
Kayit No. 050 ci 446
Nachzehrer
Ñu ngi koy wooye itam: Nachtzehrer, shroud eater
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
Jëkk a bindu
1800
The word dates from the 19th century; the belief is several centuries olderCosaan
German
Almaañ, PoloñLan moo ko waral
Dee wu bon walla suul gu baaxul
Folk explanations blame mistakes at burial, such as giving the dead some of the living's own belongings.Naka ngay doone benn
Burying a person with grave goods taken from the living, or with their name still on the burial clothes, was thought to risk it.
Naka lay yëngoo
Yënguwul lu dul tuuti
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.Xel
Am na tuuti xel
Kañ la jëkk a feeñ?
The word dates from the 19th century; the belief is several centuries older
notu gëstu
Li sours yi wax
Sours yi
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