Mythological creatures

thumb|upright|1900s illustration of Saint Nicholas and Krampus visiting a child The Krampus () is a horned anthropomorphic figure who, in the Central and Eastern Alpine folkloric tradition, is said to accompany Saint Nicholas on visits to children during the night of 5 December (Krampusnacht; "Krampus Night"), immediately before the Feast of St. Nicholas on 6 December. In this tradition, Saint Nicholas rewards well-behaved children with small gifts, while Krampus punishes badly behaved ones with birch rods.

thumb|upright=1.15|Giovanni Lanfranco: Norandino and Lucina Discovered by the Ogre, [[oil on canvas, c. 1624]] An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, humanoid being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklore, and fiction throughout the world. They appear in many classic works of literature, and are most often associated in fairy tales and legend.

A homunculus ( , , ; "little person", : homunculi , , ) is a small artificial human or human-like being. Popularized in 16th-century alchemy and 19th-century fiction, it has historically been referred to as the creation of a miniature, fully formed human or humanoid being. The concept has roots in preformationism as well as earlier folklore and alchemic traditions.

thumb|Yūrei, Bakemono no e scroll, [[Brigham Young University]] are figures in Japanese folklore analogous to the Western concept of ghosts. The name consists of two kanji, (yū), meaning "faint" or "dim" and (rei), meaning "soul" or "spirit". Alternative names include , meaning ruined or departed spirit, , meaning dead spirit, or the more encompassing or . Like their Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits barred from a peaceful afterlife.

thumb|Depiction of an onryō in the , by Katsushika Hokusai.

thumb|300px|A composition of the Four Living Creatures into one tetramorph. Matthew the man, Mark the lion, Luke the ox, and John the eagle. A tetramorph is a symbolic arrangement of four differing elements, or the combination of four disparate elements in one unit. The term is derived from the Greek tetra, meaning four, and morph, shape.

thumb|300px|An image of humans battling a Namazu

The Yowie is one of several names for an Australian folklore entity that is reputed to live in the Outback. The creature has origins in Aboriginal oral history.

In Japanese folklore, tsukumogami (付喪神 or つくも神, lit. "tool kami") are tools that have acquired a kami or spirit. According to an annotated version of The Tales of Ise titled Ise Monogatari Shō, there is a theory originally from the Onmyōki (陰陽記) that foxes and tanuki, among other beings, that have lived for at least a hundred years and changed forms are considered tsukumogami. In modern times, the term can also be written 九十九神 (literally ninety-nine kami), to emphasize the agedness.

thumb|A carved representation of a tupilak, Greenland A ' ( or in Inuktitut syllabics, plural ') is a monster or carving of a monster.

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thumb|Japanese mermaid (ningyo). Coiffed with nihongami hairstyle of the Edo Period. , is a creature with both human and fish-like features, described in various pieces of Japanese literature.

thumb|250px|An image of futakuchi-onna from the Ehon Hyaku Monogatari is a type of yōkai or Japanese monster. She is characterized by her two mouths – a normal one located on her face and a second one on the back of the head beneath the hair. There, the woman's skull splits apart, forming lips, teeth and a tongue, creating an entirely functional second mouth.

thumb|180px|right|The mokumokuren as illustrated by Toriyama Sekien are yōkai in Japanese mythology.

thumb|Nuppeppō (ぬつへつほう) from Bakemono no e (化物之繪, c. 1700), Harry F. Bruning Collection of Japanese Books and Manuscripts, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, [[Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.|alt=]] right|thumb|180px|"Nuppepō" (ぬつへつほう) from the Hyakkai Zukan by Sawaki Suushi right|thumb|180px|"Nuppepō" (ぬつへつほふ) from the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō by [[Toriyama Sekien]]

popular topic for ghost stories in Central and South Asia

The Mahoraga (), also pronounced as Maha-Uraga ("Greater Reptilians"), are a race of deities in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. They are the exalted ones among the Uragas, a race of primordial reptilian beings who are cousins to the nāga. Like the nāga, they are often depicted as anthropomorphic beings with reptilian bodies from the waist down. However, their appearance can differ depending on artistic tradition, sometimes having serpent skin with humanoid bodies, or having a serpent head with the body of a human.

Popobawa, also Popo Bawa, is the name of an evil spirit or shetani, which is believed by residents of Zanzibar to have first appeared on the Tanzanian island of Pemba. In 1995, it was the focus of a major outbreak of mass hysteria or panic which spread from Pemba to Unguja, the main island of the Zanzibar Archipelago, and across to Dar es Salaam and other urban centres on the East African coast.

thumb|right|A representation of a Bhoma head guarding the top of the portal to a Balinese temple in Singapadu.

thumb|240px|Creatures depicted in Luo Ping's Gui Qu Tu (; )

Sheshe () in Persian mythology is a jinni-like creature that strangles newborn babies on 6th day of their lives.

thumb|right|300px|Menreiki as depicted in the Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro. is a type of monster in Japanese folklore, composed of Gigaku masks. It is listed within the 1781 compendium of Japanese supernatural entities, entitled Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro.

A Simbi (also spelled Cymbee and '''Sim'bi, pl. Bisimbi or Basimbi''') is a Central African guardian spirit of the water and nature in traditional Bakongo religion, as well as in African diaspora spiritual traditions, such as Hoodoo in the southern United States and Palo in Cuba. Simbi have been historically identified as water people, or mermaids, pottery, snakes, gourds, and fire. Due to the forced removal of Bantu peoples from Africa to the Americas, the veneration of simbi exists today in countries, such as the United States, Brazil, Cuba, and Haiti.

thumb|Coin of Indo-Greek king Telephos displaying an anguipede with limbs ending in lotus blossom (obverse). right|thumb|An abraxas stone with one rendering of an anguiped at top. thumb|Indian anguiped, a Vyala [[Yaksha.]] The Anguiped (Latin: angui, 'snake'; ped-, 'foot') is a kind of divinity that is often found on magical amulets from the Greco-Roman period, and is characterized by having serpents for legs.

The Sluagh (, ; ; English: 'host, army, crowd'), or Sluagh na marbh ('host of the dead'), were the hosts of the unforgiven dead in Irish and Scottish folklore. In the words of British folklorist Lewis Spence, "In the Western Isles of Scotland the Sluagh, or fairy host, was regarded as composed of the souls of the dead flying through the air, and the feast of the dead at Hallowe'en was likewise the festival of the fairies." Usually taking a crescent form, similar to a flight of grey birds, they were said to be able to approach and pick up a person from any direction and then transport them far

type of monster in mythology and fantasy