Seventy-year-old Ghania told Arab News that urban legends used to be extremely popular in Saudi Arabia and that, in spite of the advent of modern forms of entertainment, they still have the ability to enchant people. She added that this is mainly because old wives’ tales leave listeners wondering whether they are true or not.

Urban legends include tales that range from being simply scary and gruesome to downright ridiculous. Giving an example of an old wives’ tale, Ghania said, “In the old days there used to be people who were cannibals. A lot of them were women and they would get jobs as maids and when the men left for work they would attack the wife and eat her.”

She narrated another story that a foreign maid told her mother around 50 years ago. “She told my mother that in the place that she was originally from, people would avoid traveling by train after sunset, as there are cannibals who attack people at night,” she said.

“The maid added that she and three women were once stranded at a train station and that the station employees locked themselves in their cabins while she and the other women were left outside until morning,” said Ghania.

“In the night, some men came out of the field and dragged one of the women off.

The maid told my mother that she and the other women couldn’t help the woman and that they saw the men bite her and tear off her flesh like animals as they dragged her into the fields. They said they could hear the woman scream and that all of a sudden there was silence,” she added.

Another old wives’ tale Ghania mentioned was that of a group of people who lived in a river. “These people lived all their lives in water and even had webbed hands. They were excellent swimmers but were unable to stand on dry ground.

They even gave birth to children in water, and lived solely on fish. They made no contact with normal people and if anyone went near them they would attack them,” she said.

Superstitious beliefs such as how the twitching of the left eye or a black cat crossing one’s path supposed to bring bad luck, or that black cats are jinns have long been heard. “I think all of this is nonsense. If a person is going to do something and a black cat crosses his or her path and then that person decides not to do that thing, then no one is responsible for the delay in the work except that person,” said librarian Asif Sheikh. “Sometimes my left eye twitches but nothing bad has ever happened to me,” he added.

Umm Abdullah takes care of stray cats in her neighborhood. She said she was once feeding a black cat and a boy came to her and asked if it is true that black cats are djinns in disguise? “I was astonished. If cats had supernatural powers, then why do we see them being run over and being mistreated by people all the time?” she said.

Islamic scholar Sheikh Hassen Al-Kilaty says that nothing and nobody can control our destinies. “Everything is in Allah Almighty’s hands. It is associating partners unto Allah if a person believes that a black cat or anything else or anyone can bring bad luck. Because Allah alone controls our destinies and everything in the universe, and He has no partners.”