Baital

Name: Baital

Features: Human looking, dirty brown skin and bat wings

Source: Hindu Folklore

Habitat: India

The Baital were half-man and half-bat creatures that hung by their toes from the branches of mimosa trees that were used as burial grounds.

These bat-like mythical creatures were covered with hairy brown skin and had large and creepy batwings protruding from their backs.

These undead monsters were very thin looking with their skin stretched tightly over their bones making them seem like dried up corpses.

Their eyes never showed a glimmer or sparkle, they always appeared completely dead. Much like other vampires, their bodies were cold, clammy and without blood.

Instead of drinking the blood of their victims, these mythical beasts would take over their corpses. They were also said to be able to drive people mad and known to kill children.

Legend tells of a holy man asking King Vikram to retrieve a corpse from a nearby mimosa tree. When this king searched the grounds around the tree, he discovered that the corpse has been taken over by one of these bat-like beasts.

On their journey back to the holy man, the talking corpse tells the king stories that end in a riddle. Every time the king solved the riddle, the human-sized bat-like creature would return to his tree. This happens 24 times.

The king wisely chooses to remain silent after the 25th riddle, so the Betal remained and awarded him with some important information.

He tells the king that the holy man’s request is but a trick and that the holy man is planning on killing him when he returns. With this information, the king turns the tables on the holy man’s plans by chopping off his head first.

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