The restless spirits of the

Abura-sumashi (the original Japanese spelling) translates as "oil squeezer".

In Japanese folklore, a creature that looks like a squat little man with a big ugly head that looks like a potato or a stone. It is believed that this look is inspired by the works of mangaka Shigeru Mizuki.

These are the restless spirits of oil thieves who escaped from pursuit in the forest. Sometimes they appear out of thin air, but more often they just make sounds (and even communicate with travelers), remaining invisible.

Angiac literally translates to "living dead child".

In the beliefs of the Eskimos of Alaska, the vengeful spirit of a newborn child abandoned to die, returning to drink the blood of his living relatives.

He took revenge first of all on the elders, because during the hungry years it often happens that the elders of the tribe are forced to get rid of extra mouths. They get rid of babies, because it is believed that a small child does not yet belong completely to our world. The elders take the child and leave him to starve to death in the snow.

Anku (bret. ankoù) is the image of death in Breton mythology.

In the folklore of the inhabitants of the peninsula Brittany is a harbinger of death. Usually it becomes a person who died in a particular settlement last of the year or, according to another version, the first buried in the local cemetery. Unlike the death known throughout France and many other European countries in the image of a bony old woman with a scythe, Anku has always been presented as a man.

The owner of the forest in Chuvash and Turkic mythology.

Perhaps the term "arzuri" goes back to the ancient name of a deity close to the Slavic Shchur. Another name of arzuri is "varman tura" ("forest god") — similar to one of the names of the goblin "Urman iyase" ("master of the forest") among the Kazan and West Siberian Tatars. The southern Chuvash consider Arzuri to be ubede's wife, which is why they also call her "varman amashe" ("mother of the forest"). From the Chuvash languagetranslated as Half - man .

A spirit from Belarusian mythology, inclining a person to vagrancy.

It is believed that these are the restless souls of lonely drunks, exclusively women who died before reaching home.

Appears in the form of a very middle-aged woman with large breasts up to the navel. She doesn't have any clothes on, just a dirty rag that doesn't cover her dry, cracked body. Badiuli's face is ugly: bulging eyes, a short fleshy nose, thick drooping lips, hair knocked into a tangle.

Bake-kujira, Bake-kujira and Hone-kujira are all names of a creature from Japanese mythology that looks like a ghostly skeleton of a whale.

He swims near fishing villages accompanied by strange, unprecedented and ugly fish and birds.

His appearance portends mass deaths, fires, famine, and so on, the youkai himself can curse some fisherman who sees him, and he, in turn, infects his entire village with a curse.

In Tunguso-Manchurian mythology, the souls of people who died an unnatural death. 

Envious of people, they hunt for the living, lie in wait for them at the graves (where they gnaw the bones of corpses), climb into houses and, waiting for night, attack the sleepers, suck their blood or brain, peck out their eyes. Having taken possession of a person, busieh brings him to complete exhaustion.

In Indian mythology, the undead, an evil vampire-like spirit, traditionally depicted hunting people hanging upside down from the branches of trees growing in cemeteries and lands where the dead are cremated.

Can inhabit the dead and force them to act like living people. After the vetala inhabits the corpse, it ceases to decompose and walks around the world in the manner of a zombie from Voodoo mythology. The difference is that vetala is not interested in devouring brains or human flesh. His goal is simply to annoy and torment people out of envy.

A ghost from Icelandic folklore, who did not leave the world of the living after his death because of a passionate love for alcohol.

In Icelandic folklore, a fairly popular ghost is a draug, which has its own nickname. It belongs to the category of the dead, revived of their own free will (without a witchcraft call) and called in Icelandic by the word "afturganga" (literally, "returned from the other world" - from the verb "ganga aftur").

Brennivínsdraugurinn is the original Icelandic name for the ghost of Vinnik.

In Korean mythology the evil spirits, the ghosts of people who died a violent death.

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In the beliefs of the Kostroma region, the soul of unburied bones. She protects the body until the body is buried. It makes long-drawn howling sounds.

The ghost of a demon that lived in the temple many centuries ago. He looks like a hideous demon in monastic garb, crawling on all fours.

In Japanese folklore, it is a kind of undisturbed spirits of the dead-yurei, capable of inhabiting living people.

Gaki (yap. 餓鬼) — eternally hungry demons inhabiting one of the Buddhist worlds — Gakido. They are reborn by those who, during their life on Earth, gorged themselves or threw away quite edible food.

