Yara‑ma‑yha‑who

Sources identify the Yara‑ma‑yha‑who as part of southeastern Aboriginal storytelling (often cited with Koori associations) and sometimes place it within broader Dreamtime or Aboriginal mythic frameworks in modern commentary, but the supplied materials do not preserve a definitive original‑language origin narrative or a fixed Dreaming account. The tale appears in oral disciplinary contexts and was popularized in modern retellings and anthologies rather than documented as a single codified creation story.

Described consistently as a small, little or baby‑sized being with bright red or scarlet skin and a squat, frog‑like body. It is said to have a very large head and a large mouth with no teeth, and its hands and feet end in sucker‑like pads used to attach to victims. Accounts vary between a miniature humanoid and a more monstrous goblin‑like form, but the standard English renderings emphasize the red, frog‑like man with suckers and a big head.

The Yara‑ma‑yha‑who waits in or under fig trees and drops onto unsuspecting travellers who rest beneath. It uses the suckers on its hands and feet to drain blood, then swallows the person, drinks water, takes a nap, and later regurgitates the victim who is left shorter and with a reddish tint to the skin; repeated occurrences reportedly transform the victim into another Yara‑ma‑yha‑who. Sources state it only targets living prey and is active during the day. Some tellings add that it "was not meant to be seen and got rid of anybody who glimpsed it," a formulation that appears in several retellings as an admonitory detail.