Baobhan Sith

Baobhan Sith, also known as Baobhan Sidhe, Bavanshee, Baavan Shee or The White Woman of the Scottish Highlands, is a fairy Vampire who appears to men taking a the form of a beautiful woman in order to seduce them and drink their blood.

Description

• Scottish version of female Vampires and Succubi (as they lure men through sexual attraction), Baobhan Sith are very dangerous and evil and they act preying on human being, mostly hunters but unwary travellers passing by the Highlands as well.

According to legend, Baobhan Sith are mostly attracted to hunters (as their clothes might smell of blood) and to young men out after dark.

Etymology

The words baobhan sith (pronounced baa'-van shee) stand for fairy woman in Scottish Gaelic.

Behaviour

Baobhan Sith are even more withdrawn from society than are their common counterparts. They don’t care about power, they just want to feed and prey upon their victims, youth staying out until after dark. The fairies approach their victims by inviting them to dance with them, until they are exhausted because while dancing the sidhe, feed upon them, sucking their blood until death.

Element

They usually settle in forests or mountains, always in natural environment. Anyway Baobhan Sith will have a secured coffin somewhere underground so they can return to rest there during the day.

Shape

A lesser popular version tells they have hooves instead of feet, though they keep it hidden under their clothes. They may be of Human or Half-Eleven stock, but they always appear as beautiful women and enchanters, sometimes attacking in small groups with others of their kin. Baobhan Sith are supposed to be able to shift, but not into bats: their animal of choice is the wolf. |Shapeshifting will lessen their power as they won’t be able to use their glamour in animal form.

Powers

• They can speak any language their victim knows due to a form of telepathy, but they will sound as if they have a strange accent.

• Baobhan Sith don’t use fangs as most vampires do to draw blood, but their long and sharp finger nails. They look very ordinary until the vampire attacks, then turn into talons to win their victim.

• The so-called dancing vampires are capable of glamour and they use it to charm their victims through spells so they drain blood without the victim noticing. No male victim of theirs will turn into Baobhan Sith, as they are only women, but if they attack and kill a woman she will return as one of their kin. Most of them where previously enchanters or witches who keep on using their skills in death.

Weaknesses

Baobhan Sith are fairy creatures so they might be harmed and killed by iron. But their awesome beauty is hard to resist even for those who understand how dangerous they are. Also, if horse-riding hunters are surrounded by baobhan sith they can usually ward them off by staying on the horse, if they manage to resist the creatures’ beauty.

Main Belief

The most common tale tells of four young friends who after hunting decide to spend their night in an abandoned cottage. As darkness falls they set a fire in the hearth and they start singing and dancing. As one of them express his wish to have female companions with them, four women knock at their door and start dancing with the youth. As the baobhan sith start to attack their preys, the young man who was singing runs to the door, taking shelter between their horses. The creature that was running after him waits for him to get out of the safe circle formed by the animals but the man stays within until dawn breaks and the woman disappears shortly before. The man returns to the cottage to find his friends dead and blood-drained. He only saved his life because fairy creatures are traditionally afraid of iron for it can harm and kill them, and horses had iron shoes.

See Also

• Lhiannan Shee, the Manx version of baobhan sith.
• Irish Leanan Sidhe or Leanan Sith and the Irish Banshee, but do not mix them: they are not the different version of the same kind of fairy.
• Huli Jing, demon of the Chinese Lore

Links

• Monstrous

References

• Briggs, Katherine “An Encyclopedia of Fairies”, New York: Pantheon Books, 1976
• Guiley, Rosemary Ellen, “An Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves and other Monsters”, Checkmark Books, ISBN 0816046859