250 A Wizard’s Bestiary long neck, and a massive, almost reptilian, head with a flat forehead. The nostrils are positioned on top of the muzzle, and the animal has a heavy lower jaw with a huge gape. Males can be as long as 10 feet and weigh 1,000 pounds. These seals are silvery dark-grey on top and somewhat lighter on the bottom, with speckled counter-shading. They have long fore flippers (about one-third of their body length), and their hind flippers resemble double fish tails.19 Fig. 33. Leopard seal with swimming waterline indicated They inhabit Antarctic waters, feeding on fish and penguins. Swimming at the surface, leopard seals hold their heads high and parallel to the surface, with their long, straight backs showing; sometimes front or rear flippers may be seen. As it is in all mammals, their spinal flexion is vertical. At times their insulating blubber undulates in the rolling waves, giving the appearance of moving humps along their bodies. It seems to me very likely that leopard seals might also account for other sightings as well. Compare the image of a leopard seal with the 1848 Daedalu sighting (Fig. 15) and Heuvelman’s drawing of the manyhumped Sea-Serpent with the right flipper raised out of the water (a common thermoregulatory behavior for seals and sea lions, called flipper fanning.) Fig. 34. Manyhumped SeaSerpent drawn by Heuvelmans Other Seals Descriptions and depictions of the Merhorse, with its mammalian whiskers and large, friendly eyes, can be matched with only one known class of animals: seals and sea lions—particularly the Common Seal (Phoca vitulina) and the Grey Seal (Halicho*rus grypus). These animals frequently adopt a distinctive “periscope” posture, in which they rise vertically as far as possible out of the water, holding their front flippers tightly against their sides and keeping their heads at a 90-degree angle so as to obtain a maximum view over the waves. The effect looks uncannily like the head and neck of a horse, dominated by the enormous eyes of these pinnipeds. The analogy is further enhanced when the animal rises up through a mat of seaweed, which then falls about its head and neck like the mane of a horse (or the hair of a Mermaid…). However, it would be imprudent to consign all sightings of “horse-headed” monsters of seas, lakes, lochs, or bogs to sightings of seals. Many of these— especially when they are accompanied by humps— appear to be something else entirely, and are thus more properly referred to as long-necked Sea-Serpents (or Lake-Monsters). The Great Mystery Remains Although I believe that the categories of living animals enumerated above may satisfactorily account for many sightings of the great Sea-Serpent, they do serve to clear the decks for the remaining true unknown monster of the sea—namely, the long-necked Sea- Serpent. I cannot accept the proposal by Oudemans and Heuvelmans, and the other cryptozoologists who have followed them, that these creatures are some sort of gigantic, long-necked, benthic pinnipeds. Although I too found the idea appealing when I first read In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents more than 35 years ago, I eventually had to conclude that this explanation really didn’t work. After all, pinnipeds are air-breathers that spend a good part of their lives out of the water. Unlike cetaceans or even sirenians, which are fully adapted to an aquatic life and cannot return to land, all pinnipeds congregate in coastal colonies to bask, breed, and nurse their young on rocky shores and beaches. Thus, no species of pinniped could remain hidden today. I have come to believe that long-necked Sea-Serpents are not mammals at all, nor plesiosaurs, nor even vertebrates. Despite his charming reconstruction of a long-necked seal, Heuvelmans’ own silhouette drawings based on actual eyewitness descriptiona—especially that of the remarkable Cuba sighting in July of 1934, in which the animal leapt from the water (Fig. 36)—do not exhibit the proportions of his model, nor do they support his pinniped hypothesis, any more than they resemble a plesiosaur; against which identification all the arguments in the previous paragraph also apply.20 Fig. 36. The Cuba sea-serpent, after Capt. P. Maguerez Rather, the common description of the reported Long-Necked Sea-Serpents seems exactly similar to that of the classic Lake-Monsters I examined in the previous chapter, and I believe them to be a larger marine variant of these same creatures. That is, some Fig. 35. Seal in “periscope” position
Monsters of Mystery 251 sort of enormous aquatic slug, characterized by a long, extensible neck with diamond-shaped fins at its base, and a large, bulky body topped with a series of keeled humps, whose number increases with the size of the animal itself. The proportions of the head and neck are similar to those of a horse, camel, or giraffe, and the hornlike projections atop the head are certainly the eyes and feelers common to all snails and slugs. The rear parts and tail are seldom seen, and thus are poorly described. Probably there are parapodia— fleshy growths resembling wings that are used as fins in swimming. These appendages occur in several known Opisthobranch suborders, such as the Thecosomata and Gymnosomata, and would seem to fit the few observations of the hind parts of LongNecked Sea-Serpents. Fig. 37. Sea-Serpent as giant marine slug, by Oberon Zell I think that the best evidence in favor of this hypothesis is the remarkable pair of photographs of Morgawr, the Cornish Sea-Serpent, taken by “Mary F.” in February of 1976, from Rosemullion Head near Falmouth Bay. (Fig. 42) In her letter to the Falmouth Packet, which published the photos, Mary F. said that the monster was only visible for a few seconds, and that the part she could see was about 15–18 feet long: “It looked like an elephant waving its trunk, but the trunk was a long neck with a small head on the end, like a snake’s head. It had humps on the back which moved in a funny way. The color was black or very dark brown, and the skin seemed to be like a sealion’s…the animal frightened me. I would not like to see it any closer. I do not like the way it moved when swimming.”21 Fig. 38. Morgawr, photographed by “Mary F.” in February, 1976, from Rosemullion Head near Falmouth Bay As I write this in December of 2006, the first giant squid has just been captured alive and videotaped as it thrashed about at the surface.22 Prior to this moment, no living specimen of the legendary Kraken has been witnessed in modern times, and all we knew of them was from rotting carcasses washed up on beaches. Perhaps someday a living long-necked Sea-Serpent will also be captured in a net or on video, and we’ll finally know for certain what they are. Meanwhile, it’s good to know that there still remain some unsolved mysteries of the deep. Postscript Shortly after I completed this chapter, I received information that my wish for a breakthrough may have come true: On March 27, 2007, on a dolphin-watching cruise off the coast of South Africa, 13 crew members of the Ocean Safari vessel Dolphin and volunteers from the Centre for Dolphin Studies took numerous photographs (Fig. 39) of an unknown marine invertebrate, which to me looks exactly like a small version of the long-necked sea slug I have postulated. Miss Gwenith Penry posted photos and a detailed description to teuthiologist Steve O’Shea’s TONMO.com (The Octopus News Magazine Online).23 Fig. 39: Unidentified sea-creature photographed by Gwenith Penry on March 27, 2007 Penry reported that the creature was 12–16 inches long. At its anterior end was a “very distinctive ‘nose’/ trunk like protrusion which appeared to be able to move independently of the rest of the body…. There was a notable inflation of the ‘melon’ as the animal surfaced and this then deflated as it dived.” There appeared to be a membranous “skirt,” or parapodia, “on the posterior end of the body, mostly grey but with banding around the edges…. This looks like a thin layer of ‘skin’ that ‘flaps’ like a ray. The banded area looks like two separate appendages that do not join, but the ends meet.” It was “first spotted just below the surface (~30 cm), it then surfaced and swam towards the boat, stopped and lifted the ‘nose’ towards us as if sensing something in front of it.” In the four excellent photos Penry posted, the extensible neck, inflatable hump, and parapodia are clearly visible. After the posting, heated discussion ensued, but ultimately, no conclusive identification could be made. I believe it was a very young long-necked Sea-Serpent, and I eagerly await further sightings. Monster Movies: Sea-Serpents The only movie I know of that featured a SeaSerpent was Terry Jones’s Erik the Viking (1989), which was inspired by his children’s book, The Saga of Erik the Viking (1983).
252 A Wizard’s Bestiary 20.Titanic Turtles, Fantastic Fish, and Legendary Lizards By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart mouth that lured shoals of fishes within, swallowing them by the thousands. Arabian writers called the Island-Beast the Zaratan, and described it as a gigantic turtle, adding the detail that its vast back is festooned with rocks and crevices overgrown with trees, grass, and shrubbery. In Scheherazade’s 1,001 Arabian Nights, Sinbad the Sailor encounters this monster on the first of his seven legendary voyages. Such a great Sea-Monster was said to have been encountered by the Irish monk St. Brendan (484–578 CE) during his legendary seven-year voyage to the promised land of the saints. Disembarking onto a stony island to celebrate Easter mass, the monks were stoking a fire to boil a pot when the island began to move under them like a wave. As they all rushed back to their boat, the “island” swam away. Then Brendan told them (somewhat belatedly, it seems) that God had revealed to him in a dream that the supposed island was in reality a monstrous fish, “the foremost of all that swim in the ocean. He is always trying to bring his tail to meet his head, but he cannot because of his length. His name is Jasconius” (Latinized Irish, “fish”).2 My sons, do not be afraid. God has revealed to me during the night in a vision the secret of this affair. Where we were was not an island, but a fish—the foremost of all that swim in the ocean. He is always trying to bring his tail to meet his head, but he cannot because of his length. His name is Jasconius. —The Voyage of St. Brendan (9th century)1 The Island-Beast NE OF THE MOST FASCINATING MONsters of mariners’ lore is the great Island-Beast or Devil-Whale—a Sea-Monster of such immensity that when it is basking on the surface of the water, sailors mistake its back for an island and land on it. When they build a fire, however, the living “island” plunges into the depths, dragging the ship and crew to a watery doom. Various tales describe it as a titanic turtle, a prodigious whale, or even a colossal cephalopod such as the Kraken. Often depicted on maps among other fabulous Sea-Monsters, it is invariably shown with a ship anchored to it and a landing party building a fire on its back. European sailors told many tales of its existence and sightings. In Greco-Roman times, the Island-Beast was called Aspidochelone (Latin, “shield turtle”). This name became corrupted in later medieval bestiaries to Aspidodelone or Aspidoicholon (“asp turtle”). The Physiologus, dating from the 2nd century BCE, refers to this monster as Fastitocalon (“floater on ocean streams”). It is described as a stony-skinned SeaMonster the size of a whale, resembling a small rocky island fringed with sand and seaweed. It was said to be very dangerous, luring ships’ crews to disembark for shore leave, then plunging with them into the depths to devour them. In the absence of any potential human victims, it emits a sweet perfume from its The Discworld by Oberon Zell Fig. 1. Aspidochelone by Konrad Gesner (1563) Fig. 2. Zaratan Fig. 3. Jasconius
Monsters of Mystery 253 The Inuit natives of Greenland tell of an Island-Monster they call Imap Umassoursa. It would rise up underneath boats and capsize them into the frigid waters. The IslandBeast is also linked to the Biblical account of Jonah and the great fish, which finds an echo in the story of Pinocchio, the runaway marionette, being swallowed by Monstro the Whale. A particularly spectacular version of this beast is found in the fabulous adventures of Baron Munchausen (1720–1797), first collected and published by an anonymous author in 1781, and made into several extravagant movies in the 20th century. In Munchausen’s tale, the monster is so enormous that entire ships and their crews repose within its cavernous belly, swallowed but undigested. Cosmic World-Turtles Many cultures throughout history have thought of the land as being carried on the back of a giant fish or turtle swimming through an infinite sea. This is why North America is sometimes referred to as Great Turtle Island by its native peoples. In the Hindu mythology of India, the disc of the Earth was thought to be supported on the backs of four, eight, or 16 colossal elephants; they, in turn, were thought to be standing on the shell of a gigantic cosmic turtle named Ak- upara, swimming eternally through space. Fantasy author and parody master Terry Pratchett has written dozens of delightful satirical novels set on such a world, which he calls the Discworld. These books are favorites among magickal people (they feature some memorable Wizards and Witches), and several have already been made into movies. In these stories, the great world-turtle is named Atuan, and she is seeking a place to lay her eggs. (See my opening graphic at the beginning of this chapter.) Kurma is the name of the vast cosmic turtle of Hindu mythology. Its carapace forms the vault of the heavens, while its plastron is the foundation of the Earth—particularly the Indian subcontinent. When the Hindu gods churn the ocean of milk (the Milky Way) to create many things and beings, they ask Kurma to dive to the bottom to support the mountain they used for a dash, with the great serpent Sesha-Naga as a rope. Other Monstrous Turtles The Father of All Turtles is an enormous seaturtle of Sumatran legend, and one of several varieties of Sea-Serpents distinguished by Bernard Heuvalmans (1916–2001), the father of cryptozoology. There have been four recorded sightings of such a creature in different oceans. An example is the 30-foot-long monster sighted by Captain P. Merlees of the steamer Hanoi in June of 1908. Fig. 4 Imap Umassoursa by Xander Fig. 5. Jonah and the great fish Fig. 6. Akupara, the Hindu world-turtle Fig. 8. Kappa Fig. 7. The Hanoi sea-monster, by Capt. Merlees, 1808 Ikaki is a supernatural tortoise in the mythology of the Kalabari natives of Nigeria, West Africa. He loves to dance and sing, but each time he lifts one of his legs, everyone on that side falls down dead—no doubt from his terrible flatulence. A ritual dance called the tortoise masquerade is still widely performed, in which a dancer with a tortoise shell helmet imitates Ikaki’s movements, which convey powerful magick. Kappa are river-dwelling Japanese creatures of Shinto mythology. They have the body of a tortoise, long scaly limbs, the head of a monkey, and long hair. They live on blood and cucumbers, and they fly through the air on enchanted cucumbers with dragonfly wings. If treated with courtesy, the Kappa is friendly. However, if it is illtreated, it will eat its tormentor. Skahnowa is a monstrous turtle in the folklore of the Seneca Indians of the northeastern United States. It aids the horned serpent Doonongaes in hunting human and animal prey. Bosco (or Oscar, beast of ‘Busco) is the affec-
