The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments

One of these is the Ghool, which is commonly regarded as a kind of Sheytán, or evil Jinnee, that eats men; and is also described by some as a Jinnee or an enchanter who assumes various forms. The Ghools are said to appear in the forms of various animals, and of human beings, and in many monstrous shapes; to haunt burial-grounds and other sequestered spots; to feed upon dead human bodies; and to kill and devour any human creature who has the misfortune to fall in their way: whence the term "Ghool" is applied to any cannibal. An opinion quoted by a celebrated author, respecting the Ghool, is, that it is a demoniacal animal, which passes a solitary existence in the deserts, resembling both man and brute; that it appears to a person travelling alone in the night and in solitary places, and, being supposed by him to be itself a traveller, lures him out of his way.[89] Another opinion stated by him is this: that, when the Sheytáns attempt to hear words by stealth [from the confines of the lowest heaven], they are struck by shooting stars; and some are burnt; some, falling into a sea, or rather a large river (baḥr), become converted into crocodiles; and some, falling upon the land, become Ghools. The same author adds the following tradition:--"The Ghool is any Jinnee that is opposed to travels, assuming various forms and appearances;"[90] and affirms that several of the Companions of the Prophet saw Ghools in their travels; and that 'Omar, among them, saw a Ghool while on a journey to Syria, before El-Islám, and struck it with his sword.--It appears that "Ghool" is, properly speaking, a name only given to a _female_ demon of the kind above described: the male is called "Ḳuṭrub."[91] It is said that these beings, and the Ghaddár, or Gharrár, and other similar creatures which will presently be mentioned, are the offspring of Iblees and of a wife whom God created for him of the fire of the Samoom (which here signifies, as in an instance before mentioned, "a smokeless fire"); and that they sprang from an egg.[92] The female Ghool, it is added, appears to men in the deserts, in various forms, converses with them, and sometimes prostitutes herself to them.[93]