In
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
, the Nasnas ( ar, النَّسْنَاس ''an-nasnās'') is a monstrous creature. According to
Edward Lane, the 19th century translator of ''
The Thousand and One Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...
'', 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".
In Somali folklore there is a similar creature called "xunguruuf" or "Hungruf". 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
jinn
Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources)
– are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic mytho ...
called a Shiqq ({{lang, ar, الشق) 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
Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...
's ''
The Temptation of Saint Anthony''.
See also
*
Fachan
*
Monopod (creature)
Monopods (also called sciapods, skiapods, skiapodes) were mythological dwarf-like creatures with a single, large foot extending from a leg centred in the middle of their bodies. The names ''monopod'' and ''skiapod'' (σκιάποδες) are both ...
Sources
*
Robert Irwin ''The Arabian Nights: a Companion'' (Penguin, 1994)
*
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
''The Book of Imaginary Beasts'' (Penguin, 1974)
References
Arabian legendary creatures
Jinn