254 A Wizard’s Bestiary tionate appellation of a gigantic turtle reported to be dwelling near Churubusco, Indiana. It has been spotted several times since 1950, when several swamps were drained in order to create more farmland. Witnesses have described Bosco as weighing between 100 and 500 pounds, with a shell 4 feet wide. In 1937, an enormous Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) was in fact captured at the Neosho River in Kansas. It weighed a whopping 403 pounds. Fig. 9. Alligator snapping turtle Archelon (“old turtle”) was the largest turtle that has ever lived, living during the Upper Cretaceous period 65–99 million years ago, when the shallow waters of the Niobrara Sea covered the central portion of North America. The biggest Archelon fossil, found in the Pierre Shale of South Dakota, measures nearly 14 feet long, and is 16 feet wide from flipper to flipper. The live weight of an Archelon is estimated to have been more than 4,500 pounds. Fig. 10. Archelon skeleton Another huge prehistoric sea turtle was Protostega (“first roof”). Reaching 10 feet in length, it is the second-largest turtle that has ever existed. Archelon and Prostega were related to the present-day Leatherback Sea Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). At 9 feet long, this is the largest living turtle. Similar to the modern leatherback, the shells of Archelon and Prostega had no scutes, making them weaker but also lighter. They probably fed on shellfish and slow-moving jellyfish.3 Fig. 11. Leatherback sea turtle by Heuvelmans The largest land turtle known to have ever existed was Testudo atlas (“atlas tortoise”), also known as Colossochelys (“colossal turtle”). At 8 feet long and 6 feet high, it probably weighed around 4 tons. Looking much like a modern Galapagos tortoise, this giant chelonian herbivore lived in the Pleistocene period—1.5–2 million years ago. Similar to its modern relatives, T. atlas could probably retract its legs and head into its shell when threatened.4 Legendary Lizards Monstrous lizards figure prominently in the legends of Dragonlore. Although no such creatures are known to have existed in Europe in human times, the discovery of giant, 10-foot-long, 300-pound lizards on the Indonesian island of Komodo in 1910 created a worldwide sensation. They were immediately dubbed Komodo Dragons (Varanus komodoensis). A legendary 1926 expedition led by W. Douglas Burden and sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History brought back two live dragons and 12 preserved bodies. Two of these skins were mounted and can still be seen today in the museum’s Hall of Amphibians and Reptiles. Burden recounted his adventure to an island of prehistoric reptiles to movie producer Merian C. Cooper. Inspired, Cooper changed the subject of the quest from a giant lizard to a giant ape and added a beautiful heroine to produce the classic 1933 film King Kong. 5 The gigantic lizards weren’t forgotten, however, for they became dinosaurs in the movie version. A much larger prehistoric version of the Komodo dragon was Megalania (Varanus prisca), which was 15–20 feet long and weighed 1,000–1,300 Fig. 12. Komodo dragon
Monsters of Mystery 255 pounds. Although it is believed to have been extinct for 40,000 years, sightings of living specimens are occasionally reported from Australia and New Guinea. In early 1890, residents of Euroa, Australia, claimed that their village was being terrorized by a 30-foot-long, unidentifiable reptilian monster. A representative of the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, equipped with a big net, organized a search party of 40 trackers. They discovered a set of huge footprints, but these unfortunately terminated before the creature could be found. Whowhie is a monstrous lizard in the legends of the Aboriginal people of Australia’s Murray River area. It terrorized the region, devouring many people—especially children. After a particularly devastating raid on a village, the people tracked the monster to its lair in a cave, where it was sleeping off its meal. They burned brushwood at the entrance, fanning smoke into the cave for seven days, until Whowhie finally emerged, coughing and blinded—whereupon the people rushed it, clubbing and spearing it until it was dead. This tale suggests an actual encounter with the gigantic Pleistocene Megalania. Kurrea was a monstrous, swamp-dwelling reptile of the Australian Aborigine Dreamtime, with a voracious appetite. It threatened to eat everyone, so the hero Toola was sent to kill it. But his spears just bounced off its armored back, and it then turned to pursue him, burrowing through earth and rocks as easily as water. As it closed on him, Toola led it to his mother-in-law, Bumble Tree. Kurrea took one look at her, screamed in terror, and dove into the earth, leaving a great hole. It never returned to bother people again. Could this story possibly reflect another memory of Megalania? The Tanihwa are gigantic guardian reptiles in the traditions of the Maori natives of New Zealand. They are said to live in deep pools of rivers, dark caves, or the ocean—especially where there are dangerous currents or breakers. Some can tunnel through the earth, causing landslides and uprooting trees in the process. Others are said to have created harbors by carving out channels to the sea. In the ocean they usually resemble a large shark or whale, but in inland waters they resemble a giant Tuatara (Sphenodon), with a row of spines down their back. They are protectors of their respective tribespeople, attacking any others on sight. The Taniwha Horomatangi, a gigantic aquatic lizard, does not prey on people, and sometimes even helps them. But he often attacks canoes and other boats, especially modern powerboats. He created the great Karapiti blowhole. Hotu-Puku, on the other hand, hunted and devoured people, and it was so strong and fast that none could escape it. Eventually it was killed by a party of hunters who laid a net across the entrance to its cave and taunted it to come running out into the snare, where it was speared until dead. If an Ihu-Mataotao is killed and its belly cut open, its victims will emerge undigested. And Parata sucks in and spews out the waters of the oceans with its cavernous mouth, thus accounting for the tides. Scientists have named a fossil mosasaur Taniwhasaurus oweni, in honour of the Taniwha. Fig. 15. Mosasaur by Zdenek Burian (1905-1981) Gurangatch is an immense lizard-fish WaterMonster from the Dreamtime lore of the Aborigines of New South Wales, Australia. It can tunnel through solid rock from pool to pool, causing rivers to overflow their banks. While traveling through Africa’s Kasai valley in 1932, a Swedish plantation owner named Johnson and his native servant witnessed a gigantic reptile attack and devour a rhinoceros. He described it as a 40-footlong lizard with a long, thick tail, leonine legs, and long, sharp teeth in huge jaws. It was dark red, with vertical black stripes like a tiger’s down its neck, back, and tail. This monstrous lizard has been dubbed Kasai Rex. Fillyloo (also Gowrow, Golligog, or Gollygog) is a giant lizard-monster or Dragon in the Native American legends of the Ozark mountains, which it was reported to frequent in the 19th century. As described by V. Randolf in 1951, it was said to be at least 20 feet long, with boar-like tusks. Another lizard-like monster in the native folklore of the Ozarks is called Moogie. And the legends of the Araucanian Indians of Chile tell of Lampalugua—a gigantic predatory lizard with enormous claws. It devours both cattle and people. A large, lizard-like creature was sighted in the early 1960s in the Nith River, which flows through New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada. Many witnesses Fig. 13. Megalania Fig.14. Tuatara
256 A Wizard’s Bestiary described it as weighing about 50 pounds, greenishbrown in color, with four legs and a scaly tail. But this relatively small creature seems likely to have been just an alligator that someone released into the river. Colossal Crocs Medieval bestiaries include a creature called the Cocodryllus or Corkendril. Though often bizarrely depicted, this is just a monstrous, 30-foot-long version of the crocodile, with vivid crocus or saffron hues. The Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) of Egypt and the Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) of Indonesia and northern Australia can both grow to this size, but they are basically grey in color, with yellowish underbellies. Amusingly, it seems to have been considered essential to the décor of any proper medieval Wizard’s sanctum or alchemist’s laboratory to have a stuffed “Corkendril” hanging from the ceiling! During the Cretaceous era (141–65 million years ago), a truly monstrous crocodile called Phobosuchus (“fearsome crocodile”) haunted the world’s shorelines. The giant predator was about 50 feet long; its head alone measured 6 feet long, and its teeth, 4 inches! A gigantic crocodilian, called Mahama by locals, has been reported from the Lake Likouala swamp region of central Africa’s Republic of the Congo. It is said to reach an impressive 50 feet in length, and devour entire rafts and canoes along with their occupants. Natives insist that the animal is a unique species, quite distinct from the familiar Nile crocodile. Could this possibly be a surviving example of Phobosuchus? Fig. 17. Nile Crocodile Tompondrano is a gigantic Sea-Monster of Madagascar, covered with armored plates like those on a crocodile. Its phosphorescent head can be seen under the water, as was reported by some fishermen in 1926. This is certainly an Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), the largest of all living reptiles. Normally confined to Indonesia, it is known to reach 30 feet in length. The reported phosphorescence is created by any disturbance of bioluminescent plankton, which this author has personally observed at night in the Coral Sea. Orobon is a ferocious, fish-like predator said by the Arabs of Mount Mazovan to inhabit the region of the Red Sea. It was described in medieval bestiaries as being about 10 feet long, with a head like that of a catfish, webbed, clawed feet, and a hide like that of a crocodile—which is most likely what it was based upon. However, considering the description of the head, it may have been a Wels Catfish (Silurus glanis), which is known to reach 10 feet in length and weigh 330 pounds. Perhaps what we are dealing with is a confusion of two separate animals. Slimy Slim is the local name for a Lake-Monster inhabiting the depths of Lake Payette, Idaho. It is said to have a serpentine body at least 36 feet long, and a head like that of a crocodile. Monster Movies: Giant Fish, Turtles, Lizards, and Crocs (Author’s note: I am omitting the “giant lizards” of cheap dinosaur movies that used ordinary lizards on miniature sets to represent what were supposed to be dinosaurs. These are called slurpasaurs, and are distained by all true dino film aficionados. -OZ) Pinocchio (animated, 1940)—Fastitocalon The Giant Gila Monster (1959)—giant lizard The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962)— Fastitocalon One Million Years B.C. (1966)—giant turtle The Neverending Story (1984)—giant turtle The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)— Fastitocalon Pinocchio (animated, 1992)—Fastitocalon The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)—Fastitocalon Aladdin and the King of Thieves (animated, 1996)— Zaratan Wyrd Sisters (animated-TV, 1996)—world-turtle Soul Music (animated-TV, 1997)—world turtle Godzilla (1998)—giant lizard Komodo (TV, 1999)—Megalania Lake Placid (1999)—gigantic crocodile Blood Surf a.k.a. Krocodylus (2000)— giant crocodile Hogfather (TV, 2006)—world-turtle Lake Placid 2 (TV, 2007)—gigantic crocodile Fig. 16. Medieval Cocodryllus Fig. 18. Orobon
Monsters of Mystery 257 21. Occult Octopuses By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart though probably not as impressive as Tolkein’s “Watcher in the Water.” Such a tentacled creature is said to be lurking in the depths of Oklahoma’s Thunderbird, Oolagah, and Tenkiller lakes. Long feared by the local Indians, who likened it to a leech, this animal has been described as roughly the size of a horse, with a leathery, reddish-brown skin, small beady eyes, and multiple tentacles. It is said to be a voracious predator and violently territorial. A similar monster is said to inhabit the deep, cold, salty water of mist-shrouded Devil’s Lake, in Sauk County, Wisconsin. The local Lakota Indians have stories of this creature going back centuries, of which one of the earliest recounts a fatal attack on a canoe full of warriors by something with many tentacles, such as a Kraken. South America seems to be a particularly favored locale for freshwater cephalopods. The most famous of these is El Cuero (Spanish, “the cowhide”), also called El Trelquehuecuve, or El Bien Peinado (“the smooth-headed one”). Reported to be lurking in the glacial waters of Lago (Lake) Lacar, in the southern Andes province of Neuquen, it is a large and dangerous Water-Monster described as a flat skin resembling a cowhide, with clawed tentacles and multiple eyes. According to legend, it originated from a donkey’s hide that fell into the water and came to life, engulfing every Frodo felt something seize him by the ankle, and he fell with a cry…. The others swung around and saw the waters of the lake seething, as if a host of snakes were swimming up from the southern end. Out from the water a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it was pale-green and luminous and wet. Its fingered end had hold of Frodo’s foot, and was dragging him into the water. Sam on his knees was now slashing at it with a knife. The arm let go of Frodo, and Sam pulled him away, crying out for help. Twenty other arms came rippling out. The dark water boiled, and there was a hideous stench. —J.R.R. Tolkein, “The Watcher in the Water” from The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954 EVERAL TYPES OF MYSTERIOUS, tentacled aquatic creatures have been reported for centuries to be lurking in the deeps. The Kraken—based on the real animal we now more commonly call the Giant Squid (Architeuthis)—is certainly the most storied in myth and legend, and is discussed fully in another chapter. But many cryptic cephalopods appear not to be squids, but rather octopuses, which are quite different beasts. The two categories I would like to discuss here are those said to dwell in freshwater lakes and rivers; and gigantic species believed to dwell in the oceans. I use the term “occult” not in the sense of “supernatural,” but rather in the original sense of the Latin occultus, meaning “hidden, concealed, secret.” The Lurker in the Lake Although there are no known species of cephalopods able to live in fresh water, there have been numerous reports over the past couple of centuries of octopus-like creatures inhabiting lakes in Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, as well as the monster-infested Ohio River. They are always described as being ugly, grey in color, and about 3 feet long. They appear to be similar to Octopus burryi and Octopus filosus/hummelinki. With over 300 species of octopus catalogued to date, it is not inconceivable that a freshwater Fig.1. Octopus burryi variant might turn up, Fig. 2. Devil’s Lake Monster Fig. 3. El Cuero Ian Daniels
