Nishi

The Nishi is one of the oldest and most persistent supernatural beliefs in Bengal. It is a creature — or a force — of the deep night, arriving between 2 and 4 AM when the boundary between the living and the dead is thinnest.

Its method is deceptively simple: it calls your name, in the voice of someone you love and trust, from outside your window or door. The rule, known to every Bengali child, is absolute: never answer your name three times at night without first confirming who is calling. Three responses, and you are bound.

The Nishi has no described appearance. It is heard but never seen. Those who have resisted it and looked out the window report only darkness, or at most a vague shadow moving away.

In rare accounts of those who answered and survived to tell of it, the Nishi appeared as a tall dark figure, faceless, receding into the distance.

The Nishi's power is in the name and the voice. By reproducing a trusted voice exactly, it bypasses rational caution. Those who answer three times are drawn out of their homes in a state resembling sleepwalking — and are found dead by morning, or simply never found.

Some accounts hold that the Nishi does not kill directly, but leads the called one to water — a pond, river, or well — where they drown without memory of the journey.