The kishi is a two-faced demon in Angola. According to legend, a kishi has an attractive human man's face on the front of its body and a hyena's face on the back. Kishi are said to use their human face as well as smooth talk and other charms to attract young women, who they then eat with the hyena face. The hyena face is said to have long sharp teeth and jaws so strong they cannot be pulled off anything it bites.
The word kishi, nkishi, or mukisi means "spirit" in several Bantu languages spoken in Zaire, northern Zambia, and Angola.
The salamander is an amphibian of the order Urodela which, as with many real creatures, often has been ascribed fantastic and sometimes occult qualities by pre-modern authors (as in the allegorical descriptions of animals in medieval bestiaries) not possessed by the real organism. The legendary salamander is often depicted as a typical salamander in shape with a lizard-like form, but is usually ascribed an affinity with fire, sometimes specifically elemental fire.