258 A Wizard’s Bestiary living thing it encountered by folding around them. It suns itself on the rocks and causes windstorms. Elsewhere the same creature is called Hueke Hueku (“the leather”). A dreaded creature inhabiting lakes and rivers, natives say that when it floats on the surface of the water it resembles a stretched animal skin.1 This sounds very like a giant octopus, but one that lives in fresh water. The Glyryvilu or Guirivulu is a freshwater monster dwelling in Chile’s Andean Mountains. In some districts it is known as Vulpangue (“fox-serpent”), and is described as a fox-headed snake or a puma with the head of a fox. Its long tail terminates in a vicious claw, with which it seizes its victims. (Fig. 4) As it swallows them whole, its mouth and belly extend like those of a snake. Elsewhere, it is said to be a gigantic fish or Dragon. But another version—more relevant to our present inquiry—claims it is flat and disc-shaped, like a ray, but with tentacles like those of an octopus and eyes around its perimeter. West central Africa is also said to be home to a freshwater cephalopod. Known as the Migas, it is reported to dwell in the upper reaches of the Congo River. Similar to El Cuero, it is described as a huge, flat creature with long tentacles. All of these creatures would seem to be some kind of octopus, but no species of freshwater cephalopod is currently known to science. However, a marine animal that matches the descriptions of El Cuero, Glyryvilu, and Migas quite well is the Japanese Pancake Devilfish (Opisthoteuthis depressa). (Fig. 5.) Could a similar species have adapted to fresh water, just as other mollusks (clams, snails, and slugs) have? Octopus giganteus A gargantuan octopus is reported to be dwelling in the crystal waters of the Bahamas islands off the coast of Florida. It is variously called the Lusca, the Giant Scuttle, or Him of the Hairy Hands. Normally living in very deep water, this creature is said to inhabit large limestone marine caves, called “blue holes,” off the coast of the mysterious, mangrove-choked island of Andros. Similar tentacled monsters are said to inhabit the island’s “banana holes”—deep, brackish pools and small lakes. Divers have reported attacks by “many-armed animals resembling giant octopuses.”2 One native guide maintained that the arms of the Giant Scuttle were about 75 feet long, but they are not dangerous to fishermen unless they can grip the ocean floor and the boat at the same time. The legendary Lusca is either octopus or squidlike, but it often combines elements of a dragonlike creature. There are some assorted tales of very large creatures stealing bait from fishing boats, although it is not certain that they all were cephalopods. Of additional interest is a photograph taken by the Cousteau team of one of those mysterious animals, although it just shows unidentifiable brown flesh. Cuba also has some legends of a giant octopus, except that they often have phosphorescent eyes and other parts. In addition, there was at least one non-ambiguous giant octopus sighting from Florida.3 This as-yet-unconfirmed cephalopod has been assigned the scientific name of Octopus giganteus. Tales of giant octopuses are not limited to the Caribbean. In the folklore of Chiloc, Chile, a gigantic Sea-Monster called the Manta is the marine equivalent of the freshwater Cuero (“hide”). It is described as resembling a flayed cowhide with clawed tentacles and tail, and eyes all around the edges and four more on top. Although the name would seemingly refer to the giant Manta Ray (Manta birostris), which is certainly flat, and can measure up to 25 feet long and weigh up to 6,600 pounds, the tentacles indicate it may be a cephalopod, such as the Pacific Giant Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini), which may grow to more Fig. 4. Vulpangue Fig. 5. Japanese pancake devilfish Fig. 6. Lusca
Monsters of Mystery 259 than 30 feet long and weigh more than 100 pounds. Mantas were said to sometimes climb out on land to sun themselves, and cause violent gales upon their return to the sea. This suggests carcasses washed ashore after a storm, which would account for the appearance of a stretched cowhide. However, it has been ingeniously suggested by Karl Shuker4 that the Manta may be a gigantic jellyfish, such as the Nomura’s jellyfish (Echizen kurage), which can be 6 feet across and weigh 450 pounds. Lately, populations of these huge creatures have been exploding in many fishing waters—particularly around Japan, wherre they are considered a devastating plague. J.W. Buel described a huge and powerful SeaMonster having “eight long arms attached to a broad, flat body, in the center of which are its leering eyes and cavernous mouth, around which are several horny spines.”5 He called this creature the Devil Fish (also known as the Sea Devil or Sea Bat). (Fig. 8) These names and eyewitness reports clearly identify it as the giant Manta Ray (Manta birostris), the largest known specimen of which had a 25-foot-wide “wingspan” and weighed 6,600 pounds. However, these fish do not have tentacles, which makes the description a bit puzzling, as it seems to conflate the manta ray with a cephalopod. A creature that does fit the description, however, is the aforementioned Japanese Pancake Devilfish (Opisthoteuthis depressa). In addition to the freshwater reports from North America, Chile, and Africa, Hawaii also has had many reported sightings. And Tahitian folklore tells of an immense spotted octopus called Tumu-Ra’i-Fuena, whose prodigious tentacles permeate and hold together every part of the Earth and the Heavens.6 Fig. 9. TumuRa’i-Fuena by Oberon Blobs and Globsters Many moundlike, amorphous carcasses have been found washed up on ocean beaches of Florida, Bermuda, New Zealand, and Tasmania. Called Globsters or Blobs, they are roughly cylindrical in shape, with a flattened underside. They vary in size from 8 to 30 feet long. Virtually unidentifiable masses of fibrous collagen, they have no internal skeleton—neither bone nor cartilage—and their rubbery skin is as tough as a car tire and often covered in thin hair. Some appear to have gill-like slits, small mouths, and long fleshy lobes or tentacles along the sides, but no eyes have been reported. Although considered by many to be storm-ravaged carcasses of the as-yet-unconfirmed Octopus giganteus, it has recently been determined that these are the boneless remains of decomposed Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus), consisting of the huge mas of blubber above the head and shoulders, and strips of blubber from between the ribs. Fig. 10. Decay of sperm whale blubber into tentacled Globster, by Oberon On November 30, 1896, an enormous carcass was found partial- ly buried in the sandy beaches of Anastasia Island, off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida. Dubbed the St Augustine Phenomenon, the exposed portion was 7 feet tall, 23 feet long, and 18 feet across. Excavation revealed multiple tentacles up to 30 feet long. (Fig. 11) Renowned marine biologist A.E. Verill—who was instrumental in the discovery of the giant squid—became involved in the study of the remains. Confirming that it was an octopus and not a squid, he named the creature Octopus giganteus verill, and estimated its total length to be in excess of 100 feet. The carcass soon washed back out to sea, but in 1957, some original tissue samples were located and reexamined. Sadly, the results Fig. 8. Manta or Devil-Fish, from J. W. Buel Fig. 7. Echizen kurage
260 A Wizard’s Bestiary were inconclusive due to cellular decay from the prolonged storage.7 In May of 1988, Teddy Tucker found a peculiar blob washed up on the beach of Mangrove Bay, Bermuda. Called the Bermuda Blob, it was approximately 8 feet long and 3 feet wide, extremely pale and fibrous, and with no apparent bones, cartilage, or visible openings. It seemed to have five arms or legs, the effect of which Tucker described as being akin to a disfigured star. (Fig. 12)8 Several huge mysterious blobs of boneless flesh—popularly dubbed Globsters—have washed up on the beaches of Tasmania, south of Australia. The first discovery to become internationally known occurred on August, 1960, when a couple of ranchers stumbled across a huge carcass on the bank of the Interview River near Hobart. The corpse measured 20 feet long and 18 feet wide, with a 4-foot-high hump in the center. Its weight was estimated at 4–10 tons. It had a layer of fine, greasy hair like sheep’s wool, and its flesh was hard and rubbery. In March of 1962, these remains were revisited and examined more thoroughly. Five to six gill-like slits were discovered running down either side of the creature’s anterior. The investigators also found four large hanging lobes on what they assumed must be its head. Between the center pair was a smooth orifice resembling a gullet. No eyes were found.9 Fig. 13. The Tasmanian Globster In 1970, a second Globster washed ashore a few miles south of Sandy Cape. This humped carcass was approximately 8 feet long and much fresher than the 1960 specimen. And in 1997, yet another curious carcass was discovered washed up on a stretch of Tasmanian coast known as Four Mile Beach. Named the Four-Mile Blobster, this amorphous creature had paddle-shaped flippers, strands of white hair like spaghetti, and six long, fleshy lobes along its sides. The corpse was 15 feet long, 6 feet wide, and weighed approximately 4 tons. As with other Globsters, it seems to have been made up primarily of fibrous collagen.10 In March of 1965, a 30-foot-long, 8-foot-tall Globster washed up on Muriwai Beach, New Zealand. The carcass was described as having 4- to 6-inch-long long wooly hair over a tough, one-quarter-inch thick hide. Beneath this was a layer of fat, then solid meat. According to investigator J. Robb, the blob was covered not with hair, but with fibrous connective tissue. The “creature” turned out to be just a hunk of decomposing whale blubber.11 Monster Movies: Deadly Octopuses Fig. 14. Coiled nautiloid from Mysterious Island, 1961 Reserving movies featuring the giant squid for the chapter on the Kraken, other monstrous cephalopods have also appeared in films, from the giant octopus shown in the 1929 silent film adaptation of Jules Vern’s Mysterious Island to the absurd rubber octopus in Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), generally considered the worst movie ever made. It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) features an immense, six-tentacled giant octopus by stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen. A six-tentacled giant nautiloid by Harryhausen attacks Captain Nemo’s divers in Mysterious Island (1961). The 1970 Japanese film, Space Amoeba (released in America as Yog, Monster From Space) features a giant cuttlefish called “Gezora.” Tentacles (1977) is a horror film about a giant octopus. Ralph Bakshi’s animated version of Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings (1978) includes the Watcher in the Water. The Goonies (1985) includes a giant octopus in a scene that was deleted from the theatrical release, but included on the DVD. Octopus (2000) and its sequel, Octopus 2: River of Fear (2002), also feature giant octopuses. But by far the best octopus-like monster ever created onscreen is the “Watcher in the Water” in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Fig. 12. The Bermuda Blob Fig. 11. The Sea-Monster that came ashore on the Florida coast (1896)
Monsters of Mystery 261 J. MacFarlane, 1890, Illustrated Australian News 22. The Bunyip of the Billabong By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Anna Fox What have we here? a man or a fish? Dead or alive? A fish: he smells like a fish; A very ancient and fish-like smell… I shall laugh myself to death at this Puppy-headed monster. A most scurvy monster! A most ridiculous monster, To make a wonder of a poor drunkard! A howling monster: a drunken monster! —Shakespeare, Trinculo’s speech, The Tempest, 2:2 HE MOST FAMOUS OF AUSTRALIA’S Mystery Monsters is undoubtedly the Bunyip (“evil spirit” in the Aboriginal language). Also called Moolgewanke, Tuntabah, Tunatpan, and Wee-Waa, this fierce, bellowing Water-Monster is said to dwell at the bottom of still swamps, lakes, rivers, creeks, water holes, and billabongs (stagnant oxbow pools attached to waterways) of the Australian Outback. Their blood-curdling cries may be heard at night as they attack and devour any poor creatures that venture near their watery abodes. Generally described as being about the size of a calf, and resembling a dark, hairy seal or hippo—sometimes with long arms and enormous claws—the Bunyip has also been depicted with walrus-like tusks, fins, scales, flippers, wings, a long, horselike tail, and/or feathers. In Tasmania, it is called the Universal Eye, and is portrayed as a snake. Natives fear it greatly as a man-eater. During the early European settlement of Australia, when its unique creatures were still being discovered, it was generally assumed that the Bunyip was just another unknown but ordinary animal. Unfamiliar and unidentifiable nocturnal cries were attributed to the Bunyip. In 1846, the discovery of a bizarre skull on the banks of Murrumbidgee River in New South Wales—an area associated with such Bunyip calls—seemed to provide tangible evidence of the Bunyip’s existence. Several experts rashly concluded that it was something unknown to science, and in 1847, the alleged “Bunyip skull” was exhibited in the Australian Museum in Sydney. Unfortunately, the mysterious skull was later identified as that of a deformed horse or calf.1 Today, however, the word “Bunyip” is used much as “Bogey” is—to refer to some weird and spooky unknown critter that is slightly silly and probably imaginary. Depictions of these critters have become increasingly bizarre and preposterous over the years. The Rev. George Taplin described the Bunyip of Lake Alexandra as being half man and half fish, with hair resembling a wig of water weeds. It roared like a cannon and gave people rheumatism.2 Unfortunately, these associations have made the legendary creature a perfect subject of hoaxes, practical jokes, and bogus reports. It has entered the category of “Fearsome Critters (Chapter 17). Anyone claiming to have seen a Bunyip is assumed to be lying or drunk, and gets treated about as seriously as if he or she had claimed to have seen a Purple People-Eater. The expression, “Why search for the Bunyip?” (meaning that a proposed course of action is futile) arose from repeated but fruitless attempts to spot or capture the elusive creature. Fix. 2. “Bunyip” (1935), artist unknown, from the National Library of Australia digital collections Fig. 1. “The Bunyip of Aboriginal Legend,” Australian postage stamp by Toogarr Morrison
262 A Wizard’s Bestiary History By Anna Fox The earliest report in the strange history of the Bunyip is not of a sighting, but of a sound. In June of 1801, French explorers in the crew of the Géographie made their way inland along the Swan River from the bay on the southwestern tip of the Australian continent, which they had named after their vessel. Suddenly a terrible roar, louder than a bull’s bellow, rang out from the reeds along the riverside. The terrified explorers beat a hasty retreat, convinced that they had been threatened by some horrible Water-Monster.3 The first white person to sight the Bunyip was an escaped convict named William Buckley, who lived with the Aborigines in Victoria from 1803 to 1835. He reported seeing a Bunyip from the back more than once, and even tried to kill it with a spear. According to Buckley, the Bunyip was covered in grey feathers and was about the size of a full-grown calf.4 English explorer Hamilton Hume reported seeing an animal like a manatee or hippopotamus in Lake Bathurst, on the opposite side of the continent. Members of the Philosophical Society of Australasia immediately offered to pay all his expenses if he could obtain a specimen or the remains of this creature. Hume claimed to have found large bones in 1818 which could have belonged to a Bunyip, but he was never able to produce the bones for scientific study. Nevertheless, throughout the 19th century, it was common for the Australian newspapers to report Bunyip sightings, and many tales were invented by parents to discourage children from wandering off into the bush.5 In 1848, a creature identified as a Bunyip was sighted in Victoria’s Eumeralla River. It was described as a large brown animal with a long neck, a hairy mane, and a head like a kangaroo’s. Witnesses claimed it had an enormous mouth.6 The long neck and kangaroo-like head sounds much like a typical Lake-Monster, which is described in other lands as having a head like that of either a horse, a bull, a deer, a camel, or a giraffe. The heads and necks of all these creatures are remarkably similar in profile, suggesting that a real animal is involved. A similarly-described Lake-Monster seen in the Port Phillip area was called the Tunatpan: “It was as big as a bullock, with an emu’s head and neck, a horse’s mane, and seal’s flippers, which laid turtle’s eggs in a platypus’ nest, and ate blackfellows when it was tired of a crayfish diet.”7 Reports of such long-necked Bunyips have come only from New South Wales Fig. 5. Long-necked Bunyip by Alisa Stern The Greta Bunyip was said to dwell in the swamps of the Greta area, in Victoria. Locals often heard a loud booming sound coming from the swamps, yet no search parties were able to locate its source. When the swamps were drained, the night noises ceased. Some thought that the Bunyip had moved on, but others believed it had died when its habitat was destroyed.8 Aboriginal Tales By Anna Fox According to Aboriginal legend, Bunyip was originally a man who disobeyed the Rainbow Serpent by eating one of his own totem animals. He was banished from his tribe, and so decided to take on a spirit form and terrorize his people. He became the evil spirit known as the Bunyip. The Aboriginal people feared the Bunyip, and their folklore is full of legends of the Bunyip stealing tribe members near waterways at night. They rarely drew the Bunyip, possibly fearing that the image would attract the beast. But sometime during the Dreaming, a strange creature thought to be the Bunyip died by a creek in Victoria, so they stuck spears around the outline of the creature and later removed the turf within. This became a sacred site. The outline was maintained for many years, and was still there in 1840 when white settlers arrived to the area. By this time, the outline was about 30 feet long and had a shape that resembled a large seal (or the Loch Ness Monster). Eventually the outline faded.9 Fig. 3. “The Nature Spirit Bunyip,” Australian postage stamp by David Lancashire Fig. 4. “The Bunyip of Natural History,” Australian postage stamp by Marg Towt Fig. 6. Aboriginal drawing of Bunyip, Murray River area, 1848
