Quvdlugiarsuaq
Variations: Auseq
Tales from Greenland, notably Aasiaat, tell of a gigantic maggot called Quvdlugiarsuaq. It is so big that the legend of Aqigsiaq tells of a dwelling place that survived an entire winter on the blubber of one quvdlugiarsuaq.
The Auseq is a similar creature described as a giant caterpillar. It is dangerous to humans.
Birket-Smith, K. (1924) Ethnography of the Egedesminde District. Bianco Lunos Bogtrykkeri, Copenhagen.
Greenland, Insects, Inuit, Plains and Fields, Q, Worms
Insect folklore, Inuit folklore, Maggots, Worm folklore, Worms
Opimachus
Variations: Chargol, Ophiomachis, Ophiomachus, Opimacus, Opymachus, Ibis, Snake-eater; Attachus (probably); Opinicus, Epimacus (probably)
There is only one Biblical mention of the insect called chargol, in Leviticus 11:22, as one of the four insects that are safe for consumption. It has been assumed to mean "beetle" in some translations. Other identifications include a katydid or bush cricket, a species of Gryllus cricket, or the wart-eating cricket.
The Septuagint's translators borrowed heavily from Aristotle in an effort to give names to all the animals in the Bible. An Aristotelian account of locusts fighting and killing snakes (perhaps based on stories of insects feeding on dead snakes?) gave the chargol the name of ophiomachus, "snake fighter". This in turn became the opimachus or opimacus, described by Thomas de Cantimpré and subsequently Albertus Magnus as a worm that attaches itself just below a snake's head. It cannot be removed and kills the snake.
By the time the opimachus or opymachus was described in the Ortus Sanitatis (citing Thomas), it had become confused beyond recognition. While Thomas and Albertus list it among the insects, it is now placed with the birds as a small fowl. It is depicted as a quadrupedal griffin with a long pointed beak and large rabbit's ears. It has longer hind legs to permit it to jump. It may or may not be the same as the bird known as attachus.
Dapper says that the ophiomachi or ibides (ibises) are birds that live in Ethiopia and are so named because they eat snakes.
Finally, the long journey of the snake-fighter comes to an end with the opinicus or epimacus, a variety of generic heraldic griffin whose name is almost certainly derived from a Levitical insect.
de Cantimpré, T. (1280) Liber de natura rerum. Bibliothèque municipale de Valenciennes.
Coogan, M. D.; Brettler, M. Z.; Newsom, C.; Perkins, P. (eds.) (2010) The New Oxford Annotated Bible. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dapper, O. (1686) Description de l'Afrique. Wolfgang, Waesberge, Boom, & van Someren, Amsterdam.
Harris, T. M. (1833) A Dictionary of the Natural History of the Bible. T. T. and J. Tegg, London.
Magnus, A. (1920) De Animalibus Libri XXVI. Aschendorffschen Verlagbuchhandlung, Münster.
Unknown. (1538) Ortus Sanitatis. Joannes de Cereto de Tridino.
Vinycomb, J. (1906) Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art, with Special Reference to their Use in British Heraldry. Chapman and Hall, London.
Air and Sky, Birds, Desert and Cave, Ethiopia, Hybrids, Insects, Israel, O, Saharan Africa, Sub-saharan Africa, Worms
Bird folklore, Birds, Hybrids, Insect folklore, Worm folklore, Worms
Variations: Snow-worm
The Zulāl or Snow-worm is a small worm, the length of a human finger, that breeds in snow. It has yellow spots. The water inside of a zulāl is cold, pure, and refreshing, so it is often captured by humans to drink its contents. The term zulāl is also used to mean cold water on its own, without worms involved. This is now the current use of the term in Arabic and the snow-worm is all but forgotten.
While a zulāl is a worm and unclean, the water inside it is of exceptional pureness and is perfectly safe to drink.
Al-Damiri, K. (1891) Hayat al-hayawan al-kubra. Al-Matba'ah al-Khayriyah, Cairo.
Jayakar, A. S. G. (1908) ad-Damiri's Hayat al-Hayawan (A Zoological Lexicon). Luzac and Co., London.
