A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Ghormuhas have horse-like heads, humanlike trunks and arms, and a single human-shaped leg each. They capture the hunter Somai, feed him well and make him race against them as a test of his readiness to be eaten. Their speed makes escape difficult, but Somai discovers that they cannot negotiate the embankments between rice fields as well as he can.

He escapes across the embankments while his pursuers stumble. The narrator attributes the account of their bodies and customs to his return. This is a country of imagined beings within a tale, not an identification of a real neighboring people as cannibals.

Horse-headed, one-legged man-eatersSpecific Santal narrative witness
01

Origins & earliest records

Santal Parganas, eastern India; source-specific Santali storytelling

02

Records & interpretation

Complete relevant tale and preface directly read; exact locator identified.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Folklore of the Santal Parganas

    Cecil Henry Bompas, translator; O. Bodding, collector; Sagram Murmu, principal Santali writer credited in preface · 1909

    XXXV, The Ghormuhas, pp. 132–134

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

Cecil Henry Bompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909)

Historical Santal narrative collection. XXXV, The Ghormuhas, pp. 132–134

Relevant tales completely read along with full preface. Bodding/Murmu/Bompas mediation explicitly retained; original Santali manuscripts not independently inspected. Narrative supernatural claims distinguished from independently verified history or medicine.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical translation of collected narrativesBompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909), XXXV, The Ghormuhas, pp. 132–134Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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