In Africa and India, bantu is a word used to describe a vampiric- type creature. However, in many African languages, the word bantu is also used to mean “people”.

Source: Inter- university Committee, Bantu- Speaking Peoples of Southern Africa, 241; Summers, Vampire: His Kith and Kin, 10, 15-16; Werner, Myths and Legends of the Bantu;White, Speaking with Vampires, 9-12, 18-22, 51-54

Currently, the banshee is considered to be a type of fay with vampiric tendencies. However, originally the banshee was a singular entity, an ancestral spirit that wailed to announce an upcoming death for one of the five major families: the Kavanaghs, the O’Briens, the O’Connors, the O’Gradys, and the O’Neills.

The banshee’s mourning wail is said to be heard every now and again, and its wailing cry is still considered to be a death omen. Those who hear it fear that someone will die the following night.

Although seldom seen, the banshee is typically naked when washing shrouds at the riverbank, its long, pendulous breasts getting in its way. When not at the river, it hunts in the hills near lakes and running water for young men, wearing a gray cloak over a GREEN gown; its long white HAIR is worn loose and let to blow in the wind. If it can, it will lure its victim away to a secluded place and drink his blood.

If by chance a person should catch a glimpse of a banshee as it is washing shrouds, it is best advised not to run from it. Rather, he should wait quietly until it slings its breast over its shoulder and carefully sneak up behind it. Then, he should place one of its nipples in his mouth and pretend that he is nursing from it. He can declare to the banshee that it is his foster mother, and should it accept him as a foster child, it will answer any question that he has. A far less intimate way of gaining information from a banshee is to capture it and threaten it at sword point.