Monsters of Mystery 263 Identifying the Bunyip In 1872, a possible Bunyip appeared and was described as a “puppy-headed monster.” The animal, which was also likened to “a big retriever dog, with a round head and hardly any ears,” came so close to a boater in Lake Corangamite that the terrified man capsized his boat.10 This sounds exactly like a seal, as do many of the sightings reported since. However, the Indo-Pacific Dugong (Dugong dugong) has also been proposed as a candidate, even though they are marine animals and not known to enter fresh water. Fig. 7. Dugong A creature sighted in a lagoon near Narrandera in 1872 or ‘73 was also compared to a retriever. This one was half the size, however, and covered in long, shiny, black hair. Another seal-headed beast was seen emerging from the water near Dalby in Queensland. This one had an asymmetrical double tail fin, which could be accounted for by an injury to a rear flipper.11 Similar aquatic creatures have also been sighted quite often in several Tasmanian lakes from the mid19th century into the 20th century, with the most recent report in 1932 near a large hydroelectric dam. Their length is always between 3 and 4 feet, and they have a rounded head similar to that of a bulldog. They have two little fins in front resembling small wings, and they move at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. Frequently they splash water up to 10 feet into the air.12 Other than those that bear a striking similarity to long-necked Lake-Monsters, sightings of dog-faced Bunyips are described with remarkable consensus. Inhabiting waterways in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory, it is commonly said to be a shaggy animal the size of a sheepdog or retriever, with a doglike head, very tiny or nonexistent ears, two front flippers, and a fluked tail. Its long hair is usually said to be jet-black, but one sighted in 1886 in a river near Canberra had a white coat. This description and the animal’s modest size suggest that the legendary Bunyip is nothing more than a seal. The two families of pinnipeds often exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism (with the males usually being twice the size of females) and sometimes even resemble entirely different species, especially in the case of elephant seals. Eleven known species of seals frequent Australian and Tasmanian waters—more than in any other area on Earth. Species of seals found in Australian waters Otariidae (Eared Seals) Arctocephalus forsteri, New Zealand Fur Seal (M 8 ft., 408 lbs.; F 4 ft., 154 lbs.) Arctocephalus gazella, Antarctic Fur Seal (M 6 ft., 293 lbs.; F 4 ft., 75 lbs.) Arctocephalus pusillus, Australian Fur Seal (M 7.7 ft., 154 lbs.; F 6 ft., 270 lbs.) Arctocephalus tropicalis, Subantarctic Fur Seal (M 6 ft., 364 lbs.; F 4.75 ft., 120 lbs.) Neophoca cinerea, Australian Sea Lion (M 6.7 ft., 660 lbs.; F 5 ft., 250 lbs.) Phocarctos hookeri, New Zealand Sea Lion (M 7.25 ft., 880 lbs.; F 6 ft., 507 lbs.) Phocidae (True or Hair Seals) Hydrurga leptonyx, Leopard Seal (M 9 ft., 720 lbs.; F 9.8 ft., 815 lbs.) Leptonychotes weddelli, Weddell Seal (M 8 ft., 860 lbs.; F 8.8 ft., 992 lbs.) Lobodon carcinophagus, Crabeater Seal (M 7.7 ft., 485 lbs.; F 7.7 ft., 485 lbs.) Mirounga leonina, Southern Elephant Seal (M 16 ft., 5,290 lbs.; F 9.8 ft., 1,500 lbs.) Ommatophoca rossi, Ross Seal (M 6.7 ft., 395 lbs.; F 6.7 ft., 395 lbs.)13 Fig. 10. Elephant seals Readers might question the presence of seals in freshwater lakes and rivers far from the sea. However, this is not unusual. Many seals are known to travel far inland up tributaries, and one species, the Baikal Fig. 8. Dog-faced Bunyip, by Giorgio Tarditi Fig. 9. Australian fur seal by Louise Jennison
264 A Wizard’s Bestiary Seal (Phoca siberica), lives only in the fresh waters of Siberia’s huge Lake Baikal (also, interestingly, the home of the legendary Baikal Lake-Monster). Australian fur seals have been known to swim up rivers during times of flood and become trapped within the river system once the flooding recedes. Dozens of these seals have been killed or captured as far north as Canberra—coincidentally, in areas where alleged Bunyips have been sighted.Other seals and sea lions have been seen in the great drainage basin of the Murray and Darling rivers.14 Dr. Charles Fenner mentions a seal killed at Conargo, 900 miles from the mouth of the Murrumbidgee. A sea leopard [leopard seal] was killed in the Shoalhaven River in 1870. When it was cut open an adult platypus was found in its stomach. As [Gilbert Whitely of the Australian Museum] remarked, “Surely a bunyip within a bunyip!”15 Fig. 11. Leopard seal Personally, I’ll never forget my eyeball-to-eyeball encounter with an adult male leopard seal at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. With a massive toothy head like a mammalian T-Rex, it glared back at me with uncanny predatory intelligence. Even now, a quarter of a century later, the recollection still raises the hair on the back of my neck. Encountering such a beast in a river or billabong in the wild Outback would definitely be an unnerving experience! Some cryptozoologists, however, have postulated that the Bunyip may have originally been Diprotodon australis, a gigantic Pleistocene wombat the size of a rhinoceros. It was depicted in rock paintings by the early Aborigines, who evidently hunted it to extinction about 10,000 years ago. These petrographs accurately include the characteristic large incisors that give the animal its scientific name, which means “two teeth in front.” Fig. 13. Diprotodon by Bob Guiliani Says Dr. Karl Shuker: “As far back as 1924, Dr C.W. Anderson of the Australian Museum had suggested that stories of the Bunyip could derive from aboriginal legends of the extinct diprodonts—a view repeated much more recently in Kadimakara (1985) by Australian zoologists Drs. Tim Flannery and Michael Archer, who nominated the palorchestids as plausible candidates.” The problem with this popular identification of Diprotodon with the legendary Bunyip is that there is no indication that the giant herbivore was amphibious and every reason to believe that it was not, because, as all indigenous Australian mammals are, it was a marsupial. There are no known amphibious or aquatic marsupials, extant or extinct, for the very good reason that they carry their babies in an open pouch on their bellies. Were such creatures to submerge, their babies would drown, effectively terminating their evolutionary lineage. Other Contributors to the Legend Children of the night —shut up! The raucous night cries of possums and koalas could understandably be mistaken for those of the Bunyip, as most people cannot imagine that these small, timid creatures are capable of making such loud racket. The Barking Owl (Ninox connivens), a nocturnal bird that lives around swamps and billabongs, may also be credited for making Bunyip noises. Its call can easily be taken for the cries of a woman or child. The booming call of the Brown Bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus) has earned it the nickname of the “Murray Bull.” And Bush-Stone Curlews (Burhinus grallarius) emit blood-curdling shrieks that have often been attributed to Bunyips. Fig. 12. Aboriginal petrograph of Dipro- 16 todon, believed to be 10,000 years old. Fig. 14. Brown Bittern
Monsters of Mystery 265 Jolly Swagmen It has been proposed that many sightings of supposed Bunyips from the 1890s through the 1930s were of nothing more than fugitives hiding from the law in the inhospitable swamps and billabongs. Along with transient workers, these outlaws were called swagmen or “swaggies,” for their canvas bedroll of belongings, or “swag.” Whenever they heard someone coming, they would take cover by ducking under the water. When they thought the coast was clear, they would emerge covered in muck and weeds. Any passerby would certainly have been frightened by this apparition and run off.17 Bunyips in Popular Culture Bunyip on the stage By the middle of the 19th century, the Bunyip had become an obvious element to add local color to a play or pantomime. For Christmas of 1916, one of the most popular pantomimes ever presented in Australia was The Bunyip, by Ella Airlie. An elaborate and expensive production, the plot involved the Fairy Princess being turned into a Bunyip by an evil Gnome. In Sydney alone, The Bunyip was seen by 150,000 people. Among its more memorable scenes was one in which real Aborigines threw boomerangs out over the heads of the audience.18 Fig. 16. “The Bunyip” playbill (1916) Bunyips commemorated In 1994, the Australian Postal Service issued a series of four highly popular stamps featuring different concepts of the Bunyip. Aboriginal artist Toogarr Morrison depicted his Bunyip as the traditional guardian of the waterholes in his homeland of Western Australia. It has a flat, beaver-like tail, which it uses to slap the water and lure victims to their doom. Marg Towt’s depiction is based on the reports of 19th-century settlers whose strange encounters in the Australian Outback convinced many that Bunyips were real animals. David Lancashire drew his Bunyip as a grotesque, winged creature similar to the medieval European Gargoyle. And Ron Brooks’s illustration from his 1973 children’s book, The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek, is an image beloved by generations of Australian children. Peering into a mirror, an endearing Bunyip asks, “What am I?”19 Monster Movies: The Bunyip During the 1950s and ‘60s, a children’s show called Bertie the Bunyip, created by Australian Lee Dexter, was aired in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dot and the Kangaroo (1977), an animated musical short from Australia, showed an aboriginal painting of the dreaded Bunyip during a song about the creature, and 10 years later, in the movie Dot and the Smugglers (1987), Dot tries to rescue the Bunyip along with other native animals. During the 1980s, Australian children’s books and TV featured Michael Salmon’s friendly “Alexander Bunyip.” On the Australian children’s show, Hi-5, Kellie Hoggart took a journey to “Bunyip Island.” In the children’s show Mona the Vampire, a Bunyip appears as a large, brown, rabbit-like creature. In the 1986 Australian film Frog Dreaming, a Bunyip known as “Donkegin” is reputed to haunt a quarry. And on the TV series Charmed, the Bunyip is one of many demonic creatures the charmed ones must battle. In the show’s Book of Shadows, its depiction resembles a Tauntaun from the second Star Wars movie.20 Fig. 18. Bunyip from The Book of Shadows on Charmed Fig. 15. Swagman Fig. 17. “The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek” Australian postage stamp by Ron Brooks
266 A Wizard’s Bestiary Arial Anomalies 23. Thunderbirds, Rocs, and Other Awesome Avians By Ash DeKirk and Oberon Zell-Ravenheart upon the ships of Abdal al-Rahman in retaliation for his sailors killing a Roc chick. Stories of the Roc can be traced back to the Greek Historian Herodotus (484–424 BCE), who was told by Egyptian priests of birds so huge they could carry off a person. The story recounted in the Arabian Nights first appeared in the Jatakas of India, a great compendium of folktales dating from at least the 4th century BCE. However, the great bird is not named as a Roc. Crusaders brought the story back to Europe in the Middle Ages, and in the 13th century, Marco Polo described the Roc in some detail.2 Early accounts do not specify if the Roc is actually a raptor or not, but today it is universally regarded as such. Some myths say that the Roc never lands on Earth but only on the mountain known as Qaf, in The people of the island [of Madagascar] report that at a certain season of the year, an extraordinary kind of bird which they call a Rukh, makes its appearance from the southern region. In form it is said to resemble the eagle but it is incomparably greater in size; being so large and strong as to seize an elephant with its talons, and to lift it into the air, from whence it lets it fall to the ground, in order that when dead it may prey upon the carcass. Persons who have seen this bird assert that when the wings are spread they measure sixteen paces in extent, from point to point; and that the feathers are eight paces in length, and thick in proportion. —Marco Polo, Travels (III, 36) HE SKY DARKENS SUDDENLY, THE shadow of huge wings sweeping the ground. A crack of thunder as the Roc dives, then it is gone again, an elephant clutched in massive claws. Giant birds have held sway over our imaginations since perhaps as long as humanity has existed—perhaps longer. In his book, An Instinct for Dragons, author David Jones proposes that Dragons are an amalgamation of the three great predators of our earliest ancestors: the big cats, the serpents, and the raptors—the birds of prey. He suggests that our earliest primate ancestors were hunted by these predators and, through what Jung might call the “world mind,” we have retained these memories even until today.1 If this be true, such memories might account for many of our mythic creatures, be they Dragon, Gryphon, or giant birds. Even so, the Roc and the Thunderbird are awe-inspiring figures, symbolically representing storms, wind, thunder, and lightning. Watch for Falling Rocs The Roc (Persian, Rukh or Rucke) is a bird of immense size found in Persian and Indian myth. It lived on the island of Madagascar, and was said to be large enough to carry off elephants to feed its gigantic chicks. In the “Voyages of Sinbad,” found within the famous Arabian Thousand Nights and a Night, or Arabian Nights (compiled ca. 800–900 CE), a Roc attacks Sinbad and destroys some of his ships in retaliation for the destruction of one of its eggs. In another story out of the same book, Rocs drop boulders Fig. 1. Roc attacking Abdal al-Rahman’s ship Ian Daniels
