Tokoloshe
noun
A small, often dangerous spirit in Southern African folklore, associated with night-time mischief, fear and harm. One familiar defence is to raise the bed on bricks.
Also known as tikoloshe
The tokoloshe is a small, often dangerous spirit in Southern African folklore, associated with night-time mischief, fear and harm. Accounts differ, as folklore tends to, but one familiar defence is to raise the bed on bricks so the creature cannot reach the sleeper.
That detail belongs in this book because superstition survives quite comfortably beside disbelief. A person can insist the tokoloshe is nonsense and still prefer the bed a little higher. The body keeps old instructions long after the mouth has rejected them.
The term is a reminder for the missing Chapter 13: inherited patterns, irrational systems and the odd things people do because somebody before them did them first.
See also Triskaidekaphobia
Where it comes up in the sources
Works in the library that use this word. Matched on the word itself, so it is a starting point rather than a reading list.