Adze - Firefly Vampire

We have all heard that a vampire could take the form of a bat. Even at present, majority of the tv shows and movies, associate them with bats. In Togo and Ghana, there is a West African ethnic group called “Ewe”. In their tales, it is said that among them, vampires named “Adze” exist.

But unlike most of the vampires, adze takes the form of a firefly when they are in the wild and when want to disguise. If one caught the firefly, it would turn into the human form with a hunchback, sharp talons, and jet-black skin. They can feed both in their firefly form and human form. But the killing in their human form is far too savage. Once in the human form, they would kill their victim, drink their blood, and eat the heart and liver. The Adze found children a favorite to feed from. But in their firefly form, they drink blood from people as they slept. Then the victim would fall sick and die.

Some say that they can feed on palm oil and coconut water as well. For that they invade village supplies. In the process they often find themselves human victims as well. Even though they feed on these supplies, it can’t help them to survive. They will become weak and eventually die if they do not feed on humans.

If the Adze stops from feeding from long periods of time, they go on a feeding madness for blood before they die. If they feed on humans in this state, the victims will become infected with a deadly disease if the vampire decided not to kill them. Even though blood is vital for their survival, they do not need to drain all the blood out of the victim or eat his liver and heart.

One of the specialties of the vampire is that they can possess humans regardless their gender. Once the human becomes a host, he become sort of as a witch. A sorcerer is the Adze’s favorite to possess, as it obtains the sorcerer’s magic as well. Together with adze’s power and the magic of the sorcerer, they could accomplished much more. The adze's influence would negatively affect the people who lived around their host.

A person is suspected of being possessed when the person is suddenly dominated by jealousy. The most common situations are, women with brothers, especially if their brother's children fared better than their own. Old people if the young suddenly started dying and the old stayed alive and the poor if they envied the rich.

The adze's effects are generally felt by the possessed victim's family or those of whom the victim is jealous. When host was captured, even if it is a sorcerer, the vampire transforms to its original human form.

Adze can be made powerless by using a special combination of coconut water and palm oil. For it to work, the adze should be occupied by a human host. After capturing, the vampire get a painful and slow death.

It is believed deadly effects of mosquitoes and malaria are causes of adze. There is no way to be protected from the vampire spirit. And there is no way to survive if a human becomes a victim of the vampire. Capturing and killing an adze is much more difficult since he has a power of his own. Because there is no way of avoiding an adze, they are a significant threat.