Characteristics
Besides exchanging other women's children for their own, the xanas promise treasures and can be disenchanted. Some xanas also attack people and steal their food. They live in fountains and caves.
A xana can be a beneficial spirit, offering love water to travelers and rewards of gold or silver to those found worthy through some undefined judgment. Their hypnotic voices can be heard during spring and summer nights. Those who have a pure soul and hear the song will be filled with a sense of peace and love. Those whose souls are not pure will feel they are being suffocated and may be driven insane.
Xanas are usually depicted in one of two ways. In one, they appear as young Nordic girls, very beautiful, with long blonde hair. This image is usually associated with xanas who possess a treasure or those under a spell. In contrast, in tales in which the xanas steal children and enter homes to bite or steal, the xanas are small, thin and dark-colored.
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