Nasnas

A nasnas is a monstrous creature in Arab folklore. According to Edward Lane, the 19th century translator of The Thousand and One Nights, a nasnas is "half a human being; having half a head, half a body, one arm, one leg, with which it hops with much agility".

It was believed to be the offspring of a demon called a Shiqq and a human being. A character in "The Story of the Sage and the Scholar", a tale from the collection, is turned into a nasnas after a magician applies kohl to one of his eyes. The nasnas is mentioned in Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of Saint Anthony.

WILDMAN of West, Central, and Southeast Asia.

Etymology: Tajik (Persian), “wild man.”

Variant name: Nasua.

Physical description: Covered with fur. Face is 
bare. Wide fingernails. A winged variety is said 
to live on Ráïj (perhaps Borneo or Java in Indonesia; 
see AHOOL).

Behavior: Upright gait. Has the capability of 
speech. Exhibits curiosity about humans and is 
said to abduct them for sexual purposes. The 
people of the Vakhan area of Tajikstan used to 
catch and eat them.

Distribution: Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula; 
the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan; possibly 
Borneo, Indonesia.