Liderc

(LIED-ric)

Variations: LÜDÉRC

In Hungary there is a vampiric creature that is very similar to the INCUBUS and SUCCUBUS in that it drains off the blood and life energies of a person through sexual intercourse. Called a lidérc, it is created in the most interesting way—by placing the first egg laid by a black hen under one's armpit and keeping it there until it hatches. The lidérc also acts as something of a familiar, as it is known for its ability to find treasure. It can shape-shift into a chicken or into a person who has one foot that is a chicken's foot. The lidérc will ask to do odd jobs for the person who hatched it. It is always asking for more to do, never satisfied with its given task and wanting to move on to the next one as quickly as possible. Keeping a lidérc out of one's home so that it cannot assault one during the night while asleep is as easy as hanging GARLIC on the bedroom door-knob. Killing a lidérc is also easy, for those who know how. They simply give it an impossible task to complete, such as cutting an odd length of rope or dehydrating water into a powder. The little vampiric creature will try its hardest, but eventually it will become so frustrated that it will suffer a stroke and die.

Source: Dömötör, Hungarian Folk Beliefs, 83; Hoppál, Eros in Folklore, 129; Pócs, Between the Living and the Dead, 48­49