The event was not captured on film. However, several of the arboreal #$%@*$'s friends can be seen in the photo below. I have no idea what happened to the vehicle's occupants.

George does not like monkeys.

Fatehpur Sikri was mysteriously abandoned during the emperor's life, ostensibly due to a water shortage, and fell into disrepair. A guide at the fort tells us that British colonists restored much of the fort and described how numerous artifacts from the complex were purchased from local villagers who had for over a century salvaged the empty palaces. He described how a palace door was discovered at one villager's home being used as the side of a shed.

Just outside a palace gate is a monument to the Emperor's favorite pet, an elephant that played an important and bizarre role in the ruler's sense of justice. Individuals condemned to death for some offense were given a second chance at life. They were strapped to the ground and the elephant was led across the helpless person. If the elephant stepped over the person, they were saved by divine intervention and released. The unlucky were trampled to death.

Today Fatehpur Sikri is home to a town of about 26,000 people and many more tourists. The Emperor and his descendents are long gone and only tourists and the ghosts of the unfortunate trampled victims remain. Near the more familiar attractions in Agra, Fatehpur Sikri is definitely a side trip worth taking.

A sidekick to the Rakshasas are the Yatu-dhana, described as sorcerers and demons that devoured the remains of humans left by the Rakshasas and pisachas and thought to be the source of malignant diseases. Their appearance is said to be even more hedious than even the Rakshasas.

Even scarier, the ancients believed that Bhatu, the souls of people, who died untimely deaths, were insane or deformed could possess another living person or reanimate a dead body to work its evil will, which might include devouring a living person (a common Indian demon theme). They would appear as dark shadows or misty apparitions and sometimes as a flickering light. Bhatu lurked around cremation grounds, deserts, old ruins, abandoned buildings and other scary deserted places common sense would tell one not to hang out in after dark. Similar to and possibly the source of modern European vampires, Bhatu could transform into bats and owls.

Also found occupying cemeteries and cremation grounds were Betails or Vetalas were demon-like entities that could reanimate the dead. One Betail story was made familiar to and famous in European circles by Richard F. Burton in his1870 translation of King Vikram and the Vampire. In the story, King Vikram is sent by a Yogi to a cemetery to find and return with a Betail that he would find hanging from a tree. The Betail, human in form, was found as described. After much coaxing, King Vikram convinces the Betail to return with him to the Yogi. During the four mile trek back to the Yogi, in another cemetery, the Betail entertains the King with several tales. The tale ends with the Betail helping the King kill the trecherous Yogi and his gang of Rakshasas.

Another terrifying Indian apparition is actually a goddess and consort to the god Siva named Kali. Kali's overall appearance is emaciated and threatening with very dark to black skin and long black coarse hair to her knees. Her lips, eyebrows and eyes are blood red as is her long protruding tongue. She is described as ravenously blood thirsty and is often depicted with a partially severed head dropped to one shoulder having cut her own throat to drink her own blood. As if that wasn't scary enough she is usually depicted adorned with human body parts such as a necklace of severed human heads. She is frequently portrayed in battle devouring her enemies and dancing on their dead bodies.

Oh but we're not done yet! Churels are women who have died unnatural deaths. They could assume human form and return to take revenge on people or harass men in her family who treated her badly. They were reputed to seduce young men to drain them through the night of blood and life force leaving them weak, grey and elderly by morning. Some claimed she would suck the blood of men through their toes at night after having cast a hypnotic spell on the house to hide her activities. Churels could be identified by having missing or animal-like fingers and toes and, most telling, by possessing feet turned backwards, heel forwards. Preventing a Churel from returning from the dead was a tricky matter. Remedies included removing the corpse through the side door rather than the front door of her house to confuse the churel, burying not cremating the corpse, nailing or chaining the corpse to its coffin or placing nails in the ground around the grave. Another method was to sprinkle millet seeds between the burial ground and the house as the churel was compelled to count each seed. This task usually took so long that dawn would first force the mostly nocturnal churel back into the cemetery before she could work her evil. Many of these beliefs traveled with gypsies from India throughout Europe where nailing a corpse suspected of vampirism to its coffin was common.

On the opposite end of the Silk Road Trade Route were the Chiang-Shih, the reanimated body of a human. The soul of people who died violent deaths or were not buried soon enough or properly would stay in the body and eventually reanimate it to cause mischief. They are described as angry, strong and vicious attacking the living when they approached. They tended to remain close to their coffins but could, in time, gain the strength to fly or transform themselves into wolves. Some developed long white hair over their entire body.