Nasnas
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2015) |
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (October 2015) |
A nasnas (Arabic: نسناس nasnās) is a monstrous creature in Arab folklore. According to Edward Lane, the 19th century translator of The Thousand and One Nights, a nasnas is "half a human being; having half a head, half a body, one arm, one leg, with which it hops with much agility".
And also in Somali folklore there is a creature called "xunguruuf" "Hungruf" which resembles the "nasnās" as it has the same characteristics and features. It's believed it can kill a person by just touching them and the person would be fleshless in mere seconds.
It was believed to be the offspring of a demon called a Shiqq and a human being. A character in "The Story of the Sage and the Scholar", a tale from the collection, is turned into a nasnas after a magician applies kohl to one of his eyes. The nasnas is mentioned in Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of Saint Anthony.
Sources
- Robert Irwin The Arabian Nights: a Companion (Penguin, 1994)
- Jorge Luis Borges The Book of Imaginary Beings (Penguin, 1974)