The Shtriga

The Shtriga is a creature directly from the nightmares of people. Similar to the Roman Strix, the Shtriga is now a common word for witch. A creature from Albanian lore, the Shtriga takes the form of a human by day and feeds on spiritus vitae, which is Latin for 'breath of life,' at night.* This creature normally feeds on small children.** Only the Shtriga could cure those she had victimized by spitting in their mouths. There is also mixed lore about the creature being able to shapeshift into other creatures such as owls, which is why the screech owl has a reputation of being very unlucky.

A Shtriga feeding on a child.
The affected then slip into a coma, where they become open to diseases and die from something as curable as pneumonia. Shtriga's are often crafty creatures, blending perfectly into society. A telltale sign of one is, of course, a multitude of sick children, but also, a young girls hair going white. It was once a practice to, if they believed a Shtriga was around, then put everybody into a large place, normally a church, and put a cross of pig bones up. Only people can leave, and the Shtriga was left inside. Another Shtriga test is garlic. A Shtriga will refuse to eat anything infused with garlic.

There are different manners of killing the Shtriga, and the lore about them is pretty fuzzy. Some suggest that you they can only be killed when they are in their human disguise, and others say that the only time you can kill one is when it is feeding. A common lore is to make a cross of pig bones and put on a door. Then they can't leave the house, and can be killed. 


A way of protection against these creatures is a little strange. Eventually she will vomit some of the blood she had drank from her victims. According to lore, if you scrape up some of this vomit onto a silver coin, wrap the coin in cloth, and wear it always, Shtriga can't harm you.

Scientist worked out a rational for the creatures, believe that the overly protective mothers who wrapped their children up for protection against the Shtriga, caused their kids to experience what is now called crib-death.


This is a clip from the series Supernatural, showing
a Shtrga that looks like the Emperor from Star Wars. It 
is none-the-less, a good representation of what they do.


*The scary part is that it can take the form of any human, although it mostly chooses old woman, probably springing about the whole 'witches as crones' theories.

**Probably because the life is stronger in a small child, they are more likely to believe in them, or because they are easier to subdue.



Work Cited

http://mdhadiiskandar.blogspot.com/2009/04/another-one-on-shtriga.html
http://thedemoniacal.blogspot.com/2010/07/shtriga.html
http://www.supernatural-fan-wiki.com/page/Shtriga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtriga

8 comments:

  1. shtriga's are very real. they are as real as you and i. the reason I say this is because my little sister was being suckled by one when she was a new born. My mother didn't believe in witches back than, that was until she moved with my father to Dominican Republic. Everyone believes in witches over there. In the community where my family lived for for 4 years, they knew a old lady who lived three blocks away from my home. everyone knew she was a witch. They don't have a different name for these kinds of witches over there(D.R) a witch is a witch. when shed touch a flower they'd die she could appear inside your house without opening a single door.

    Anyway, my mother had told my paternal grandmother about what was happing to my little sister. when my grandmother told her what was happing and gave her some instructions. Basically my mother put my sisters crib in her room that night. so to check on my baby sister. late that night my mother heard the baby crying. she woke up quickly. to see the old lady standing next to the window. walking away slowly. she saw her clearly taking her time, passing by the tree windows of her room.
    my mother woke my father up right away. he'd checked the property and hadn't seen a thing.
    after that my baby sister was left alone. you see one of the instructions was to leave a open scissor in the form of a cross under the crib.
    what bothered my mother the most was how this women walked away. as if shed know shed get away. like shed have full control of the situation. as if it were normal. it creeps my out even thinking about it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. shtriga's are very real. they are as real as you and i. the reason I say this is because my little sister was being suckled by one when she was a new born. My mother didn't believe in witches back than, that was until she moved with my father to Dominican Republic. Everyone believes in witches over there. In the community where my family lived for for 4 years, they knew a old lady who lived three blocks away from my home. everyone knew she was a witch. They don't have a different name for these kinds of witches over there(D.R) a witch is a witch. when shed touch a flower they'd die she could appear inside your house without opening a single door.

    Anyway, my mother had told my paternal grandmother about what was happing to my little sister. when my grandmother told her what was happing and gave her some instructions. Basically my mother put my sisters crib in her room that night. so to check on my baby sister. late that night my mother heard the baby crying. she woke up quickly. to see the old lady standing next to the window. walking away slowly. she saw her clearly taking her time, passing by the tree windows of her room.
    my mother woke my father up right away. he'd checked the property and hadn't seen a thing.
    after that my baby sister was left alone. you see one of the instructions was to leave a open scissor in the form of a cross under the crib.
    what bothered my mother the most was how this women walked away. as if shed know shed get away. like shed have full control of the situation. as if it were normal. it creeps my out even thinking about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There used to be an old lady that lived in my moms town when she was little. everyone thought she was a shtriga. She was seen naked on her roof at night preforming some kind of ritual. My mom said she once came to her in her sleep.. she couldn't breath or move.

    My mom and her cousins (it's a really small town) used to tease her. They would see her in the woods and throw rocks and her while hiding in the bushes. they were kids, what can you do.

    She said that once people saw her and a group of others milking the moon. now hold on, basically that means that they were all chantin something, using black magic, and they literally pulled something from the sky. maybe it wasn't the moon but it was something. She also has a son, Everytime he brought a gir home or tried to get married she would drive them away.

    When I went to Albania my brother who is 3 years older than me (17 now) I think 12 then, he saw her. On her roof. Naked. Chanting something and walking around.

    Shtrigas are real, real as can be.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think I might be hunting one are they common in United States utah

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Might be hunting one as well, they have to be common in utah

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    2. How is the hunt going? Any development or leads?

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    3. I was messing with a strobe light, and shure as s%it one of these Things revealed it self. how the heck do I cast it out or murder it?

      t

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  5. In ALBANIA they exists specially in small towns

    ReplyDelete