Monsters of Mystery 267 the center of the world. The Roc was said to have a wingspan of some 48 feet and its feathers alone could measure up to 24 feet long. In the mid-1200s, gigantic feathers said to be from the Roc were presented to Kublai Khan, grandson of Emperor Genghis Khan. These, however, were actually dried fronds of the Raffia Palm (Raphia), the longest leaves in the plant kingdom, which reach an impressive 80 feet. Fig. 2. The gigantic egg of the Roc The origin of the legend of the Roc may be found in Madagascar’s enormous, flightless Elephant Bird or Vouron Patra (Aepyornis maximus), which reached 11 feet in height and weighed 1,100 pounds. Its 3- foot-circumference eggs had a liquid capacity of 2.35 gallons. Bigger than any dinosaur eggs, these were the largest single cells to have ever existed on Earth. This awesome avian was exterminated by humans in the 16th century. Because Vourons had insignificant wings, and black, down-like pilli rather than true feathers, they were thought to be only the chicks of truly colossal flying adults. Consider that two of the four Arabian Nights tales involving the Roc focus on its enormous eggs and chicks. Sinbad found a Roc’s egg to be as large as 148 hen’s eggs; the egg of Aepyornis maximus actually had a volume about 160 times greater than that of a chicken.3 Malcolm South has suggested that tales of the Roc may have been created to explain meteorites, as several of the stories have the giant birds dropping huge stones, particularly on ships. This would also seem to be a possible origin for the tale of the Ababil. According to the Quran, these were huge birds that saved the city of Mecca in the year of Mohammed’s birth (571 CE) by dropping bricks on an attacking army of elephants. Ababil is now a local name for the common Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica).4 And Peter Costello suggests that the huge Wandering Albatross (Diomeda exultans) could have also contributed to the legend of the Roc. It holds the record as having the largest wingspan of any living bird—some reported as large as 17.5 feet across. Fig. 4. Wandering albatross Thunderbirds The Native American equivalent of the Roc, the Thunderbird is said to carry off bison or even whales. Its feathers are as long as canoe paddles, and when it flaps its wings, thunder sounds, the wind roars, and lightning flashes from its eyes. The Thunderbird is often described as a giant, condor-like creature, though sometimes it resembles a more hawk-like raptor. They were said to have been sent from the gods to protect humanity from evil. In other cases, they are regarded as shapeshifters, and are believed to take a human form at times and intermarry with people. In some Native American myths, the Thunderbird is the enemy of the killer whale. In others, it is the enemy of giant, horned Water-Dragons, the Unktehi (see the book Dragonlore for a recounting of this tale, called “The Tlanuhwa and the Uktena”). The Tlanuhwa resembles a Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) of gigantic proportions, and is believed to have been the progenitor of this magnificent predator. There are caves along the Tennessee River where the Tlanuhwa were said to have once dwelt. Thunderbirds are known by various local names among different tribes. In Iroquois tradition, the chief of the Thunderbirds is Keneun, the guardian of the sacred fire. To the Kwakiutl it is Jojo, its Nootka name is Kw-Uhnx-Wa, and the Ojibwa word for it is Animikii. Its Alaskan Inuit name is Tinmiukpuk, an immense eagle that carries off caribou and lone humans in its mighty talons and takes them back to its mountain nest to be devoured. Wuchowsen is a colossal bird in the folklore of the Maliseet-Passamaquoddy of New England. It sits still on its rock at the northernmost point of the world, and the slightest rustling of its feathers sends winds Fig. 3. 11-ft. tall Elephant Bird or Vouron Patra Fig. 5. Thunderbird - Kwakiutl
268 A Wizard’s Bestiary Fig. 6. Thunderbird - Lakota across the entire Earth. The same bird is called Bmola in the mythology of the Western Abanaki. It is also known as the Wind Bird, as it is associated with the frigid winds that sweep down from the frozen North in winter. Kaneakeluh is a great cosmic bird in the mythology of the Kwaiutl of British Columbia, Canada; it brought fire to humanity. The Lakota call the Thunderbirds Wakinyan or Waukkeon, and identify four types that can be distinguished in part by the brilliant colors of their feathers: blue Wakinyan have no eyes or ears, black ones have huge beaks, and yellow ones have no beak at all. Red Wakinyan are like great, scarlet eagles. Oshädagea (“dew eagle” or “big eagle of the dew”) is a rather unusual Thunderbird in the mythology of the northeastern Woodlands Iroquois. He dwells in the western sky and carries a lake of dew in a hollow on his back, which he sprinkles over the land each morning to keep it fertile. When there is a forest fire caused by evil demons, he scoops water from the sea to douse the flames and routs the demons. Nihniknoovi is a monstrous predatory bird in the folklore of the Kawaiisu Tubatulabal of the Southwest. It hunts humans, carrying his victims in its great talons to a waterhole where it drains their blood before eating the corpses. Thunderbirds have been sighted throughout the United States, but mostly in the West and Midwest. One of the most famous encounters was reported in 1890 in Arizona. Two cowboys supposedly shot and killed an enormous, birdlike creature with a whopping 160-foot-wide wingspan, far outstripping the wingspans of more recent Thunderbird sightings and vastly outreaching the wingspans of any known bird species. Although that report is generally considered a hoax, a more modest, but still quite large, specimen of a condor-like bird with a 20- to 30-foot-wide wingspan was said to have been killed sometime in the late 1800s. Although a photo of the bird “strung up with outstretched wings against a barn, with six men with outstretched arms fingertip to fingertip, to show its size”5 was said to have been published in the Tombstone Epitaph, all trace of it has disappeared, though it has been redrawn from memory (Fig. 8). In all likelihood, this was a California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus), though this bird generally attains a wingspan no wider than 9 feet. Thunderbirds are commonly identified with the California Condor or even the Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus), which is known to reach a wingspan of more than 15 feet. Some cryptozoologists have proposed that the original Thunderbird may have been the giant Pleistocene raptor Aiolornis incredibilis, which had a wingspan of 17 feet. This huge bird of prey has also been called a giant condor, though it is not related to modern condors. Even the smaller IceAge Teratornis merriami of California, with its 12- foot wingspan, may have contributed to the legends. And recently, fossils have been found of an Argentine teratorn which stood 5 feet tall and had an astonishing wingspan of 24 feet! Though Thunderbirds are usually likened to condors or other raptor birds, there is some speculation that they may represent relic specimens of pterosaurs—a theory based either on fossils or on continuing reports of live sightings. As Thunderbirds are often portrayed with long crests at the backs of their heads, they have often been equated with the great crested Pteranodon, which attained a wingspan of 27 feet. The largest of the known flying reptiles, however, was Quetzalcoatlus northropi, which boasted a wingspan of some 40-50 feet. Though it is now believed that many dinosaurs actually had feathers, pterosaurs were not dinosaurs, and were hairy, like bats. The 1890 Arizona specimen was said to be featherless, with skin wing flaps instead, and an elongated head and beak some 8 feet in length. Was it a relic pterosaur or not? We may never know. (For more information on possible living pterosaurs see Chapter 24. “Leather Wings.”) Fig. 7. Wakinyan - Lakota Fig. 8. Thunderbird shot in late 1800s Fig. 9. Pteranodon by Bob Giuliani
Monsters of Mystery 269 There is also the possibility that the Thunderbird myth originated with Titanis walleri, North America’s only (thus far) recorded phorusrhacid, or “terror bird.” Some sources say that Titanis did not become extinct until as recently as 15,000 years ago, though others claim it died out at least 1.8 million years ago. Fossil remains have been found in Texas and Florida, indicating the wide range of these awesome birds, and they would certainly have impressed any Indians who came upon them. All terror birds are giant, flightless, predatory birds with heavy, hooked beaks the size of a horse’s head. Most species have been recorded in South America and Mesoamerica. Titanis stood up to 10 feet tall and may, like the elephant bird, have been regarded as the chick of a much larger raptor. In 1838, a 5-year-old girl named Marie Delex was playing with a friend on a mountainside in the Valais, Switzerland. Suddenly a gigantic eagle swooped out of the sky and carried her off, despite the screams of her companion. Searchers found only one of her shoes on the edge of a precipice. The great bird’s nest was located, and inside it were two eaglets surrounded by heaps of goat and sheep remains; of little Marie there was no sign. Two months later a shepherd discovered her mutilated corpse lying on a rock a mile and a half from where she had been seized.6 The only known bird this could have been is the Lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus). Also called lion eagle or bearded vulture, it is the basis of the legend of the Gryphon. The world’s mightiest raptor, its German name means “lamb stealer,” which is what it is known for. But it is not believed to be capable of carrying off prey as large as a child. (See Chapter 9. “Gryphons and Hippogriffs.”) In 1868, an 8-year-old boy named Jemmie Kenney was snatched from a schoolyard in Tippah County, Missouri, by an enormous eagle, which bore him aloft. In response to shouts, the monstrous bird dropped the boy, but he died from the cruel talons and the fall. In July of 1977, a Thunderbird was sighted in Lawndale, Illinois. Around 9:00 p.m. on the 25th, three young boys were playing in their yard when they were attacked by a giant bird. One of the boys suffered scratches on his shoulder when the bird grabbed him and carried him for a distance of roughly 2 feet before dropping him. The boys said the bird was black with a white ruff, which fits the description of a condor.7 As recently as June and July of 2001, Thunderbird sightings were reported from Pennsylvania. Witnesses say the bird had a wingspan of about 15 feet and a head roughly 3 feet in length. It was described as being grayish-black in color with a long, thin beak. More sightings occurred in late September of the same year. One of the most recent sightings occurred in 2002 off the coast of Alaska, but it is believed that this may have been a wayward Stellar’s Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus). At 26 pounds, and with a wingspan up to 8 feet, this is the largest eagle in North America Other Giant Birds of Note Ai Tojon—A great, two-headed eagle of Siberian myth, the Ai Tojon lives at the very top of the World Tree, from which he shines forth light over all the world. Angka—An enormous Arabian bird large enough to carry off an elephant. Much like the Phoenix, it lives 1,700 years, at the end of which time it burns itself to ashes and rises again. Because of its great size, it has also been associated with the Roc. The Arabs believed that they were originally created as perfect birds, but that, over time, they eventually devoured all the animals on Earth and started carrying off children. The people appealed to God, who prevented the Anka from multiplying; thus it eventually became extinct.8 Anzu (or Zû) —A gigantic storm-bird in ancient Mesopotamian mythology. Like a Gryphon, it has a lion’s body and the head of an eagle with a saw-like beak, though it was sometimes said to have the body of an eagle and the head and torso of a bearded man. It is the attendant of Tiamet, the great, primordial serpent-Dragon. Bar Juchne (or Bar Yacre)—In Talmudic Jewish legend, this is an enormous bird, similar to the Fig.11. Titanis wallleri Fig. 12. Marie Delex carried off by an “eagle” in the Swiss Alps, 1838 Fig. 13. Ai Tojon by Ash Fig. 14. Angka
270 A Wizard’s Bestiary Roc, whose wingspan can eclipse even the sun. It preys on cattle and even humans. It was said that, once upon a time, an egg fell from a Bar Juchne nest, shattering 300 trees and flooding 60 villages. Crocho—An immense bird said to dwell on Cape Daib (Cape Corrientes) at the tip of Africa. It was said to be 60 paces from wing tip to wing tip, and able to carry off elephants. According to Fra Mauro (1459), in 1420, an Indian junk putting in at the coast discovered an egg of this bird that was “as big as a butt” (a butt is a large cask holding a volume of 126 gallons). Garuda (or Taraswin, “swift one”)—A gigantic, manlike bird of Hindu mythology who is the celestial mount of the god Vishnu. He has the body, wings, talons, and head of an eagle-vulture (lammergeier), but with a human face and limbs. His colors are gold, scarlet, and green. He is the sworn enemy of the snakelike Nagas. Emblemizing royalty throughout Southeast Asia, he is also the symbol of the Indonesian Garuda Airlines. In Thailand he is called Galon or Khrut. 9 Hraesvelg (“corpse-eater”; or Windmaker)—A vast, eagle-like bird of Norse mythology that nests upon the icy peaks of the frozen North. Her eaglets are the frigid winds blasted forth by the flapping of her mighty wings. Kreutzet—A vast eagle of the folklore of northwestern Russia. Kusa Kap—A gigantic hornbill bird inhabiting one of the many tiny islands in the Torres Strait, which separates New Guinea from the northern tip of Queensland, Australia. With a 22- foot wingspan, this avian prodigy is said to carry dugongs aloft in its mighty claws, much as the fabled Roc is said to carry off elephants. The sound of its wings in flight is said to resemble the roar of a steam engine—a characteristic feature of the Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) (shown), which attains a length of 4 feet and a wingspan of 5 feet.10 Naui—A giant bird of Russian folklore resembling a Dragon, with the head and talons of an eagle. Ngani-vatu (or Ngutu-lei)—A gigantic predatory bird in the folklore of the island of Fiji. Its vast body eclipses the sun, and the flapping of its mighty wings causes great storms. It preyed upon the animals and people of the Pacific Islands until it was destroyed by the hero Okova and his brotherin-law, Kokoua. The Ngoima—An enormous eagle said by local natives to be dwelling in the forests of the African Congo. With a wingspan of 9–13 feet, it preys upon monkeys and goats. Its plumage is dark brown above and paler beneath. Its legs and talons are as large as a man’s forearms and hands. This is certainly an exaggerated description of the rarely seen Crowned Eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus), the most powerful eagle in Africa, whose diet consists of monkeys and even small antelopes. There have even been reports of the remains of a human child having been found in the nest of a crowned eagle, though the eagle may have found the child as carrion rather than actually having killed it. The Martial Eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus), Africa’s largest eagle species, is also known to attack impala and duikers. Recently, subfossils were found of the Crowned Hawk-Eagle (Stephanoaetus mahery), the largest and strongest bird of prey of prehistoric Madagascar, which only became extinct after people settled on the island. It was a giant variant within the Stephanoaetus raptor family, which also includes the crowned eagle. P’êng (or Pyong)—A vast bird of Chinese legend that is the metamorphosed form of the huge fish called Kw’ên. Its outspread wings cover the sky from horizon to horizon. It lives in the north, but each year it rises thousands of feet into the air and flies toward the south, bringing the typhoon season.11 Pheng—A bird from Japanese legend that is so gigantic it eclipses the sun and can carry off and eat a camel, much like the Roc of Arabian myth. Pouakai (or Pouki)— A monstrous predatory bird of Maori legend. It hunted livestock and people until the last one was trapped in a great net and stabbed to death by the hero Hau-o-Tawera. This was a real creature, the giant Haast’s or Harpagornis Eagle (Harpagornis moorei), that once lived on the South Island of New Zealand. Exterminated only 600 years Fig. 15. Garuda Fig. 16. Kusa Kap Fig. 17. Crowned eagle Fig. 18. Pheng Fig. 19. Pouakai (Haast’s eagle) attacking a moa
