Note 124 — Chapter V · WORSHIP OF THE MALEVOLENT DEAD.
Reading edition
The Strix, or screech owl, in Roman folk-lore was supposed to suck the blood of young children. Another form of the word in Latin is Striga, meaning a hag or witch. The Lilith of the Jews, the “night monster” of our latest version of the Old Testament, becomes in the Rabbinical stories Adam’s first wife, “the Queen of demons” and murderess of young children, who is the “night hag” of Milton.124