Yara-ma-yha-who - The Australian Vampire

The Yara-ma-yha-who is an Aboriginal vampire from Australia. The vampire is a small froglike or monkey-shaped little man with red skin and red hair who measures around 4 feet tall with a very large head and mouth and no teeth, and he stands on top of fig trees and waits for victims to ambush. The little vampire has suckers at the end of its fingers and toes which it uses to stick onto it’s pray then drain the victim of their blood like a leach until they were weak and helpless, before returning later to swallow what’s left before taking a nap. Upon awakening, the vampire regurgitates the victim who still happens to be alive, and allows them to escape. The victim can still be recaptured in the future to have its blood drained again, and every time that this happens, the victim becomes permanently smaller and smaller until they eventually turn into a Yara-ma-yha-who themselves. This vampire, like many others, hides in trees and waits for it’s pray to walk nearby, then it ambushes them by jumping onto the unsuspecting victim.

Parents would scare the children from playing too far from their tribe by telling them that the Yara-ma-yha-who would attack them and swallow them whole, resulting in them being permanently small forever.