Monsters of Mystery 271 ago, it was the largest eagle to have ever lived. A female weighed 22–30 pounds and stood 4 feet tall, with a wingspan of 8–10 feet. 12 Raichô (“thunder bird”)—A fabulous giant rook or crow-like bird in Japanese folklore. He lives in a tall pine tree, and his raucous calls summon the storms. This is also the name of a real bird, Lagopus mutus, a kind of ptarmigan or grouse. Sampati—A giant human-headed bird in Hindu mythology that was the offspring of the great Garuda. In the Râmâyana, Hanuman, the monkey-god, asks Sampati to help find the goddess Sita, who has been abducted to Ravana by the demon king who killed Sampati’s brother, Jataya. Sampati flies to Sri Lanka and locates Sita, returning to inform Hanuman and his army how to destroy Ravana and effect Sita’s rescue. And thus Sampati avenges his brother’s death.13 Simurgh (or Sîna-Mrû, Simarghu, Simurg, Sumargh: “30 birds”)—The magnificent king of the birds in Arabian legend, representing divine unity. Its beautiful feathers are prized for their healing properties. Similar to the Roc, it is so huge that it can carry off an elephant or a camel, but it is also known to take human children into its nest to foster them. Derived from the Senmurv, it dwells in the mountains of Alberz in northern Persia. As the Phoenix does, this wise and peaceful bird lives for either 1,700 or 2,000 years. Some accounts claim it is immortal, nesting in the Tree of Knowledge. It is said to be so old that it has seen the destruction of the world three times over. A bird of the same name attended the queen of Sheba. It had brass feathers, a silver head, a human face, four wings, a vulture’s talons, and a peaco*ck’s tail.14 Vuokho—A monstrous, malevolent bird in the legends of the Lapps of Finland and Scandinavia. The beat of its vast wings creates thunder, and it inflicts misery upon humanity. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote of the Vuokho in his poem, “The Destiny of Nations.” Xexeu—Gigantic birds in the mythology of the Cashmawa Indians of South America. Similar to the North American Thunderbirds, they are responsible for bringing the clouds together to create huge storms. Most likely these creatures derive from the magnificent Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus), with its 10-foot-wide wingspan. Yata Garasu—A three-legged crow of immense proportions. In Japanese mythology, the Yata Garasu serves as a divine messenger. It makes a more modern appearance in the popular card game Yu-Gi-Oh! Zägh—A gigantic bird of Islamic legend, it has a human head and the ability to understand and speak all human languages. Ziz(also Renanim, “celestial singer”; Sekwi, “the seer”; “Son of the Nest”)— An enormous bird of Hebrew legend, much like the Roc. It is so huge that when it stands in the middle of the ocean, the water comes only to its knees. It can block out the sun with its vast wings and has incredible strength. Once upon a time an addled egg broke, washing away 300 cedar trees and drowning 60 villages. Equated with the Persian Chamrosh, the Ziz was said to have been created to protect all the small birds, which would have otherwise died out long ago. According to rabbinical tradition, the meat of this bird will be served, along with that of the Behemoth and the Leviathan, at a great victory feast at the end of the world. Corresponding to the giant archetypal creatures of Persian mythology, the trio of the Behemoth, Leviathan, and Ziz was traditionally a favorite decorative motif for rabbis living in Germany.15 Monster Movies: giant birds The Giant Claw a.k.a. Mark of the Claw (1957)— Giant Buzzard The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)—Roc Mysterious Island (1961)—Phorusrhacos Food of the Gods (1976)—Giant Chicken The Hobbit (animated, 1977) Giant Eagles The Rescuers Down Under (animated, 1990)— Thunderbird LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)—Giant Eagle LOTR: Return of the King (2003)—Giant Eagles Fig. 20. Raicho Fig. 21. Sampati Fig. 22. Simurgh Fig. 23. Xexeu Fig. 21. Sampati Fig. 25. Ziz Fig. 24. Zägh
272 A Wizard’s Bestiary 24. Leather Wings By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart Professor Challenger, who with the two local Indians was in the van of the party, stopped suddenly and pointed excitedly to the right. As he did so we saw, at the distance of a mile or so, something which appeared to be a huge gray bird flap slowly up from the ground and skim smoothly off, flying very low and straight, until it was lost among the tree-ferns. “Did you see it?” cried Challenger, in exultation. “Summerlee, did you see it?” His colleague was staring at the spot where the creature had disappeared. “What do you claim that it was?” he asked. ”To the best of my belief, a pterodactyl.” —Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Lost World, Chapter 8; 19121 T’S HARD TO IMAGINE A SCENE OF DInosaurs without great Pterosaurs soaring overhead. It used to be thought that they were mere gliders, incapable of flapping their vast wings for sustained flight. They were envisioned hanging upside-down from cliff faces, like bats, and dropping into a gliding swoop. But it is now the consensus that the smaller ones flew as well as birds, and the truly huge ones, such as Pteranodon (with a 27-ft wingspan) and Quetzalcoatlus (with a wingspan of forty feet!) could take off as easily as a kite into a light breeze, and soar aloft for days, scarcely moving their mighty wings, much like albatrosses. Evidence has emerged that some of them migrated across entire oceans to reach their nesting grounds. The first vertebrates to evolve true flight, Pterosaurs (“winged lizards”) were flying reptiles with their front limbs modified into wings of webbed skin like the wings of bats. Since the wing is supported by an enormously elongated little finger, they are also called Pterodactyls (“wing-finger”). They were furry, evidently warm-blooded, with large and sophisticated brains. They ruled the Mesozoic skies from 228-65 million years ago. In the terminology of Medieval Dragonlore, they would be called Wyverns. Fig. 1. Rhamphorynchus—early reconstruction The Wyvern (or Wivern) is a kind of flying serpentine Dragon with bat-like wings, two avian hind legs with eagle talons, and a long barbed tail. Basically, it is a Pterosaur, like ramphorhynchus. Variants include the Sea-Wyvern, which has a fishlike tail. Wyverns have been described as the largest form of Dragon, able to prey on such huge creatures as elephants and rhinos. In Heraldry, the Wyvern symbolizes war, pestilence, envy and viciousness. The default coloration of a Heraldic Wyvern is green with a red chest, belly and under-wings. Living Pterosaurs? Although they are supposed to have been extinct for 65 million years, sightings of apparent living Pterosaurs are still reported from time to time. Snallygaster (or Snollygoster) was a Pterosaurlike beast said to inhabit the Blue Ridge Mountains near Braddock Heights, Maryland, USA. The first German settlers in the 1730s were terrorized by a monster they called Schnellgeiste (“quick spirit”). It was described as half-reptile, half-bird, with a metallic beak and razor-sharp teeth. It swooped silently from the sky to carry off its victims and suck their blood. Sevenpointed stars to keep the Snallygaster at bay can still be seen painted on local barns. Ian Daniels Fig. 2. Heraldic Wyvern Fig. 3. Snallygaster
Monsters of Mystery 273 In The Illustrated London News (February 9, 1856, page 166) it was reported that workmen cutting a tunnel for a railway line, between Saint-Dizier and Nancy, in France, were blasting through Jurassic limestone when a bizarre winged creature tumbled out of a cavity. It fluttered its wings, made a hoarse croaking noise, and dropped dead. According to the workers, the creature had oily black leathery skin, a 10-ft.- 7-in. wingspan, and four long legs with “crooked talons,” joined by a membrane. The size of “a large goose,” it had a long neck, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. The body was brought to Gray, where, a paleontology student identified the animal as a Pterodactyl anas [“wing-fingered duck”—a made-up species]2 This incredible story is simply a hoax. At the time, many exquisite fossils were being extracted from Bavaria’s Solnhofen Limestone (which would later yield the famed Archaeopteryx). Each of these discoveries was triumphantly announced by German paleontologists. The tunnel in question was through limestone of similar age to the Solnhofen beds, so some French wags decided to do the Germans one better.3 In April of 1890, two cowboys in Arizona allegedly killed an enormous bird-like creature with smooth skin and featherless leathery wings like a bat. Its head resembled that of an alligator. They said they had come upon it in the desert, and it was apparently sick or wounded. The animal managed to take off and fly about half a mile before sinking to the ground again, where the cowboys finished it off with rifles. Fig. 5. Cowboy wrestling Pteranodon (Valley of the Gwangi) Harry McClure was a young man living in Lordsburg, New Mexico in 1910 when the two cowboys came to town, telling of their encounter 20 years earlier. 60 years later, in a letter to the Summer 1970 issue of Old West Magazine, McClure recalled their description of the creature: “Its eyes were like saucers; its two legs and feet up at the front part of its body were the size of those of a horse; its hide was leathery, instead of feathery. It lit on the ground once at a safe distance from the two cowboys, but it took to the air again soon afterwards only to come down again a second time...”4 According to the account published in the April 26 edition of Arizona’s Tombstone Epitaph, the cowboys paced off the dimensions of their monster as an astonishing 92-ft long, with a wingspan of 160-ft! The cowboys cut off a wingtip and took it into the town of Tombstone. Plans were made to skin the creature for a museum, but nothing further was ever reported.5 But another version of the story is that they dragged the entire carcass back to town, where it was pinned, wings outstretched, across the entire side of a barn. This time, its wingspan was said to be “only” 20-30 ft. This account—supposedly with a photo— was reprinted in 1969, but no one now seems to be able to track down a copy, and the hunt for the elusive photo has itself become a cryptozoological quest. I suspect that this case (and photo) has become confused with a different story involving an alleged frontier snapshot of a dead “Thunderbird” held up with 20-30 ft wings outstretched, with six men standing behind it to demonstrate its size. (See Chapter 23. “Thunderbirds”) Another mysterious photo claims to show a dead Pterosaur surrounded by Civil War soldiers, but no further information on it seems to be available: Fig. 5. Photo of trophy Pteronodon killed in Civil War In Feb.-Mar. 1909, residents of Braddock Heights, Maryland (previous haunt of the legendary Snallygaster) reported sightings of a creature with “enormous wings, a long pointed bill, claws like steel hooks, and an eye in the center of its forehead.” It screeched “like a locomotive whistle.” The Smithsonian Institute offered a reward for the hide, and President Theodore Roosevelt considered postponing an African safari to personally hunt for the beast. But after the initial flurry, nothing more was heard of it. From late 1975 through early 1976, people along the lower Rio Grande valley between Texas and Mexico reported a wave of “big bird” sightings. The avian anomalies were described as impossibly huge, with membranous wings like bats, and often cat-like faces. In January 1976, two sisters, Libby and Deanie Ford, saw a large strange “bird” standing by a pond Fig. 4. Pterodactyls on ground
274 A Wizard’s Bestiary Fig. 6. Pteranodon (Bob Giulani) outside of Brownsville, Texas. They said it was as tall as a person, all black, with a face like a cat. Later, they identified it from a book as being a pteranodon. Given their description, this seems like a very odd identification indeed; a pteranodon’s head looks like a pickax, not a cat! A few days later, southwest of San Antonio, Texas, three schoolteachers were driving to work when a large flying creature swooped low over the highway at about the height of the phone poles. It cast a shadow across the width of the road, and by that the women estimated its wingspan as 15-20 ft. They said they could see the bones of the bat-like wings through the grey membrane that covered them. Later, at school, they pored through encyclopedias and found a picture of what they had seen. It was a pteranodon. This story was reported in the San Antonio Light, Feb. 26, 1976.6 Throughout the year, other residents of the Rio Grande Valley were terrorized by a five-foot-tall, gorilla-faced creature, with blood-red eyes and bat-like wings. It became known as “Big Bird.” But no sightings have been reported since. Interestingly, Fortean investigators Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman found similar reports in that region tracing back over 30 years; and even earlier, local Indian folklore included legends of such creatures. On the other side of the country, in Woodbine, Maryland, another pterosaur-creature was sighted in 1980. Recalling the local legend of the Snallygaster, it was six feet tall, brownish-grey, and stood on two legs like a man. It flapped its wings as it flew away. This, however, seems certainly to have been a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). This magnificent bird stands five feet tall, with a wingspan of seven feet. It really does look much like a pteranodon in flight, even to having a sweptback plume of feathers on its head like the bony crest of that pterosaur. And finally, a bizarre, bat-winged nocturnal primate is said to dwell in the dense forests surrounding Mt. Saint Helens in the state of Washington, USA. Dubbed Batsquatch, it has purple skin, red eyes, and a simian head with bat-like features. Some cryptozoologists speculate that it may be an unknown species of fruit bat. But none of these fructivorous chiroptera are known to be indigenous to North America. South American Pterosaurs Legends of giant flying creatures in South America predate the arrival of the Conquistadores, and continue into modern times. Indeed, some of these were surely an inspiration to Arthur Conan Doyle for setting the locale of his “Lost World” in Venezuela. In April of 1868, mine workers in Copiapo, Chile, were preparing for supper when they sighted “a gigantic bird, which at first we took for one of the clouds then partially darkening the atmosphere, supposing it to have been separated from the rest by the wind.” As it flew over their heads, they could see that its immense wings were not feathered, but webbed in skin like those of a bat. This story was reported in the July, 1968 issue of The Zoologist.7 In February of 1947, Mr. J. Harrison of Liverpool, England, was navigating an estuary of the Amazon when he and others observed a flight of five huge “birds” flying down the river in a V formation. In an unpublished letter to the Fortean Times, Harrison said: “The wingspan must have been at least twelve feet from tip to tip. They were brown in colour like brown leather, with no visible signs of feathers. The head was flat on top, with a long beak and a long neck. The wings were ribbed…just like those large prehistoric birds.”8 Here is the drawing he enclosed with his letter: Fig. 8. J. Harrison’s drawing of a “prehistoric bird” he saw over the Amazon in 1947 And in 1992, the Australian weekly magazine People reported a close encounter between a small commuter airplane and a huge flying reptile over the mountains of Brazil. The creature appeared alongside as the plane was preparing to land, and the pilot had to veer away to avoid a collision. Stewardess Maya Cabon said: “Here was this giant monster flying right next to the plane. He was only a few feet from the window—and he looked right at me. I thought we were all going to die.” U.S. anthropologist Dr. George Biles, one of the 24 passengers aboard, elaborated: “This was a classic case of a white pterodactyl with a giant wingspan. Of course, I’ve heard the rumors for many years that these prehistoric creatures still roamed the Amazon. But I was skeptical like everybody else. But that wasn’t an airplane of a UFO flying beside us. It was a pterodactyl.”9 African Pterosaurs From swampy regions of Zambia, Congo, Angola, and Kenya come reports of Kongamato (“Overwhelmer of Boats”). Numerous reported sightings of Fig. 7. Great Blue Heron
