A Camel and Three Strange Single-handed and Single-legged Creatures (Nasnas)

In Arab folklore, the Nasnas (Arabic: النَّسْنَاس an-nasnās) is a monstrous creature. 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".

In Somali folklore there is a similar creature called "xunguruuf" or "Hungruf". It is believed it can kill a person by just touching them and the person would be fleshless in mere seconds.

It was believed to be the offspring of a jinn called a Shiqq (الشق) 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.

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