Ecology

Where are the characteristic haunts of demons? Tombs, pagan temples (under newly-established Christianity), water, woodland, fields, bathhouses, ruins, sorb bushes... Vulnerable because badly behaved young people at a dance, babies (Verderame). All this needs proper classification and extension into fresh periods and cultures. The demonic aspects of toilets would make a good subject for comparative study, ranging from the Babylonian ‘privy demon' Sulak, whose successor appears in the Talmud, to the lavatorial etiquette of twentieth-century Turks who will say destur, excuse me, to the demon in the toilet bowl before urinating on its head.^[1206]