Aitvaras

Secondary sources report that an Aitvaras is said to hatch from the egg of a very old rooster. Accounts vary on the required age of the rooster: summaries cite a range of about 9–15 years in one source and 9–12 years in another. No primary ethnographic origin myth or fuller provenance is provided in the available materials.

Sources describe variation by context: indoors the Aitvaras is reported as resembling a white or black rooster or simply a black chicken, while outdoors it is described in some accounts as a dragon-like bird or small dragon about two feet long with a serpentine body and four legs; in some districts it is said to have wings and fly trailing fire. Multiple summaries emphasize a fiery or meteor-like tail, and one source notes that when an Aitvaras dies it 'becomes a spark.'

Summaries state that an Aitvaras will lodge itself in a house and most often refuse to leave. It provides its adopted home with material goods—commonly characterized as stolen gold and grain—and thereby brings both good and bad luck to the household, often getting occupants into trouble. The creature is described as hatching from an old rooster's egg and transforming into a spark at death. Sources do not give detailed mechanisms for how it acquires goods or further supernatural capabilities.