Gaki's hunger is insatiable, but they cannot die from it. They eat anything, even their children, but they can't get enough. Sometimes they get into the World of People, and then they become cannibals. They are depicted as "skin-and-bones" people.

In legends from the area around Hongjo-ji (Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture) a certain Isono no Gongoro, after winning a gambling game, was killed, and his spirit became an atmospheric ghostly light. 

On a nearby family farm, the appearance of such a light is a sign of impending rain, and the peasants who see it hurry to pick up their rice dryers.

In Japanese mythology, the ghosts of ancient warriors or nobles (as well as members of the imperial house) who died a terrible, painful death and then returned to haunt their enemies.

On the territory of Poland, Germany and Lithuania, the so-called cursed souls of dishonest surveyors. The creature can take on various disguises from a bright light flying between the grasses to people with glowing limbs or a lantern in their hands.

In ancient Chinese and Buddhist mythology, the spirit of the deceased, later the common name of demons. Gui looks like a human, but does not have a chin, does not cast a shadow, has the ability to suddenly become invisible, turns into animals and into a human in order to lure an unsuspecting traveler and kill him. In most cases, gui is the soul of the deceased by violent death or suicide.

In Yomihon there was a man who made himself a capital from the sale of Josen (sweets made from boiled juice Rehmannia Glutinosa) who was killed by a robber. It is said that the seller became the atmospheric ghost fire of Dzesenbi (, lit. "Fire Dzesen"), floating on rainy nights.

A group of ghostly hunter riders with a pack of dogs.

In Norse mythology, a group of ghostly hunter riders with a pack of dogs.

The Ghost of the contemporary Belarusian mythology, who lives in the area of the red swamp near Mozyr, Gomel region. It's a girl with eyes the color of muddy water, which invites a lost stranger a handful of wolf berries. Probably is fiction local writer known under the names of Andrew Gorbachuk and Ian Snegin.

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In Japanese mythology is the Ghost of a man who worked hard on the field until after his death, the new owner abandoned the fruits of his efforts. He appears in the night out of the mud like a humanoid figure with one eye and three fingers on hands. He wanders through the overgrown fields and piteously groaning "Give me back my rice field!".

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A creature from the folklore of the Southern Slavs. It is believed that this is the soul of a dead unbaptized baby.

It has a very thin and elongated spindle-shaped body with a disproportionately large head, but it can look like an animal (foreshadows the death of a pet) or a child (foreshadows the death of a person).

It can bleat a kid, cry a baby, meow, scream like a bird. Usually appears in cemeteries, along roads or right in the village. Considered a vampire. Sometimes it is believed that he attacks livestock.

In Japanese folklore, the ghosts of dead warriors, embodied in geckos. They appear in abandoned, overgrown ruins, where they lost their lives attacking and chasing intruders.

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Bringing in Icelandic folklore are divided into several types:

In Muslim mythology, this is a kind of jinn or fire elemental, which is the soul of a person who died a violent death (every drop of blood of the murdered person arises according to an ifrit). The body of the ifrit is made of basalt, bronze and molten lava. His figure is huge, bursts with heat and glows with a dark orange light. He flies, generates fire, is able to fulfill desires and cause confusion.

The ghost of a dead child from Karelo-Finnish mythology.

Caleuche This is a mythical ghost ship from mythology and local folklore on the island of Chiloe, in Chile. This is one of the most important myths about the culture of Chile.

According to Chilean legend, it is a large ghost ship sailing the seas around Chiloe (a small island off the coast of Chile) at night. 

According to one version, the ship is endowed with magical power and has its own consciousness and mind. It became a place of permanent residence of the souls of all those who died at sea.

The ghost of a samurai killed hiding in the skin of a bull.

In Russian and Belarusian mythology, a character, predominantly female, inhabiting a human dwelling and other buildings, bringing harm and trouble to the household and people.

The creature was obtained from the restless spirit of the deceased by "wrong death" or could be magically sent to the house by ill-wishers (by placing a magical object in it, more often a doll, which then came to life).

In Portuguese folklore, being in the form of a dog, which are dead souls.

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In the folklore of the British Isles , the Red Hat or The Red Hood is a humanoid creature of small stature, male, inhabiting ancient towers and castles in which crimes were committed.

It is believed that this is a restless spirit who likes to tint his cap in human blood. According to another version, it is a kind spirit, a meeting with which promises good luck.

A ghost that appeared on the territory of the village of Allanbank (Berwickshire in Scotland). He is described as a bloody ghostly figure of a woman in a lace dress.

