The Yara-ma-yha-who
An Australian story warns of a small red creature that lives in fig trees and drops down onto travellers who rest in the shade.
What was reported
The yara-ma-yha-who was described in collections of Aboriginal stories published in the early 20th century: a small, red, frog-like man with a huge head and no teeth, who lives in the branches of wild fig trees.
When a traveller rests beneath the tree, it drops down and holds on with suckers on its fingers and toes. In the story, the creature can carry people away, and those who are taken many times slowly become like it. Children were warned not to wander off alone.
Explanations offered
The story was published by a non-Indigenous collector, and its exact origins are uncertain. It's best seen as a warning tale for children. It became well known through books of world folklore.
- When
- Recorded in the early 1900s
- Where
- New South Wales, Australia
- Witnesses
- Stories recorded from Aboriginal tellers
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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