This creature is a type of Albanian vampiric witch. It can be both male or female. In this legend, it is said that a person is not born evil but is made evil, usually through a woman being infertile or her children being killed.
As legend says, a shtriga feeds on the life essence of a person and can feed on anyone, however they prefer the young. Only a shtriga can save a person that it has feed on, if they are not freed from the shtriga's grasp then they will inevitably waste away and die.
The only way to kill a shtriga is to trap it on Easter with a cross made of pigs bone placed in the threshold of a church. The shtriga will be trapped and can then be killed as it attempts to exit the church.