Monsters of Mystery 275 these large, leathery-winged flying creatures have led cryptozoologists to speculate that there may be a relic population of Pterodactyls still living in Africa. They are colored black or red, and are named for their proclivity of capsizing canoes. Frank H. Mellon, in his In Witchbound Africa (1923),10 described them as smooth-skinned, with toothy beaks and wingspans of 4-7 ft. Another witness said the wings made a loud thunderous noise when flapped. When they are shown pictures of pterosaurs, all witnesses immediately identify them as Kongamoto. It is far more likely, however, that these creatures are actually Hammerhead Bats (Hypsignathus monstrosus), Africa’s largest bat species. They are dark gray with black wings spanning three feet, and have elongated, dog-like snouts. In 1925, southern Rhodesia produced reports of a Kongamato attack on a man in a swamp, and reports issued from Africa in 1928, 1942, the 1950s, up through modern times, including a colleague of cryptozoologist Roy Mackal’s who saw one in 1988.11 Either the same or another gigantic black pterodactyl-like creature was encountered in 1932 in the Assumbo Mountains of the African Cameroons by zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson and naturalist Gerald Russell in 1932. As they were crossing a river, it dived at them, then flew away. Apparently the size of an eagle, it had “pointed white teeth set about their own width apart from each other” and “Dracula-like wings.” They saw it again that evening. Locals called the creature Olitiau. Sanderson later speculated that the beast was probably an exceptionally large specimen of the Hammerhead Bat. But there’s a huge gap between the 3-ft wingspan of the Hammerhead, and the 12-ft span Sanderson estimated for the Olitiau! Guiafairo is a great grey flying creature reported from West Africa, where it hides in caves and hollow trees during the day, emerging only at night. It has clawed feet and a human-like head. Cryptozoologists speculate that it may be an unknown species of giant bat, or another example of the Hammerhead Bat. New Guinea flyers Gigantic flying predators have also been reported in Papua New Guinea. Called Duah, they have a 24-foot leathery wingspan, a long, toothless beak and a large head crest, precisely matching the image of a Pteranodon. Likewise, they are oceanic fish-eaters, though there are reports of vicious and fatal attacks on humans. Another Pterodactyl-like creature has been reported from the jungles of New Guinea since the 1950s. The Ropen (“Demon Flyer”) lives in caves along the islands of New Britain and Umboi, and flies only at night. It has leathery wings spanning 3-4 ft, a narrow, tooth-filled beak, a head crest, webbed feet, and a long tail culminating in a diamond-shaped flange. It is said to feast on decaying flesh, harassing funerals to attack the corpse. The description sounds uncannily like a Rhamphorynchus, believed to have been extinct for 65 million years. I have personally visited several of those islands, climbed their cliffs, and explored their caves. Alas, I found no pterodactyls, only fruit bats. It is virtually certain that these New Guinea sightings are all of large fruit bats, most likely the Bismark Flying Fox (Pteropus neohibernicus), with a wingspan of 5.5-6 ft. Recognized by science as the world’s largest living species of bat, it is native to New Guinea and the Bismark Archipelago. Fig. 9. Kongamato attack, by William M. Rebsamen Fig. 10. Olitiau as Hammerhead bats Fig. 11. Guiafairo by Ian D. Fig. 13 Rhamphorynchus Fig. 14. Flying Fox Fig. 12. Ropen by Garth Guessman & Jonathan Whitcomb
276 A Wizard’s Bestiary Eyewitness Account Here is a fascinating eyewitness account of a sighting of living Pterosaurs in Cuba in March of 1971. The witness, Eskin Kuhn, was a Marine. His report was accompanied by his own excellent drawings: It was a beautiful, clear Summer day. I was looking in the direction of the ocean when I saw an incredible sight. It mesmerized me! I saw 2 Pterosaurs flying together at low altitude, perhaps 100 feet, very close in range from where I was standing, so that I had a perfectly clear view of them. The rhythm of their large wings was very graceful, slow; and yet they were flying and not merely gliding, like turkey vultures do here in Ohio. The rate of their wings was more like that of crows, perhaps a little slower; but very graceful. The structure and the texture of the wings appeared to be very similar to that of bats: particularly in that the struts of the wings emanated from a “hand” as fingers would ; except that a couple of the fingers were short (as for grasping) and the other ran out to the tip of the wing, others back to the trailing edge of the wing to stretch the wing membrane as a kite would. The Pterosaurs I saw had the short hind legs attached to the rearwardmost part of the wing, and they had a long tail trailing behind with a tuft of hair at the end. The head was disproportionately large, with a long crest at the back, long bill, long neck with a crook in it. The chest of the creatures was similarly prominent, protruding forward like the prow of an old ship. The vertebrae of their backs was noticeable, mostly between the shoulders. I would estimate their wingspan to be roughly 10 feet.12 With all due respect to the young Marine, however, I find his description and drawings to be a close match to the flying appeance of great blue herons. What Kuhn took to be a long tail with a “tuft of hair at the end” (which he drew as a flange like that of a rhamphorynchus) is actually the long legs of the bird, which it extends stiffly behind in flight. The graceful rythmn of the wings, the crest behind the head (actually feathers), the crooked neck, and the chest “protruding forward like the prow of an old ship,” are all characteristic of these impressive birds. At a distance of 100 feet, this is exactly what would be observed. Flying Monkeys Hsigo— (or Hsiao) These Chinese creatures are exactly like the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. They have apelike bodies with a dog’s tail, a birdlike head, a human face, and wings. They are probably based on fruit bats, or “flying foxes,” of India, Asia, Indonesia and Australia. These monkey-size bats are not related to the other insectivorous bats, but are genetically closer to primates, and thus really are a kind of “Flying Monkey.” Ahool— Reported from Java and Vietnam, these are giant bats of an unidentified species. Named for their cry, they are said to be the size of a year-old child, dark grey, with a head like a monkey. These would certainly seem to be large fruit bats. The Ahool, however, is said to be a fish-eater which, if true, would mean it has to be something else. Alan— Mischievous half-human, half-bird creatures from the forests of the Philippines. With extended fingers on their backwardsfacing feet and stubby toes on their hands, they spend much of their time hanging upside down from trees. They are often very helpful toward humans and have served as foster parents to several legendary heroes whom they found lost in the forest as babies. This description, and the locale, strongly suggest a large fruit bat, such as the Malayan Flying Fox. Orang-Bati— (“Men with wings”) Predatory nocturnal flying primates from the obscure Indonesian island of Ceram—the second largest island in the Moluccas group. The natives of Ceram describe these soaring simians as approximately five feet tall, with black leathery wings, blood-red skin, and a long thin tail. Emitting a “mournful wail,” they are said to abduct infants and small children. During the day they retreat into a network of caves in an extinct volcano, Mount Kairatu. This description, and the locale, strongly Fig. 15. Fig. 16. Hsigo Fig. 17. Flying fox Fig. 18. Flying Fox
Monsters of Mystery 277 suggests a giant fruit bat—probably, again, the Malayan Flying Fox. Vietnamese Night-Flyers— Flying humanoids with bat-like wings, sighted by three U.S. Marines in 1969, near Da Nang, South Vietnam. According to the soldiers’ report, three naked, hair-covered, feminine figures, all approximately five feet in height, flew over their post in the dead of night. The Marines claimed they could hear the flapping of their leathery black wings. These were certainly Malayan Flying Foxes, of which the females (which have two thoracic breasts like humans) can have wingspans of six feet, although they weigh only up to 3.3-lbs. Sassabonsum is a huge evil fruit bat in the folklore of Ghana, West Africa. With red hair, hooked wings, and backwards-pointing feet, it swoops upon people and carries them off at the bidding of the Mmoatia, or pygmy sorcerers. As with the Kongamoto, Olititau and Guiafairo, this is probably the Hammerhead Bat. However, in his 1972 book, Investigating the Unexplained, Ivan Sanderson suggested another possible identification for these oversized bat-like creatures; that they may represent a hitherto-unknown enormous species of microbat (Microchiroptera), commonly referred to as “insectivorous bats,” “echolocating bats,” “small bats,” or “true bats.”13 In contrast to the doglike snouts of fruit bats, or megabats(Megachiroptera), microbats have the flattened monkey-like faces described as characteristic of all the above “flying monkeys.” While most of them are insectivorous, some of the larger species hunt birds, lizards, frogs, or even fish—behavior that is often mentioned in regard to these cryptic creatures, and does not occur among any of the megabats. Even vampire microbats exist, though only, as far as we know, in South America. According to native witnesses, when Ahools are seen on the ground, or perched like a bird on a tree branch, they fold their wings at their sides like a bird, as do all microbats. Megabats, on the other hand, wrap their wings around their bodies like a cloak. Ahools are also said to be able to stand upright on two legs, and in doing so their feet point backwards. Again, only microbats can stand erect (though they seldom do so); megabats can stand only on all fours, or hang upside down from tree branches. But it is true that the hind feet of all bats point backwards.14 The difficulty with this hypothesis is that microbats are well-named. They are all quite tiny, with the largest, the Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus), attaining a wingspan of only 13 inches. A microbat with a 6-12 foot wingspan seems like an incredible stretch, with nothing in between. However, I have had personal experience which may help put this matter into perspective, so to speak. One night when we were lying outside watching a meteor shower, a pale ghostly shape swooped down out of the sky, circled our blanket, and then soared off. In the light of our candle, it seemed huge—at least a three-foot wingspan! Even though we knew it had to be a bat, we all agreed that our first impression was of a pterodactyl! So I immediately went to my library and looked up local bats, and lo and behold, there it was: a Pallid Bat (Antrozous pallidus). They eat ground-dwelling crickets and scorpions, so they swoop rather than flitter. But the thing is—they have a wingspan of no more than 12 inches. So how come it appeared so immensely large to us? Well, as I explained in the chapter on Sea Serpents, in the sky, as in the open ocean, there is no objective basis of comparison against which to measure an object. A creature flying overhead could, for all you know, be three feet above, and have a 3-foot wingspan. Or it could be ten feet above and have a 10- foot wingspan. Especially at night, there is no way to know. So, like the fisherman whose catch got away, we declare for the largest size. The pallid bat is nearly white on the underside, and it reflected so much illumination from the candle that it appeared to be much closer than it really was. In addition, as I also mentioned in the Sea Serpent chapter, there is the factor of the automatic “zoom lens” mode that our brain goes into when we see something highly alarming. This evolutionarily adaptive mechanism creates an exaggeration of size in our mind’s eye, just as it does in a camera when we use the zoom lens. And thus are creatures of ordinary size transformed into giants. As much as I would love to know that somewhere on Earth, pterodactyls still ride the skies, I’m afraid I will just have to settle for extra-large bats. Fig. 19. Vietnamese Night-Flyer; Tam Songdog Fig. 20. Hammerhead bat Fig. 22. Size perceived according to estimated distance Fig. 21. Vampire bat
278 A Wizard’s Bestiary Monster Movies: Pterosaurs By Oberon Zell and Seth Tyrssen Pterosaurs and Wyverns have been featured in many movies, in both prehistoric settings of the “Lost World” genre, and as flying Dragons. Pterosaurs are routinely included among dinosaurs, although there have been a few films where they appear in modern times—often hatching in the heart of a volcano from long-dormant eggs. As pterosaurs really were ancient “flying dragons,” it is perfectly reasonable that the appearance of some film dragons should be based on their anatomy, rather than on the less-justifiable model in which two bat-like wings are affixed to the body of a quadruped reptile. Excellent examples of such “Wyvern” dragons appear in Dragonslayer (1981) and Dragon Storm (2004). Rodan (or Radon) is a well-known fictional Pterosaur, introduced in Rodan, a 1956 movie from Toho Studios, which created the Godzilla series. Like Godzilla, Rodan was also modeled after a real prehistoric reptile. The Japanese name Radon is a contraction of “pteranodon” and also suggests radiation. Radon is referred to as Rodan in the U.S., possibly to avoid confusion with the atomic element Radon. He was initially portrayed as an enemy of Godzilla, but they later became allies against more dangerous monsters.15 Here are a number of films featuring living Pterosaurs, Wyverns, and Bat-monsters—omitting those which take place during the Mesozoic Age, or on other planets. The following is by Seth Tyrssen: The Lost World (silent -1925) This is the original version of the famous story, and it still holds its own today. The then-new art of stop-motion animation brought a variety of prehistoric beasties to life, including some very life-like “flying lizards.” King Kong (1933) saw the art of stop-motion animation carried to new heights, and one of its best scenes shows the great ape battling a pteranodon at his mountain retreat, as the hapless heroine Fay Wray looks on…screaming, of course. Rodan (1956) was one of Eijii Tsubaraya’s early works. Japanese animation, as seen in this and a whole slew of Godzilla movies, will never win any awards for realism, but Rodan (like all the others) is amusing because it’s so bad, it’s good. Rodan appears to be a basic pteranodon, more or less. The Land Unknown (1957) and The Lost World (1960) join the ranks of several other bad remakes. One Million Years BC (1966) is actually a remake of the earlier 1,000,000 BC but featured Raquel Welch in her first major role. The pterosaurs and other monsters are credibly done. The Valley of Gwangi (1969) featured the work of Ray Harryhausen, and in spite of a silly premise, is actually quite good. Harryhausen’s realistic Allosaurus shares space with some welldone pterosaurs, and even an Eohippus, the first tiny horse. The Land That Time Forgot (1974) is more notable for lovely Caroline Munroe than for its creatures, clearly not up to the standards set by Harryhausen, but that was probably due to the obviously low budget. Dragonslayer (1981) gave us the first really impressive dragon since Disney’s animated “Sleeping Beauty,” complete with an engrossing plot. In The Lost World (1992), John Rhys-Davies and David Warner are wonderful, as the philosophically sparring Professors Challenger and Summerlee, respectively. Though the story was seriously altered for “political correctness,” it’s a tolerable version, with tolerable–though not great–critter-animation. Jurassic Park II: the Lost World (1997) Like its predecessor, this one had pterosaurs that looked incredibly real. The special effects folks really did their homework on these films. Jurassic Park III (2001) continues the excellent standards set by the first two films, with a whole host of realistic creatures. The Lost World (BBC-TV, 2001) At last, a worthy remake! Bob Hoskins (of “Roger Rabbit” fame) is teamed with James Fox, and a wide variety of well-done dinos. In this one, his pterosaur escapes into London, never to be seen again. One of the few remakes worth watching. Dinotopia (TV, 2004) was a beautiful miniseries based on the exquisitely-illustrated books by James Gurney. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003) magnificently capture Tolkien’s fantasy-world, with striking realism. The “pterosaurs” in this case are more dragon-like, as they carry the dread Nazgul warriors on their backs. Dragon Storm (TV, 2004) has John RhysDavies as a rather nasty and treacherous king; the dragons are well done, and carry a lame plot fairly well. King Kong (2005), directed by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame, is, if possible, even better than the original. Infinitely better than the sorry attempt years earlier, that brought Jessica Lange to stardom. Its excellence extends to the dino-critters of all types. Pterodactyl (TV-2005) was a brutal made-forTV production involving a flock of unkillable maneating pteranodons hatching today in a remote mountain wilderness and hunting down students and military commandos. The critters were quite realistic, even if the plot wasn’t. Fig. 23. Rodan
