Western monster tropes fuse racial blackness, muteness, and diabolism into one figure

Evidence

The Indian is identified as a monster in the text. “This man, or rather monster instead of making a reply, thrice rubbed his forehead, which, as well as his body, was blacker than ebony; four times clapped his paunch, the projection of which was enormous; opened wide his huge eyes, which glowed like firebrands; began to laugh with a hideous noise, and discovered his long amber-coloured teeth, bestreaked with green.” The monster’s inability to speak, his black skin, and his evil laughter all suggest that he is a demon. He also possesses supernatural powers and gifts—a number of strange and magical items, including “slippers, which enabled the feet to walk; knives that cut without the motion of a hand; sabers which dealt the blow at the person they were wished to strike.” The Indian’s saber, which changes its script daily, is a talisman of the devil. In the original French text, the Indian is identified as Satan. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 510

Categorization

• XREF: This directly feeds the reader’s guiding question about which recurring features mark the demon figure — speechlessness, black skin, evil laughter — across the Western Muslim-monster tradition.
• QUESTION: What links bind specifically the motif of muteness/speechlessness to demonic identity in European monster iconography? Does inability to speak mark non-humanity elsewhere in the tradition?