughter, that Vassilisa is left in possession of her parent’s house.
An elderly couple had a daughter but could not find a godmother for her. Baba Yaga, in the shape of an old woman, offered to be godmother and took the girl to live with her. When the girl offended her by breaking one of her rules, Baba Yaga exiled her to a dark forest alone. There a prince found the girl wandering. He married her and they had three sons who bore the moon and stars upon their foreheads. Baba Yaga demanded these three children in expiation of the girl’s crime, taking them and their mother away with her. The prince followed on and found them standing at the centre of a clearing, near a great fire, surrounded by animals. Baba Yaga allowed the prince to take his sons away but withheld her goddaughter to serve her.
BABI
This aggressive baboon god of the Egyptians lives on human entrails. In the Afterlife, when the deceased’s heart is being weighed in the heart ceremony in the Hall of Two Truths, and when it is decided that wherever the deceased will be able to enter paradise, it is necessary to invoke spells to ward off the attentions of Babi. However, in this life, Babi will help defend against snakes and control turbulent waters. In the cosmic scheme of things, Babi has the ability to control darkness and he can open up the sky for the pharaoh because Babi’s phallus is the bolt locking the doors of heaven. (See baboon.)
BABOON
The male baboon with its colourful behind and facial mobility gives rise to myths which stress its supposed aggressive and lascivious qualities. The baboon god Babi’s phallus becomes the bolt of the door of heaven and is also the mast of the ferryman’s boat in the Underworld that conveys the dead towards their judgement. However, it is the baboon’s reverence of the rising sun, when its stands up and chitters as the first rays fall that cause him to be associated with Thoth, god of wisdom.
There are many tales about baboons raping human women in African myth. Zantegeba is the baboon who struts about the forests of Mali. His exceedingly lascivious antics are represented in annual dances by a dancer who uses two small sticks to act as forelegs. Darting into the crowd, he selects female spectators who scream and run away in case Zantegeba comes to rape them.
BACCHIS
Bacchis was the bull god worshipped by the Egyptians at Hermonthus, one of many shrines to bovine deities.
BACKAHAST
A Scandinavian water horse that lives in rivers and freshwater lakes, the Backahast often conceals itself by appearing like a floating log or overturned boat. Those who are tempted to approach the seemingly useful piece of wood are pulled under the water and eaten.
BADB
One of the triad of Irish goddesses collectively called the Morrigna, Badb along with her sisters Nemain and Morrigan, is responsible for cleansing the battlefield of carrion. She incites armies to battle-frenzy. Badb may appear as a woman but she is most commonly seen in the form of a crow. Badb’s Gaulish counterpart is the goddess Bodua or Catubodua. In later Irish folk tradition, the phantom figure who keens over the battlefield before conflict presaging death upon the field was called badhbh chaointe (‘keening crow’).
BADGER
Among the Navajo people of south-west North America, Badger was one of the first inhabitants who travelled down through the worlds with Coyote. While Coyote remained with the Navajo, Badger continued down into the yellow world of the Grasshopper people. It was Badger who enabled the Navajo people to escape from the reed in which they were trapped by enlarging a hole that Locust had made in the sky, enabling them to arrive upon the Earth in a little island in the middle of a lake. Badger was also one of the foremost medicine spirits in the south-west, for he is always digging in the ground for roots and plants. A badger paw is worn by women in childbirth for a swift delivery, in imitation of the badger who comes out of his hole quickly. The sexual organs of the male badger are believed to enhance the virility of impotent men. Among the Zuni, Badger is the younger brother of Bear, though he is not so brave nor as strong-willed as his older brother.
In China, the badger is considered to be a yin animal, because it retires to its den and comes out at night. In Japan, the wind badger is Tanuki, who looks after the rice crop. He is depicted as carrying a great bell. In some stories, the badger appears as a trickster. Sometimes taking the form of a venerable sage, he tries to make people revere him more.
In Celtic myth, the game of ‘badger-in-the-bag’ is played at the order of the horse goddess, Rhiannon. She helps her intended husband Pwyll defeat one of her former suitors, Gwawl, by tricking him into entering a bottomless bag. Once inside it, Gwawl is beaten with sticks by Pwyll’s men. He begs to be let out and Rhiannon lets him go only after he has promised to bother her no more. This ancient game refers back to the understanding of the badger as the creature of great resource.
Kenneth Grahame’s children’s book, The Wind in the Willows, has given many their lasting love of the badger from the depiction of wise old Badger who lives like a hermit in the Wild Wood but who is implacable against the foes of Toad.
BAGALA
In Hindu tradition, the crane-headed goddess, Bagala, presides over poisons, black magic and deceitful forms of death. She incites people to torment each other, and has the tongues of enemies in her right hand while in her left she has instruments of torture. Sometimes she has a mace and is dressed in yellow. Bagala is also the one who makes us aware of the death or anxiety of our loved ones, wherever they might be.
BAHAMUT
A great creature whose duty, in Islamic mythology, is to support the Earth. Bahamut takes the form of a bright fish with the head of an elephant or hippopotamus. On Bahamut’s back is a layer of sand on which stands a giant bull called Kujata; on the bull’s forehead is a mountain of rock which is a vessel for all the waters of the globe. In these waters, the Earth itself grew. Beneath Bahumut was a serpent of even greater size called Falak who held all the fires of hell. In another story, there was a ruby on the bull’s back on which stood an angel who held the six hells, the Earth and the seven heavens. Bahamut was so huge that no human being could contemplate or imagine his vastness. Only one being, the prophet Isa or Jesus, was allowed to see all of the creature at once.
BAKBAKWAKANOOKSIEWAE
Among the Kwakiutl of north-west Canada lives a great bird called Bakbakwakanooksiewae (‘the Cannibal at the North End of the World’). His other name is Hokhoku. With his wife Galokwudzuwis, he pursues human beings, smashing in their skulls and devouring the exposed brains. The Kwakkiutl enact a dance in which a youth is captured and transformed into Bakbakwakanooksiewae, wearing a beaked mask. The rest of the village chants and dances in order to catch the bird.
BAKORORO
In Eastern Bororo in South America, Bakororo was the tapir child of a union between a jaguar and a woman. The jaguar’s mother was a caterpillar