According to Jewish folklore, the shedim are demons that had the legs of a cock.
These beings are allegedly mentioned in Psalms 106:37, although biblical translations use the word "demons". Theoretically, sinful people sacrificed their daughters to the shedim, but it is unclear if the sacrifice consisted in the murdering of the victims or in the sexual satisfaction of the demons. To see if these demons were present in some place, ashes were thrown to the ground or floor, and then their footsteps became visible.
According to one legend the shedim are descendants of serpents (supposedly of demons in the form of serpents, as Satan is mentioned in the Bible), meanwhile to other they are descendants of Adam and Lilith. Another legend said that God did not finish their creation due to the fact that he was resting during the Sabbath, and then forgot them completely.
The shedim are supposed to follow the dead or fly around the graves.
Other Jewish literature says that the shedim were storm-demons, taken from Chaldean mythology that had seven evil storm-demons called shedim and represented in ox-like form, but these ox-like representations were also protective spirits of royal palaces, and became a synonym of propitious deities or demons for the Babylonians. The Israelites have worshipped them during a time.
This word is a plural, and although the nature and appearance of these dangerous Jewish demons is very different according to one of the legends, the name was surely taken from shedu. It was perhaps due to the fact that the shedu were often depicted as bulls, and this was associated with the sacrifices made in honour of other gods depicted as bulls or wearing bull's horns like Moloch and Baal, and to the fact that Pagan deities were easily turned into demons by monotheistic religions.
