Azéman

(OZ-amen)

This is the name that is given to both the vampire and the werewolf in Suriname folklore. If a woman becomes infected with azéman blood, she will discover that she is now an azéman herself. By day she is a normal-looking person, but at night she transforms into a bat, a ghostly apparition, or she shape-shifts into a nocturnal predatory animal.

To prevent attack from an azéman, sprinkling seeds on the ground will cause it to stop whatever it is doing to count them, as it is inexplicably compelled to do so. To stop it from entering into one's home, a person can simply prop a broom across the doorway, as it will create a mystical barrier that the azéman cannot cross.

Source: American Folklore Society, Journal of American Folklore, vol. 30, 242; Benjamins, Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch West-Indië, 63, 140; Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, 32; Shepard, Encyclopedia of Occultism, 116