Dendan In Arabic legend, a monstrous fish that dies when it eats human flesh or hears a human voice. In the tale “Abdallah the Fisherman and Abdallah the Merman” in The Thousand and One Nights (nights 940–946), the fat from a dendan is made into an ointment to cover Abdallah the Fisherman’s body so he can live under the water when he visits his friend Abdallah the Merman. While they are undersea, a black dendan, bigger than a camel, comes near Abdallah the Fisherman, whose immediate shout in his human voice causes the monstrous fish to die instantly.
Taken from the Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante
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