Sources do not supply a single mythological origin narrative; rather, nkisi are a conceptual category in Kongo‑region cosmology that combines an immaterial force (often ancestral bakisi or other potent powers) with a material locus or container that houses or manifests that force. Linguistic scholarship cited in overview material links the term to related roots in regional languages, and early European transcriptions (e.g., mokissie) attest to historical usage.
Minkisi take diverse material forms: ceramic vessels, gourds, horns, shells, bundles, graves or carved wooden figures. Carved power figures commonly feature wooden bodies with applied organic substances and resins, inlaid glass or mirror eyes, nails or metal pieces hammered into the surface, painted color schemes (notably red, white, black), and additions such as cloth, feathers, shells, beads, and horn‑like attachments. Some nduda‑type figures bear small attached ‘guns’ (nduda) filled with gunpowder or medicines.
Functionally, minkisi are employed by nganga to mediate with ancestors (bakisi), diagnose and treat illnesses (including those ascribed to witchcraft), perform divination, protect individuals or communities, seal treaties, maintain social order, and punish or restrain wrongdoers. Their efficacy depends on the practitioner’s activation and the bilongo (power substances) placed within or upon them. Ritual acts such as hammering nails or metal into a figure mark vows, treaties, or efforts to abolish evil. Certain nduda minkisi were described in museum records as loaded with gunpowder and used metaphorically/operatively to ‘shoot’ witches or enemies.
Weaknesses
- conditionlaughter (noted for npezo type)
Wards
- ritualcommissioning/installing a protective minkisi by a nganga
- substanceuse of white clay and morally aligned bilongo in minkisi composition
Nisse (tomte / tomtenisse / tonttu)
A Scandinavian household and farmstead spirit tied to a particular homestead; a small, human‑like custodian who performs chores, protects livestock and property in return for annual ritual food offerings (notably Yule porridge), and who can become dangerous if offended or neglected.
Nisus and Euryalus
A pair of young Trojan warriors in Virgil's Aeneid whose intense companionship and joint night-raid into the Rutulian camp exemplify pietas, youthful valor, and the tragic cost of war. Presented as mortal literary personae rather than supernatural beings, their story functions as an intertextual echo of Homeric companion-pairs and as a moral-poetic exemplum within Augustan epic.
Nittaewo
A figure of Sri Lankan Veddah and broader folk tradition: a legendary small, bipedal, hairy hominid/cryptid said to have lived in forests and caves of Sri Lanka, described in oral testimony as antagonistic to Veddah people and allegedly exterminated by them in the recent past.
Nix Nought Nothing
Nix Nought Nothing is the provisional personal name of the human protagonist in a Scottish fairy-tale (ATU 313, "The Magic Flight") who is promised to a giant and compelled to perform impossible tasks, rescued and aided by the giant's magical daughter. The tale centers on rash promise, naming as temporary identity, magical tasks, flight from the giant, and a sleep-enchantment resolved by a counter-spell and social reparation.
Nixie
A category of water spirit from Germanic and neighbouring European folklore associated with lakes, streams, ponds and waterfalls. Commonly described as shapeshifting and linked to enchanted music, nixies may be helpful or dangerous to humans depending on local tales.
Njörðr (Njord)
Njörðr is a Vanir deity in Old Norse religion associated with the sea, navigation, fishing, wind, wealth, and crop fertility. He resides in Nóatún, is counted among the Vanir who were incorporated into the wider Norse divine order after a truce with the Æsir, and is father of Freyr and Freyja. Sources describe him as linked to maritime well-being and as having an unhappy marriage with the goddess Skaði.
Nkondi (minkondi)
Nkondi are aggressive minkisi figures of the Kongo (Bakongo) tradition: carved statuettes that house an ancestral or spiritual power isolated and placed into them by a ritual specialist (nganga). Functioning as hunters or enforcers, nkondi are activated to investigate, punish, or otherwise intervene in social wrongs and dangerous unseen forces.
Nkunzi
The supplied sources do not document a folkloric supernatural entity named 'Nkunzi.' The term appears in the provided material as a personal name, a toponym (a mountain in South Africa), and as the given name of an author who wrote about sangoma practice, but no ethnographic descriptions, origin story, appearance, abilities, rituals, or protective measures for a spirit called Nkunzi are present in the provided items.
Noah
Noah is the tenth antediluvian patriarch in Abrahamic traditions who, at God's command, builds an ark to preserve his family and representatives of land animals from a divinely sent Flood. After the waters recede he offers burnt offerings, receives a covenant from God (with the rainbow as its pledge), and becomes the progenitor of post‑diluvian humanity.
Nobusuma (野衾)
A yōkai of Edo-period Japanese folklore associated in sources with nocturnal gliding mammals (bats or flying squirrels). Traditions describe it as a small winged beast that can latch onto travelers or sleepers—covering the face or extinguishing torches—and in some accounts an aging form precedes a still more dangerous being called yamachichi.
Nocnitsa
A Slavic night spirit or 'night hag' that torments sleepers—especially children—by visiting at night, producing nightmares or sensations of pressure on the chest, and in some accounts drawing life energy from victims.
Noldor
The Noldor are a kindred (clan) of Elves in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the three High Elf clans who migrated to Valinor and later returned to Middle-earth. Renowned for their skill in craft, lore and warfare, their history — including the Oath of Fëanor and the Flight of the Noldor — is central to the events of The Silmarillion.
Community Record
- [1]Nkisi (Wikipedia). Wikipedia: 'Nkisi' article (overview of nkisi, terminology, bilongo, roles, material forms)wiki
- [2]Wikidata: Nkisi. Wikidata entry Q1460155 summarizing Nkisiother
- [3]Power figure (nkisi) — Cleveland Museum / Archive record. Cleveland Museum of Art archive: description of nkisi figures, including nduda type and gunpowder detailother
- [4]Male Figure (Nkisi) — Cleveland Museum / Archive record. Cleveland Museum of Art object label: materials and description noting missing nduda and use of gunpowder as defenseother
- [5]Nkisi nkondi: An image of transference and projective identification in the analytic process — Repository note. Repository entry discussing nkisi nkondi imagery and transference (referenced in research notes)other
- [6]Nkisi figures of the lower Congo — Zdenka Volavkova (overview). Typological treatment and museum‑style descriptions of nkisi forms and variants (Volavkova overview referenced in notes)other
- [7]Nkisi nkondi in the History of Medicine Collections - The Devil's Tale (Duke blog). Curatorial/collection note describing nkisi nkondi, materials, and functions in medical/ritual contextsother