In How to Write a Unique Spooky Story, I advised finding a monster by researching myths and legends in other cultures to find a creature or creatures with a rich history surrounding it, but that is not considered modern and that is certainly not well known. One of the countries that have some interesting, unique and old mythical creatures, that are often overlooked, is the country known as The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, a sovereign state in North Africa that is located on the Mediterranean coast.

H’awouahoua

H’awouahoua is a monstrous creature that is known for eating children alive. The H’awouahoua has the tail of a scorpion, one leg from a donkey, one leg from a panther, the claw of a lobster as a right hand, the hand of a monkey for a left hand, the chest of a turtle, the horns of a mountain goat, the face of an ape, and eyes of flaming spit. Its long dangling hair is not in fact hair, but live poisonous snakes waiting to strike and poison anyone unwary enough to enter within striking range. Its long patched coat is made up of the clothing from the children that it has devoured. This creature might not be attractive enough to lure children to their unsuspecting demise, but it is more than fast enough to scoop up those children who travel lonely roads at night without caution.

Witches

Algeria has a number of deep and convoluted myths about magical practices and witches. While many of the tales do not share many common factors, the one factor they do seem to have in common is the moon. It was believed that witches often created potions under different moon phases, as different phases caused the potions to have different effects. It was believed that many of these potions and magical practices were erotic in nature. It was often believed that the witch would make a potion under a full moon by filling a vessel with water and, when the vessel that was filled with water boiled, the water could then be used as an ingredient in various procedures and practices.

Vampires

Algeria has many intriguing myths and legends that feature vampires as creatures of the night. Unlike most vampire legends, the vampires from Algeria were always female. The common myth of vampire creation in Algeria was that vampires were women who were turned into vampires by men, and that the transformation was caused by cruelty. This is an interesting and different perception from the stories of vampires from Europe. Some believed that the act of seeing a woman as an object dehumanized her, and humiliating her was what turned her into a cold, vampiric beast who could only survive by preying on the blood of others. In these tales, it was often the man that turned the woman into the vampire who was seen as the true monster, and the man was firmly denounced by those who knew of what he had done.