In Komi mythology, a kulema or kulema is a person who has died, but continues to exist posthumously. 

Being in the world of the living, he has supernatural qualities and is a patron spirit for the living ("parent"), or an evil spirit if he died an unnatural death ("the dead man").

A creature from Mexican folklore. Presumably it appeared as a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Medea (according to legend, she drowned her own children in order to take revenge on her husband, after which she committed suicide). This restless spirit wanders the earth, exclaiming "Ay, mis hijos!" ("Oh, my children!").

Mexican mothers scare their children with this ghost:

"If you walk after sunset by the river, La Llorona will take you and drown you!".

"The Flying Dutchman" (Dutch: De Vliegende Hollander, Eng. The Flying Dutchman is a ghost sailing ship that cannot land and is doomed to sail the seas forever.

Usually people observe such a ship from afar, sometimes surrounded by a glowing halo. According to legend, when the Flying Dutchman meets another ship, his crew tries to send messages to people who have been dead for a long time.

In maritime beliefs, meeting him was considered a bad omen.

Larva (Latin larva — a ghost, originally a mask, a disguise, cf. with modern Italian. larva — larva) — a creature from ancient Roman mythology, the soul (spirit) of a deceased evil (according to other sources, any person who did not receive a proper burial), bringing misfortune and death to the living. She wanders at night and sends people crazy. Her breath is poisonous. It is believed that such a soul is able to inhabit women, and then they become walking and dissolute.

In Indian folklore, an evil spirit of a terrible kind inhabits the place of burning corpses. It becomes the spirit of a deceased child who was attracted to the sight of death, murder or torture during his lifetime. As a rule, they hunt at night, or during the day in the shade, preferring children or women.

In Japanese mythology it is giant mounds of skulls and severed heads that look on people. They begin as masses of individual skulls, which in the end they stick together and form a massive mound in the shape of a skull. Macoraba known only to those that do one thing: look at people. If you win the competition in the "peepers", the skull will disappear without a trace.

Its origin began in the history of the warlord Taira no Kiyomori (Taira no Kiyomori). He meets the creature in his garden.

A dwarf is an inhabitant of forests from Finnish mythology. Initially, they were considered spirits of the dead, but folklore about them has changed over time. In modern folklore, the word is commonly used to refer to goblins, hobgoblins, and dwarves.

A kind of vampire in Romanian mythology. A female Moroi is called moroaica. It's the Ghost of a dead person left the grave. The Moroi are living vampires, whereas Strigoi — vampires risen from the dead. Someone can call and a simple Ghost.

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In Gypsy folklore, "mullo" (mull). it means "dead, dead", but the same word is also called "living dead".

An undisturbed dead person can result from murder, as well as from non-observance of funeral rites. In the first case, mullo must track down his killer and take revenge, and only after that he can calm down.

In the second case, the ghost appears near his body and asks random passers-by to bury him and/or tell his family about his death.

He may have supernatural abilities: flight, superpowers, etc.

In the mythology and folklore of the Siberian Tatars, the spirit of a deceased sorcerer.

According to beliefs, he lives among people, looks no different from them. You can find out Myatsky if he sticks out his tongue, which reaches the ground.

Like ubyr and ubyrly, karchyk flies at night, turning into a fireball; drinks the blood of people, especially young girls who stay at home alone; sends diseases and epidemics. Only a mullah can save a person from Myatskaya with the help of a special prayer.

In the folklore of the Faroe Islands Nidagrisur is considered to be the spirit of an unbaptized child or often a child killed by the mother.

The size does not exceed a newborn baby, rounded shape, dark brown color and moves on all fours. It is a harbinger of death if it runs between the legs.

In Japanese mythology, dressed in rags, a skinny Ghost of a monk who wanders at night among the ruins of abandoned temples, ringing bells.

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In the legends on the island of Smee in Ehime Prefecture, there is a character who is said to be the spiritual fire of a deceased person.

In the village of Miyakubo of the same prefecture (now Imabari), they are known as atmospheric ghost lights appearing over the sea or on graves.

In Japanese folklore, the ghost of a maid unfairly accused of stealing a plate from a precious service. She comes into the house and counts the plates out loud. Whoever hears this account should die soon. After she says "nine," she lets out a terrifying scream and starts counting from the beginning.

According to Japanese folklore, this is a mysterious insect into which the spirit of an innocently murdered girl drowned in a well was supposedly reborn.

A ghost, the soul of a sinner, a suicide, or a person who died a violent death; an evil entity.