Forest and Mountain, Middle East, Worms, Z
Middle Eastern folklore, Worm folklore, Worms
Bitoso
Bitoso, "The Faster" or "Fasting One" (although some accounts mistakenly refer to "The Fastening One") is one of the children of Ana, a Keshali fairy of Roma folklore who was coerced into bearing the offspring of the King of the Loçolico. As with his siblings, he is the cause of a number of diseases and ailments, although Bitoso has the dubious distinction of being the mildest and least harmful of the lot.
When Schilalyi moved on to molesting her own siblings, Melalo recommended that the King eat garlic on which he had urinated. After the King visited Ana, she give birth to Bitoso, who became Schilalyi's husband.
Bitoso is a little worm with multiple heads (some accounts specifically refer to four heads) who causes headaches, stomachaches, and lack of appetite; his gnawing causes earache and toothache. He and Schilalyi's children cause colic, cramps, tinnitus, and toothache. Bitoso himself is mercifully innocuous compared to his siblings.
Bitoso's pedigree is one that goes back centuries. The folk knowledge that worms cause toothache dates back at least to the Babylonian civilization, in the tale of the worm's creation. After Anu created the heavens, the heavens in turn created the Earth, the Earth created the rivers, the rivers created the canals, the canals created the marsh, and the marsh created the worm, the worm came before Shamash and Ea, demanding the food allotted to it. It refused figs and pomegranates, instead choosing to live between the teeth and the jawbone, destroying the blood vessels, seizing the roots, and ruining the strength of the teeth.
Clébert, J. P. (1976) Les Tziganes. Tchou, Paris.
Clébert, J. P.; Duff, C. trans. (1963) The Gypsies. Vista Books, London.
Kanner, L. (1931) Teeth of Gods, Saints, and Kings. Medical Life, 131, August 1931.
Meyers Brothers Druggist (1910) Demons of Disease. Meyers Brothers Druggist, v. 31, p. 141.
Pavelčík, N. and Pavelčík, J. (2001) Myths of the Czech Gypsies. Asian Folklore Studies, v. 60, pp. 21-30.
B, Children of Ana, Czech Republic, Darkness and Night, Demons, House and Home, Hungary, Multiple heads, Romania, Slovakia, Worms
Demons, Roma folklore, Worm folklore
Tçaridyi
Variations: Tcaridyi, Tharidi
Tçaridyi, "Hot" or "Burning" is one of the children of Ana, sired unnaturally by the King of the Loçolico as a spouse for Tçulo. As one of the Roma demons of disease, she torments humanity to this day.
Tçulo proved to be more troublesome than expected, persecuting even his own sister Lilyi. To distract him, Melalo told his father to conceive a wife for the little urchin. What the King used to induce Tçaridyi's conception is unknown, but it probably involved worms of some kind.
Tçaridyi herself takes the form of a little hairy worm or caterpillar. She only infests women, slithering through their arteries and veins. The long hairs on her body detach as she moves, causing fever and inflammation, especially puerperal fever. Her union with Tçulo produced women's diseases; otherwise, Tçulo and Tçaridyi torture humans but rarely kill them.
Children of Ana, Czech Republic, Darkness and Night, Demons, House and Home, Hungary, Roma, Romania, Slovakia, T, Worms
Shahmat al-Ard
Variations: Kharȃti
Shahmat al-Ard, the "fat of the earth" or "grease of the earth", is a worm that contracts into a bead if touched. Al-Qazwini, who called it the Kharȃti, said that it was long, red, and lived in damp areas. On the other hand, al-Zamakshari believed it to be small, white, speckled with red spots, and resembling both a white fish and the hand of a woman. Hurmus said that it smelled good, and was immune to fire, being capable of crawling through a bonfire unharmed.
Its primary value is in the variety of medicinal benefits it provides. Its fat, if painted onto one's skin, will protect from fire. The entire worm, dried and eaten, cures jaundice and scrofula; dried and taken with water, causes immediate delivery in the case of a difficult birth. Roasted and eaten with bread, it dissolves bladder-stones. A shahmat al-ard reduced to ashes, mixed with oil, and applied to the head will cure alopecia and restore hair growth.
Nonetheless it is not generally eaten, since as a filthy worm it is unclean and unfit for human consumption.
Jayakar, A. S. G. (1908) Ad-Damiri's Hayat al-Hayawan (A Zoological Lexicon), vol. II, part I. Luzac and Co., London.
Middle East, Pond and River, S, Worms
Fire folklore, Middle Eastern folklore