Churel

Ñu ngi koy wooye itam: chudail, churail, petni, shakchunni, pichal peri

Léeb ak cosaanNéew yu dundaatDafay soppikuDee wu bon walla suul gu baaxul1500 ba 1899

The churel is the dangerous dead woman of South Asian folklore, the returned form of someone who died in childbirth or through ill-treatment. She seduces and destroys men, beginning with her own male relatives. The precautions taken against her are aimed squarely at the corpse: it is pinned, bound, broken and buried face down under thorns and stones. Those measures closely match anti-revenant burial practice in Europe.1

Xeexal ko

Jëkk a bindu

1880

Described in colonial-era ethnography, including William Crooke's study of North Indian folklore (1894)

Cosaan

South Asian

End, Pakistaan, Bangalades, Nepaal

Lan moo ko waral

Dee wu bon walla suul gu baaxul

A woman who dies in childbirth, in pregnancy or during ritual impurity, or by cruelty, returns.

Naka ngay doone benn

Death in or around childbirth, or any unnatural death; in Bengal, dying unmarried or with desires unfulfilled.

Naka lay yëngoo

Dafay soppiku

Waits near trees and lonely places and leads men away into woods or hills.

Xel

Am xel

Fi mu néewe doole

filling the grave with thorns and piling stones on top
nailing or binding the fingers and toes with iron
breaking the legs, sewing the eyes shut with thorns and burying the body face down
sowing mustard seed along the funeral route
carrying the body out through a side door