Yara-ma-yha-who
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In Australian Aboriginal mythology, a yara-ma-yha-who is a small, vampiric man or humanoid monster, about four feet in height, with smooth red skin, a coat of short red fur, a round belly, and a large head with glowing red eyes and a massive mouth. It has no teeth and swallows its food whole, like a snake. The tips of its fingers and toes are like the suckers of an octopus, which it uses to grasp its prey and drink its victim's blood. It lives in fig trees and jumps on top of people (especially stray children) who rest beneath the tree. It would take just enough blood to weaken the victim to the point that they could not move, but not so much that the victim would die. It would later return to swallow the incapacitated victim whole. After feeding, the yara-ma-yha-who would then drink large quantities of water and accidentally regurgitate the still-living victim. A child who did not struggle was said to have the best chance of surviving being swallowed up and spit out by the creature: if the child pretended to be dead, the monster would ignore him or her and go to sleep, but if the child tried to fight or flee, the monster would swallow them back up. Some people were caught more than once in this fashion, each time becoming shorter and hairier until they themselves turned into a yara-ma-yha-who.