Incubus (IN-cue-bus)
Variations: Ag Rog (“old hag”), Agumangia, ALP, AUFHOCKER, Barychnas (“the heavy breather”), Buhlgeist, Cauchmar (“trampling ogre”), Da Chor, Dab (“nightmare”), Ducci, DUENDES, EPHÉLÉS, Haegte, Haegtesse, Haehtisse, Hagge, Hegge, Hexendrücken, Hmong, Ka wi Nulita (“scissors pressed”), Kanashibara (“to tie with iron rope”), Kikimora, Kokma, Mab, Maere, Mair, Mar, MARA, Mare-Hag, Molong, More, Morúsi, Móry, Muera, Ngarat, Nightmare, Phi Kau (“ghost possessed”), Phi Um (“ghost covered”), Pnigalion (“the choker”), Preyts, Raukshehs, Tsog (“evil spirit”), Tsog Tsuam (“evil spirit who smothers”), Ukomiarik, Urum, Védomec, Zmora

All cultures from all over the world and from all time periods have reports of a type of vampiric demon that feeds off the sexual energy of humans (see ENERGY VAMPIRE). The incubus is generally described by its female victims as “feeling” male. At night this vampire assaults a woman while she is asleep, stealing her sexual energy from her. She seldom awakes during the attack but rather will experience the event as if it were an erotic dream.

Once an incubus has locked on to a woman (it prefers nuns), it can be very difficult to drive away, although there are many recommendations that the church offers in order to ward it off, such as performing an exorcism, relocating, repeatedly making the sign of the cross, or, as a last resort, performing an excommunication on the woman being assaulted. Traditional lore says that to hang GARLIC and a Druidstone (a stone with a natural hole through it) next to one’s bed will keep an incubus away.

Incubi can father children with their female victims; these offspring are known as CAMBIONS. There is a report of a man from Bologna, Italy, who staffed his entire brothel with incubi and the female equivalent of this vampiric creature, SUCCUBUS.

Source: Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 235; Doniger, Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions, 503; Jones, On the Nightmare; Robbins, Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology, 28, 125