It's believed that they can slip inside keyholes and through cracks by turning into sand. This is how they enter peoples bedrooms and sit on the chests of sleepers, depriving them of air.
They often appear to look like willowy shaped thin women dressed in pale nightgowns. These Nattmara or Nightmare women have sickly complexions, filthy matted hair, predatory eyes and sharp teeth. Some versions portray the Mara with having mostly dark hair and long fingernails.
People think the origins of the Mara are souls of angry, lost and abandoned children who seek revenge. Others believe they're souls of women who've been killed, wronged, cheated or died in childbirth.
A strange custom or lost tradition advised women that they could give birth safely if they wear a placenta from a horse on their head. Then giving birth while wearing a placenta from a horse meant that the birth would be easy. However, there was a different kind of risk that the sons born from a woman wearing a placenta will become cursed werewolves. Daughters born will become Nattmara.
There is also a tale that a bunch of women with abilities in healing arts and midwifery skills turned into wolves on a fatal night. Those midwives were Mara in disguise.
The Mara are similar to the Banshees as they're omens of death.
If a dirty doll is left in the livingroom of a house, someone in the family would die of TB. To protect oneself from a Nattmara, leave shoes on the floor beside the bed, or nail a horseshoe on the bed board. This prevents the Mara from getting close as you sleep.
Howls ^^
No comments:
Post a Comment