According to legend, it lives in places of death; it can appear in the form of an adult or a girl in white with heart-rending screams.

The belief is connected with the pre-Muslim ideas of the Tatars that a person's soul is dissolved in his blood; spilled on the ground, it turns into orek. If this blood is burned, the orek will not appear.

The custom of burying those forcibly killed at the place of their death was associated with the belief about oreka.

A mystical double of a man from the mythology of the Komi peoples. He appears from the first seconds of the baby's life and accompanies him until death, always being outside the human body. Only bystanders could see it, but not the person himself.

In the area Nobeoka (Miyazaki Prefecture) atmospheric ghost lights have been described. On a rainy night, two fireballs appear in a pond known as Misumaike Pond.

 It was said that the woman lent the osa (yarn guide on the loom) to another woman, but when she returned to pick it up, they quarreled and fell into the pond. They turned into atmospheric ghost fire.

Legend has it that misfortune happens to everyone who sees this fire.

The ghosts of Bobowicko of the castle in Silesian Voivodeship, Poland that look like rabbits with a girlish faces.

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The graveyard keeper or the Owner of the cemetery this creature exists in different mythologies under different names. The Slavs called him Batyushko Pogostny, Koshchey Kostyanoy, Host, the King of the Cemetery, Batka, the Owner of the Graveyard, etc. Sometimes it is believed that this is a female being. It depends on the version of origin that the people adhere to. There are several opinions about its origin.

Some believe that he is the first deceased to be buried in this cemetery, and someone, whose he is the personification of all the dead who are buried in it.

In Polish mythology small a malicious demon, who becomes deceased before birth or before baptism the baby. It's a little reminiscent of a fledgling chick, which is solely to harm pregnant women and new mothers by sucking their blood.

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The soul or spirit of a deceased person, manifested in a visible or other form in real life (from an invisible and intangible sense of presence to practically realistic observations).

The ghost of a girl of Italian-Canarian origin who did not want to marry an old man and crashed by jumping into a well. The body was buried in one of the rooms of the mansion, which became a museum.

It is believed that her restless spirit wanders the halls The Tenerife History Museum. Museum staff claim to have heard strange voices and repeated footsteps on the top floor of the building.

Santa Companha (Santa Compana, Estadea, Estantiga, Rolda, As da nuite, Pantalla, Avisóns, Pantaruxada, Güestia) is a procession of damned souls, harbingers of death, and they welcome a new soul who is ready to join their funeral procession. This is the Iberian (northwest Iberia: Galicia, Asturias (Spain) and Northern Portugal) version of the pan-European mythical motif known as Wild Hunting.

Shining boy or kindermorderinn is mostly found in Germany. He is the Ghost of a child who was killed by their own mother. Such restless spirits are harbingers of disaster and death. Usually they look like glowing naked little boys or (much less frequently) girls. Light can be different colors.

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The Dead Army in Scottish and Irish folklore. These restless spirits soar in the clouds, continuing to fight. You can hear their screams and the clang of weapons.

In the legends of Swire (Odachi, Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture), a beautiful girl named Kanko received many proposals for marriage but refused them all, as she liked someone else. One of her suitors buried her alive in the river Niida, and it turned into a atmospheric Ghost light that is able to fly. When there was later built a cement plant, was added a small temple of Kanko.

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In Swedish folklore, restless ghosts are the souls of sailors who died during a shipwreck. It is believed that during a storm you can hear their many thousands of roars.

In the folklore of the Philippines, vampirelike demon, turning into a newborn baby, crying in the jungle to attract travelers.

Usually he looks like an old dwarf with a wrinkled skin, a long beard and mustache, a flat nose and eyes the size of a large coin. It becomes an unborn child killed as a result of aborted pregnancies or nenalezeny or (after the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines) who died before baptism, or whose mother died before giving birth and was buried, which caused him "to be born in the land."

Able to fly over the forest, turning into a black bird.

A creature created by the shaman of the mythology of the Greenland Inuit. The Greenlandic eskimo language, the word "tupilaq" means soul or spirit of a deceased person. In Greenlandic eskimo mythology it was endowed with life doll from dead flesh.

Iglikov he was considered invisible spirit of a recently deceased person deprived of rest because of a violation of any taboo, who was only capable shaman.

In Japanese mythology, the restless spirit, transformed after death in a ghostly woodpecker, who tried to destroy Buddhist temples.

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According to Japanese legend, a vengeful spirit of a Buddhist priest, embodied in the iron rat.

