History Literature / Amina

Prior to "Amina", ghouls and the figure of Amine from "The Story of Sidi Nouman" were featured and referenced in plenty of European fiction following Galland's translation of the ''Arabian Nights'', but rarely so in American fiction. "Amina" played a large role in changing that by providing the template for the weird take on ghouls that would be codified in "Literature/PickmansModel" some months late in 1927.

"Amina" is a ShortStory by Creator/EdwardLucasWhite. It originally saw publication in the June 1907 edition of ''The Bellman'' and later, in 1927, July at the latest, it was included in the compilation ''Lukundoo and Other Stories''. Falling under Oriental Gothic, "Amina" is a contemporary, America-centric, and uncredited adaptation of "Literature/TheKingsSonAndTheSheGhoul" from the ''Literature/ArabianNights'' with a title derived from "Literature/TheStoryOfSidiNouman". These two are the ''Arabian Nights'' stories dealing with [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]] and so does "Amina".

Before "Amina", though published a year after the short story, White wrote a poem titled "Literature/TheGhoula". It is also based on "The King's Son and the She-Ghoul" and neatly fits in the middle of White's transformation of the fairy tale to his short story. Rather than a Persian prince who survives his encounter with the ghouls, the poem features an Englishman who gets eaten. In "Amina", the human protagonist is from Rhode Island and although he comes close to being eaten, he is saved at the last second by his companions and it are the ghouls who get killed instead. What is wholly new to "Amina" is that ghouls imitate human language and that the ghoul physique is a mixture of humanoid and canine. White may have gotten this from European bestiaries or Middle Eastern folklore on hyenas; as far back as the first century, hyenas have been depicted as eaters of human flesh and imitators of human voices. Over time, this has loosely gotten them associated with ghouls. One paragraph in "Amina" about Persian monsters, as relayed by Hassan, demonstrates that White had a handle on this subject matter.

Prior to "Amina", ghouls and the figure of Amine from "The Story of Sidi Nouman" were featured and referenced in plenty of European fiction following Galland's translation of the ''Arabian Nights'', but rarely so in American fiction. Edward Lucas White's "Amina" was the point of change, inspiring the use of the ghoul in American fiction in general and serving as the origin point of the weird take on ghouls that would be codified in "Literature/PickmansModel" some months after the publication of ''Lukundoo and Other Stories''.

In the wake of "Pickman's Model", two more stories that specifically take inspiration from "Amina" were written: "Literature/TheNamelessOffspring" and "Literature/TheChadbourneEpisode".

!!"Amina" provides examples of the following tropes:

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Even though Amina and her children meant to kill and eat him, Waldo is uncomfortable with the consul's slaughter of the family. He, however, has barely spent any time in Persia, while the locals are very aware of the danger ghouls pose. Therefore, they consider exterminating them their duty as human beings, regardless if the ghouls are still little children.

Waldo, a traveler from UsefulNotes/RhodeIsland, goes on a trek through Persia, guided by several locals and the American consul. Although they give it their all to make his stay memorable, he recognizes they are hiding something from him and he doesn't like that he's forbidden from going out on his own. One early morning, he manages to sneak away unseen for a lone stroll. After he gets lost in the emptiness of the arid landscape, it dawns on him that he didn't bring anything to drink. His predicament seems short-lived when he's approached by a woman who goes unveiled, who has a curious figure, and whose lips barely part even when she speaks. She introduces herself as Amina, a woman from the Free-folk, and offers Waldo a drink at her home before she helps him back to his camp. Waldo readily accepts, even though her particularities unnerve him. It turns out that her home is inside an ancient mausoleum and that she is a mother, notably of ten children of the exact same age. Confused but tired and thirsty, Waldo lacks the presence of mind to do anything but ask for water, even as the family encircles him with evident ill intent. Yet the consul and a guide named Hassan have tracked him down and one-shot Amina. The consul explains to Waldo that Amina and her children aren't humans, but ghouls, showing him the long teeth and two rows of udders on Amina's corpse. Because it is imperative to take out the whole family, the consul and Waldo stay to guard the mausoleum while Hassan fetches men and weapons to complete the job. Despite his misgivings about murdering children, Waldo does as he is told and lets the slaughter play out.

* HumanoidAbomination: Amina looks mostly human, but has remarkably muscular arms, long and sharp fingernails and toenails, too red lips, and pointy teeth like a greyhound's that she hides by moving her lips as little as possible. With her clothes on, it draws attention that she has no defined waistline, which is because she has a total of ten canine teats rather than a doublet of breasts like human women. She may have some shapeshifting abilities, because Waldo perceives her twice to be shorter than before. No adult male ghoul shows up to be described, but Amina's ten children are all naked and feral in behavior.

* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Ghouls refer to themselves as the Free-folk and the Free-people and the word "ghoul" may be exclusively what humans call them. Ghouls may or may not be without religion, but in any case they are neither Christian nor Muslim. Physically, ghouls are a mixture of the humanoid and the canine forms with some aspects reminiscent of swines. Clothed ghouls can pass for human as long as they take care to hide their sharp teeth too, because most of their animal qualities are on their torso, such as five sets of udders on the species's females. Relatedly, ghouls produce offspring in litters with ten being the maximum. There is a possibility that ghouls can shapeshift ever so slightly to have more of a human form and that they have a knack for learning new languages. Still, whenever they speak there is a growl beneath their words and they do not talk like people do, because they can produce a message without moving their lips.