
Faele Nom. 050 ya 446
Nachzehrer
Gape e bidiwa: Nachtzehrer, shroud eater
Dinaane tsa setso le ditlhamaneBaswi ba ba tsogilengE batla e sa tshikinyegeLoso kgotsa phitlho e e sa siamang1500 go ya go 1899
The Nachzehrer is the German shroud-eater, a corpse that kills without getting up. By chewing its grave clothes it was thought to drag its surviving relatives after it one by one, by malice or simply from wanting company. The belief gave communities a reason to open graves during outbreaks of disease and helped shape learned debate about the 'masticating dead' in the 18th century. It represents the stationary end of the revenant spectrum, where the corpse is dangerous but does not walk.12
E kwadilwe la ntlha
1800
The word dates from the 19th century; the belief is several centuries olderTshimologo
German
Jeremane, PolandSe se e bakang
Loso kgotsa phitlho e e sa siamang
Folk explanations blame mistakes at burial, such as giving the dead some of the living's own belongings.O fetoga yone jang
Burying a person with grave goods taken from the living, or with their name still on the burial clothes, was thought to risk it.
E tsamaya jang
E batla e sa tshikinyege
It need not leave the grave at all: lying there, it chews its shroud and draws the life out of its kin at a distance.Botlhale
Botlhale bo bonnye
E tlhagile la ntlha leng?
The word dates from the 19th century; the belief is several centuries older
dikwalo tsa patlisiso
Se metswedi e se buang
Metswedi
Ntlha nngwe le nngwe mo tsebeng e e tswa mo metsweding e, e kwadilwe ka mafoko a rona. O bone phoso? Re bolelele kwa [email protected].