Z is for Žaltys

Wow! It's the last day of the A to Z Challenge. Can you believe April has flown by so quickly? Thank you all for stopping by for my posts. I wish I'd been able to check out more A to Z bloggers this year, but I've been in a deadline crunch with my publisher. See you all next year!

Name: Žaltys (means "grass snake")

Type: household spirit

Origin: Lithuanian mythology

Description: The žaltys is a non-venomous snake, sacred to the sun goddess Saulė. It represents fertility and is a guardian of the home. Some people kept it in special places of their home, believing it could bring good harvest and wealth. If someone killed the žaltys, it brought about great misfortune, but if people found one and gave it milk, they could befriend it and take it in their home.

What "Z" creatures have you heard of?

Y is for Yeth Hound

Name: Yeth hound (also called yell hound)

Type: black dog

Origin: Devon, England

Description: The yeth hound is a black headless dog, which they say is the spirit of an unbaptised child. It runs around in the woods at night crying and wailing.

Interesting Facts: The yeth hound is possibly one of the inspirations for the dog in The Hound of the Baskervilles. The headless dog is also mentioned in The Denham Tracts, which is a series of pamphlets on folklore published between 8146 and 1859.

What "Y" creatures do you know of?

X is for Xing Tian

Name: Xing Tian (means "punished one" or "he who was punished by heaven"

Type: giant

Origin: Chinese mythology


Description: Basically, he's a headless giant punished by heaven. *grins* Here's a roughly translated excerpt from Shanhaijing I came across on Wikipedia:

Xingtian fought against [Huang] Di. Di cut off his head, and the head was buried in the Changyang Mountains. But Xingtian, with his breasts as eyes, and his navel as mouth, continued to fight with his axe and shield.

Anyone know of any other "X" creatures? I'm very curious! lol