Bori

Variations: Iskoki

In northwest Nigeria, Africa, the Hausa people tell tales of a type of vampiric nature spirit called bori. Described as looking like a human with hoofed feet or no head, the bori is not always an evil being. Occasionally it will bless a person with good luck but can as easily curse a person by sending them diseases.

Although the bori can shape-shift into a python, it oftentimes shape-shifts into a friend or family member of its intended prey in order to lure them into a trap. If ever people are unsure as to whether they have in fact coincidently met someone they know deep in the jungle, it is advised to look at his footprint. The tracks that a bori makes when it is in human guise are those of a rooster. Should a person be tricked or ambushed, his chances of survival are excellent, as it seldom kills those it feeds upon, choosing to drain away just enough life essence in order to survive. These victims often have a dreamy look upon their faces and behave in a trancelike fashion.

If someone can manage to learn a bori's truename, it will become bound to him and must do his bidding. However, should its owner ever accidently burn it, even with the stray embers from a cigarette, the bori will be set free from its magical enslavement. Immediately upon gaining its freedom, it will turn on its former master with a savage rage, killing him and his entire family if it can.

Bori can also possess a person, although to what ends, no one is sure. The Hausa believe that when a woman is possessed, anything she may do or say—even if she speaks out against her husband or the government—cannot be held against her.

Source: Hill, Rural Hausa, 212­13; Tremearne, Ban of the Bori, 382; Tremearne, The Tailed Head-Hunters of Nigeria, 254