Ferij aqra'a (bald lieutenant-general) is a river-jinni who likes to play tricks on fishermen and river-dwellers but is not as dangerous as the s'iluwa. Like her, he possesses either a fish tail or weak legs. He looks like an old man, but his head is red and bald and the hair of his beard is green. A Bedouin of the Shammar, a large tribe divided between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, there's a sheikh who, while camped beside the Euphrates, noticed that his mare, previously tireless and strong, had suddenly became weak and dispirited. Using an old folk remedy to invigorate the horse, he smeared some pitch on his back one night. The next morning they found a ferij aqra'a stuck on the mare's back, struggling in vain to escape after his nocturnal ride. The sheikh's people fell on the monster and killed it with their knives. A sighting of one of these jinn was reported in a Baghdad newspaper as recently as August 1922.[1]
- ↑ Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar by Robert Lebling