Heterogamy - threat Japanese hungry ghosts

There are different types of ghosts (wandering, fearful, trying to start a conversation, etc.), but the Japanese hungry ghosts are very unusual. One of the most famous ghosts in Japan are the so-called "heterogamy" (Hidarugami), which roughly translates as "the hunger gods". Say it is the souls of those who died of starvation, lost in the mountains, and whose body was never found. Depending on the region heterogamy can call the words "hydrotime" or "Darsi" or "gift", but the behavior they have one and the same. They wander in search of someone to share my agony of eternal hunger. This they imposed a curse.

And of course, that often the victims are the same lonely travelers. Tells a lot of stories about how travellers walking along lonely mountain paths, suddenly covers the insatiable hunger the likes of which they've never experienced. This feeling was reported to be completely overwhelming and almost insurmountable. It is often accompanied by unexplained fatigue and numbness of the limbs, causing the victims of the attack "the hungry Ghost" fall to the ground, not knowing what was happening. If the traveler time does not help, all this considered, will almost certainly lead to his death or the state of complete madness, and after his death, the traveler will be as a hungry Ghost.

According to legend, it is possible to avoid this sinister fate, if you have on hand at least a little piece of food that will suit even one grain of rice. And even such a small amount of food can quickly take a supernatural hunger, when it will attack. That is why even today the Japanese are going alone on mountain trails, take at least some food, even if they have to go through a very small distance. Curiously, in the tradition of the Prefecture of Shiga Prefecture on Honshu island heterogamy describe as zombies. For them it is an aggressive creature that can attack and maim a man, eating his flesh, to satisfy his insatiable hunger.

To protect them it is necessary to always keep on hand rice balls. Although all this may seem just folk tales, really are a lot of stories of people who might actually faced with hungry ghosts. One such story came from a man named Zenkichi, who in 1736 had traveled down a secluded mountain path. When he later found other local residents, and led to his village, he was in a very frightened condition and told a horrible story about an attack on a group of hungry ghosts.

In another story the same years, a traveler by the name of Shigeru Mizuki Shigeru road was also attacked by a Horde of nasty hungry ghosts. He managed to escape from them, grabbing a handful of rice from his bag and spread the rice on the ground. Hungry ghosts was distracted by the search for the rice and the man managed to escape. Many Japanese maps and guide books of those years contained a warning about hungry ghosts and are strongly advised to take rice. Also throughout the countryside of Japan there were many legends associated with the hungry ghosts.

In Wakayama Prefecture has allegedly deep hole in the ground near the mountains Kumotori and Locomotory, which sit in wait of aggressive heterogamy. In many parts of Japan on the mountain trails located in a special Holy places in which to pray you are not attacked by the hungry ghosts. It is widely believed that these stories are only the personification of the severe famine from which many centuries suffered in a rural part of Japan.

However, such stories spread, even in relatively rich parts of the country. Fortunately, heterogamy is considered to be relatively weak in spirit compared to many other representatives of the Japanese spirit. Sometimes credited heterogamy disgusting and also very hungry Ghost, under the name of "hooks" or "Preta". These creatures came to Japan from Tibetan mythology and always suffer from thirst and hunger in his otherworldly counterpart of Hell.

The hooks are often described as humanoid creatures with horribly swollen bellies, strange heads and little useless mouths that they are constantly looking for something to eat. The hooks/Preta are a lower form of existence, which after death become envious, greedy and generally bad people.

Tormented by such a severe famine that they will look for anything to eat it. Including feces, vomit, corpses and so on. They desperately salivate at the slightest drop of blood, but their hunger is never satisfied.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»