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In Japanese mythology, the Ghost of a woman who died in childbirth. The Ghost can appear differently: as a woman with a baby, a pregnant woman or as blood-soaked walking corpse carrying an underdeveloped fetus. Sometimes, it just appears as a naked pregnant woman, terrible and bloody.

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In the mythology and folklore of the Turkic peoples, a bloodthirsty, evil spirit that inhabits people and controls them.

A character close to ubyr is found in the folklore of the Chuvash – vupar, among the Slavs – ghoul.

The person who is possessed by the ubyr is called "ubyrly keshe".

Among the West Siberian Tatars, ubyr is the spirit of a deceased sorcerer, a suicide. According to beliefs, it is impossible to catch a ubyr: sensing danger, it turns into a ball of fire, sparks and disappears.

In the Turkic-Tatar mythology, the spirit of a murdered man.

According to beliefs, the Uryak dwells where a murder has been committed, blood has been shed or the dead are buried. It can take the form of a person, a cloud, a ball of fire, a tornado.

It is not dangerous for people, but it can scare them. He constantly comes to the killer, knocks on the windows and doors of his house, is able to drive him crazy. You can get rid of the Uryak by prayer or swearing.

In Finland and the Scandinavian countries, there is a belief about the evil spirit of an infant killed or abandoned to die by its mother. They are also called Muling.

This is a creature from Japanese folklore. It appears most often near rivers and looks like a small light in the form of a bird, embraced by fire or glow. The translation of this name literally means "meaningless fire". It is believed that this is an undisturbed spirit whose body was buried without observing rituals.

The restless spirit, the ghost of Japan's school toilets. It is believed that this is a girl who died during an air raid on a school when she was playing hide-and-seek with her friends, or the restless spirit of a young girl who died at the hands of a rapist father or some other psychopathic maniac who found her hiding in the toilet.

Spirits from Japanese folklore. "Hidarugami" (Hidarugami) roughly translates as "hungry gods". Depending on the region, hidarugami can be called with the words "hidarutami" or "darashi" or "daru", but their behavior is the same.

It is believed that these are the souls of those who died of starvation, lost in the mountains, and whose bodies were never found. They wander in search of someone with whom they can share their agony of eternal hunger.

In Japanese folklore, the souls of the recently deceased take the form of mystical lights. They are also known as onibi (demonic lights").

It is assumed that such lights are pale blue or green spheres with long tails. It is usually said that hitodama appears in summer, near cemeteries, gloomy forests or next to a dying person, as a manifestation of the soul leaving the body (although some say that they saw these lights just before the birth of a child).

In Japanese mythology, the ghost of a woman in love, sucking the life force out of her lover.

This ghost appears the same as it was in life: a young woman in the prime of her life and beauty. And only those whose eyes are not clouded by love, or true believers can see through the mask of her true image: a rotting, fetid skeleton that has risen from the dead.

In Belarusian folklore, the last of those buried in the cemetery, acting as a defender of the village before Death. It can be considered a harbinger of death, although it tries its best to delay it.

In Komi-Zyryan tradition, a woman who drowned herself with long hair sitting in the moonlight on the branches of pine trees. She continuously spun, if in the night the moon was closed by clouds, the girl shrilly whistled and shouted: "White, light!" Then the clouds immediately parted.

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In Indian folklore, it is the spirit of a woman who died during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth. He becomes a vampire who lies in wait for lonely travelers.

Usually such spirits look like bogeymen with a huge head and hair sticking out in all directions, but they are able to take the form of beauties in order to attract men.

A mythical entity or ghost from the folklore of climbers of the former USSR countries. According to legend, the black climber was once a living person, but died in the mountains under mysterious circumstances and now wanders through the mountains, sometimes meeting with climbers and coming into contact with them.

It is described as a figure of a man with an indistinguishable face, covered with a black mask or just very dark, in black clothes.

A creature from Fino-Karelian mythology. Epyar (Äpärä), the spirit of a murdered child or the ghost of a dead child.

Later it is referred to in the meaning of "a child born out of wedlock."

The dead spirit in the form of a headless man in the mythology of the peoples of the Komi Republic. He appears at night, looking for his head on R. Mityureva (where "mort" is "person", "Yur"- "head", "VA", "the river"), the left tributary of R. Ilic flowing into the Pechora.

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Yurei (Japanese: Ray, otherworldly (unclear) spirit) - the ghost of a deceased person in Japanese mythology. A distinctive feature of the classic yurei is its lack of legs.

As a rule, yurei are: