| This section taken
directly from:
"Persian Beliefs and Customs" by Henri Masse. HRAF
New Haven, ©1954.
p.344-346
Divs (Demons)
"Popular lore attributes to them a tall stature, frizzy
hair, a snub nose, thick and pendulous lips, long nails and a furry body,
and adds wings and horns. They once infested the world and tormented
human beings fiercely; then Solomon (Solaiman) put an enchantment on them
with talismans until the end of the world.
Without completely depriving the divs of the
power to harm, the enchantment performed by Solomon greatly diminished it.
On the one hand, in fact, the div seems to be much less dreaded than the
djinn, since the one is used against the other by painting figures
of divs on the walls of baths, their function being to frighten off
djinns. On the other hand, the enchantment relegated the divs
to isolated spots. Men should avoid meeting them, for they bear a
deep grudge and take revenge for mere trifles.
For example, they hide in the bottoms of wells and
beside them keep a carefully plugged flagon which contains their soul.
If it is broken, they die immediately. But they are mainly to be
feared in desert regions, as in the Valley of the Angel of Death.
The valley contains several monsters.
They most numerous and worst types are the ghoul and the
afreet. The latter seeks to separate travelers from caravans
by assuming the form or voice of a friend or relative, in order to devour
them.
The palis (licker of feet) attacks a man when he
is asleep in the desert and licks the soles of his feet until it has drunk
all the man's blood. Once it was duped by two muleteers from Isfahan
who, when they were caught in the desert at night, slept foot to foot and
covered with the mantles. The palis circled around them in
vain and finally went away, saying: "I have explored 1,033 valleys, but I
have never seen a man with two heads."
Devalpa is an old man who
stands at the edge of the road and sighs. He addresses the following
request to all passers-by: "Take me on your shoulders." If anyone
picks him up, three meters of legs like snakes suddenly come out of
Devalapa's belly and twine around the bearer. Devalpa
takes a solid grasp, and gives the following order: "Work for me."
In order to get rid of him, you have to get him drunk.
The nesnas does no evil, and is content merely
with causing fear. A man was riding horseback between Shiraz and
Bushire, for example, when he saw a lamb by the side of the road. He
picked it up and put it across his saddle. A little while later he
looked at it and saw to his great fright that it had grown so big that it
was dragging on the ground on both sides. He threw it off and fled
as fast as he could.
Another div stops travelers, makes them sit down,
puts his head on their knees and invites them pick the lice off him.
If a traveler refuses, it is tantamount to a death warrant.
As for the ghoul (ogre), it is believed in Mazanderan
that an arrow will kill it, but that a second arrow will bring it back to
life.
Certain physical ailments are imputed to the divs.
The div-resa is a cutaneous eruption following a bad dream; the
"calamity of the div" (afat-e div) designates the sores on the lip
which are caused by fever. "
This section taken directly from:
"Persian Beliefs and Customs" by Henri Masse. HRAF New Haven,
©1954.
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