Monsters of Mystery 279 Prehistoric Puzzles 25. Living Dinosaurs? By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart ard” or “reptile.” At first, this term was applied not only to animals belonging to the orders of saurischia and ornithischia, but to all fossil megafauna, including those we no longer consider to be true dinosauria at all—such as archaeocetaceans (ancient whales), pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, and so on. Today, the proper dinosaurs have been reevaluated and grouped under Archosauria, which also includes birds and crocodilians. They are now believed to have been active, warm-blooded, and supremely successful. Far more birdlike than lizard-like, the bipedal predators we collectively call “raptors” were quite intelligent, and evidently adorned with feathers. Had they not been exterminated eons ago, their evolved descendants would surely rule the galaxy by now! Lost Worlds of Fantasy Victorian fascination with the newly recognized dinosaurs gave rise to an entire literature of adventure fiction involving lost lands somewhere on Earth where remnant populations of dinosaurs still survived. The first and classic story of this genre is, of course, I say that Mr. Waldron is very wrong in supposing that because he has never himself seen a so-called prehistoric animal, therefore these creatures no longer exist. They are indeed, as he has said, our ancestors, but they are, if I may use the expression, our contemporary ancestors, who can still be found with all their hideous and formidable characteristics if one has but the energy and hardihood to seek their haunts. Creatures which were supposed to be Jurassic, monsters who would hunt down and devour our largest and fiercest mammals, still exist. How do I know, you ask me? I know because I have visited their secret haunts. I know because I have seen some of them.”1 —Prof. Challenger, from Chapter 5 of The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle VER SINCE THE REMAINS OF GIGANtic prehistoric “dragons” were officially identified by science as dinosaurs, these Mesozoic monsters have fascinated us with their gargantuan proportions and astonishing diversity. Speculations continue regarding their actual appearance and behavior in life, as well as the mystery of their global extermination 65 million years ago. Although dinosaur fossils have been known for millennia, various explanations have been offered for their existence. In Europe, they were generally believed to be the remains of giants drowned by the biblical Deluge. The Chinese, on the other hand, considered them to be Dragon bones, and gave them the name konglong (“terrible dragon”). The first dinosaur to be formally described by science was megalosaurus (“great lizard”), after part of a bone was recovered in 1676 from a limestone quarry near Oxford, England. It was English paleontologist Richard Owen who, in 1842, formally bequeathed the taxon of Dinosauria to these ancient animals, as “a distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles.”2 The term is derived from the Greek words deinos, meaning “terrible,” “fearsome,” or “formidable,” and saura, meaning “lizFig. 1. Megalosaurus by Bob Guiliani Fig. 2. Map of Conan Doyle’s Lost World Ian Daniels
280 A Wizard’s Bestiary The Lost World, by Sir Author Conan Doyle (1859– 1930). Written in 1912, it inspired the first monster movie of the same name—a silent film released in 1925 that included remarkably realistic model dinosaurs built and animated by Willis O’Brien (best remembered for the perfection of his art in the 1933 King Kong—another tale of a lost world of prehistoric monsters). Interestingly, a later movie version of The Lost World (1962) sets Conan Doyle’s story in Africa. Whereas Conan Doyle set his lost world atop an actual immense and inaccessible plateau in Venezuela (the 9,000-foot-high Tepui Monte Roraima), and Kong’s Skull Island was placed in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Sumatra, another popular adventure writer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, envisioned a hidden valley called Pal-ul-don (“land of men”) deep within the impenetrable jungles of central Africa, where it is discovered by Tarzan of the Apes in Tarzan the Terrible (1921). Pal-ul-don is inhabited by humans with tails, and dinosaurs, including the savage and carnivorous triceratops-like Gryfs. 3 If ever there was a place on Earth where a remnant population of dinosaurs could have escaped the extinction of their kind so long ago, it would have to be central Africa, especially in the vast and largely uninhabitable marshes of the Congo River basin—an area evidently hardly affected by the many Earth changes of the past 65 million years. Off the coast of Africa living Coelacanths were discovered in 1938. These large prehistoric fish with limb-like paddles were thought to have died out 70 million years ago. And a number of large African animals have been discovered only in the last century—including the okapi and the mountain gorilla. What other beasts still remain undiscovered? Dinosaurs in the Bible? There are several interesting images of dinosaurlike creatures depicted in ancient Egypt and Babylon—and possibly even described in the Old Testament, for example in this passage from the Book of Job (40:15–18): “Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his thighs are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.” Behemoth is normally assumed to be the hippopotamus; but what are we to make of “a tail like a cedar”? Hippos have small, pig-like tails, but a tree trunk is certainly an apt analogy for the tail of a sauropod dinosaur. Fig. 5. Sta or Mafedet of Egypt The Sta or Mafedet is a creature often depicted in Egyptian art, with the neck and head of an asp on a quadruped’s body (Fig. 5). Similar creatures also appear in Roman art, such as this 2nd-century mosaic of two sauropod-like creatures with entwined necks (Fig. 6). Called the “Beasts of Nodens,” they are in the ancient Roman camp of Lydney Park, Gloucester, England. Fig. 6. Dinosaur-like creatures in a Roman mosaic But the most famous example is sculpted in basrelief on the great Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon. Called the Sirrush, this draconic reptile has a serpentine head and neck, with the forefeet of a cat and bird claws for hind feet. It is covered with scales and has a long tail. Atop its head sits a crest, frill, or possibly a horn. The bas-reliefs were apparently intended to represent an actual animal. (Fig. 7) In Babylonian mythology, Sirrush is one of the Dragons attendant upon the great Dragon-serpentmother, Tiamet. At the time the Ishtar Gate was erected, Nebuchadnezzar the Great was King of BabyloFig. 4. “The gryf issued his hideous challenging bellow and charged the warriors” (Tarzan the Terrible-1921) Fig. 3. Burroughs’ Pal-ul-don
Monsters of Mystery 281 Fig. 8. Mokêle-M’Bêmbe Fig. 7. Sirrush from the Ishtar Gate of Babylon nia. Reigning from 605 to 562 BCE, he is famous for his conquests of Judah and Jerusalem, his monumental building within his capital of Babylon, and his construction of the legendary hanging gardens. Nebuchadnezzar is featured in the Book of Daniel, wherein it is mentioned that his priests kept a “living dragon” in the temple of Ishtar, which they worshipped and which Daniel killed. This may have been the very creature depicted on the Ishtar Gate: There was a great dragon in Babylon, which was worshipped. The king said to Daniel, “You are not going to tell me that this is no more than bronze? Look, it is alive; it eats and drinks; you cannot deny that this is a living god; worship it, then.” Daniel replied, “I worship the Lord my God; he is the living God. With your permission, O king, without using either sword or club, I will kill this serpent.” “You have my permission,” said the king. Whereupon Daniel took some pitch, some fat and some hair and boiled them up together, rolled the mixture into balls and fed them to the dragon; the dragon swallowed them and burst. Daniel said, “Now look at the sort of thing you worship!” (Book of Daniel, 14:23–27) African Dinosaurs? Is it really possible that there may still be dinosaurs living in Africa? From the jungles of the central African countries of Congo, Cameroon, and Gabon come reports of a bulky amphibious animal with a long neck and tail. Some of the earliest and most colorful tales came from Alfred Aloysius Horn (1854–1927), a traveler, trader, and adventurer. He told of a creature living in the swamps and rivers that was called Jago-Nini, meaning “giant diver.” Though Horn never saw the creature himself, he did see a footprint that was “about the size of a good frying pan in circumference and three claws instead o’ five” (Fig. 9) He was told that it “comes out of the water and devours people.”4 People of the Likouala swamp region call it MokêleM’Bêmbe, meaning “one who stops the flow of rivers” in Lingala, the language of the Pygmy natives of the Congo Basin; and this is the name which has become best-known in the West. In other districts, a creature of the same description is called Iriz Ima, Dingonek, Ol-umaina, or N’yamala. Reports have been recorded since 1776, when European explorers first penetrated into the mysterious jungles of westcentral “darkest Africa.” Also depicted in ancient rock paintings, MokêleM’Bêmbe’s body size is said to be somewhere between that of a hippopotamus and an elephant. It has been reported to be 15–30 feet long, with the neck and tail each being 5–10 feet long. But sightings from Cameroon have reported such creatures to be up to 75 feet in length. The hairless, leathery skin is predominately reddish-brown ranging to grey. It has short legs with three-clawed feet, a reptilian head atop a long, flexible neck, and a long, muscular tail similar to that of an alligator. Some witnesses have described a frill on the back of its head like the comb of a rooster, and others mention a single tooth or horn. These details are certainly suggestive of the Sirrush. When natives draw a representation of MokêleM’Bêmbe in the dirt it resembles a sauropod dinosaur. Then, when they are shown a picture of a sauropod dinosaur, they say that is Mokêle-M’Bêmbe. They claim that it lurks in the area of Lake Tele, and that its lairs are in the deep, partly submerged caves that line the banks. Natives claim the creature is herbivorous, subsisting primarily on the malombo plants (Landolphia mannii and Landolphia owariensis) along the shores of the Likoula-aux-Herbes River. But it is also aggressive, and ferociously attacks and kills hippos and people. Tribespeople tell of hunters and fishermen Fig. 10. MokêleM’Bêmbe Fig. 9. Track of Mokêle-M’Bêmbe
282 A Wizard’s Bestiary Fig. 11. Nyamala whose boats have been capsized by Mokêle-M’Bêmbe and the people held under water by its massive tail. Corpses of these victims have later washed ashore, crushed but not eaten. There have been numerous sightings by local villagers and explorers since 1913, and one was even killed by natives around 1959. But all those who ate of its flesh died, and the village was subsequently afflicted with a plague of house fires, illnesses, and deaths. Texan herpetologist James Powell led the first cryptozoological expedition to the area in 1979. His report included tales of a strange animal called N’yamala, which resembled the Diplodocus, living in the swamps of Gabon. A local witch doctor claimed to have seen one around 1946. It was more than 30 feet long, with a long neck and tail, and weighed at least as much as an elephant. In the Belgian Congo in 1912, an Ituri native told Colonel Alex Godart, a Belgian hero of World War I, that the Nyama was “a very big beast like a hippopotamus, but with a little head with feathers— and a crest like a co*ck’s comb.” He said it “makes the earth shake when it comes out of the water.”5 One of the best eyewitness accounts came from zoologist Marcellin Agnaga of the Brassaville Zoo, who led a Congolese-sponsored expedition to Lake Tele in April of 1983. Only 800 feet from where they stood on the shore, a Mokêle-M’Bêmbe raised its head and neck in clear view of the team. Agnaga reported that it had a narrow, reddish head, large, oval crocodilian eyes, and thin nose. It was clearly reptilian, but of no known type.6 Much earlier, in 1932, legendary American cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson came upon a set of “vast hippo-like tracks” on the Upper Cross River above Mamfe Pool, where no hippos are known to exist. Later, he saw a huge body slip beneath the water while he was boating near his camp. His native guides called the creature Mgbulu-e M’bembe.7 In 1980 and 1981, Dr. Roy Mackal of the University of Chicago led ISC-sponsored expeditions into Lake Tele and the Likouala swamps. Although he collected several stories he never actually saw a Mokêle-M’Bêmbe. The closest he came was hearing a loud “plop” as some heavy body entered the river, and seeing a large wake splash up on the far bank.8 A somewhat different large amphibious creature is said to dwell in the Likouala swamps of the Congo, in Lake Banweolo, Cameroons, and in other swamps of the West African coast. It is called Emela-Ntouka (Lingala, “killer of elephants”), Chipekwe, or Groot Slang. It is described as slightly smaller than a hippo, which it kills and feeds upon. It has a smooth dark green, grey, or brown body without bristles, a crocodile-like tail, and a single ivory horn on its nose like that of a rhino, with which it is said to disembowel elephants. 9 Like Mokêle-M’Bêmbe, its elephantine footprints show three-toed claw marks. One was killed in 1934, but no scientific study was done. Some cryptozoologists have noted the similarity of this description to the Cretaceous ceratopsian, Monoclonius, but of course those animals were herbivores. Indeed, this creature actually sounds more like the carnivorous Gryfs of Pal-ul-don! Is it possible that Burroughs had heard these tales, and was thus inspired to include such beasts in Tarzan the Terrible? A similar creature called Ngoubou is described as having a large head-shield and “tusks” (horns?), much like a ceratopsian dinosaur. Unlike the solitary Emela-Ntouokas, these are said to live in herds and contend with elephants over territory. Another possible living dinosaur is reported to be dwelling in the jungles of Kenya, West Africa. Called Muhuru, it is described by eyewitnesses as a heavily armored reptilian beast, with large bony plates jutting out of its spine and an intimidating spiked or clublike tail. A similar creature of the Congo is MbieluMbielu-Mbielu (“one with planks growing out of their back”). Pygmy fishermen have reported seeing it half submerged in water with algae growing on its back, which is said to have several flat “planks” projecting from the skin. No one has ever seen the full body, Fig. 13. Emela-Ntouka Fig. 14.Triceratops Fig. 12. Tracking the Mokele-M’Bembe
Monsters of Mystery 283 legs, and tail of the creature, but they claim that it is peaceful and herbivorous. The “planks” suggest the back plates of a Stegosaurus (“roofed-lizard”). An African version was Kentrosaurus (“pointed lizard”). But these Jurassic ornithiscian dinosaurs are not believed to have been amphibious. Kasai rex is yet another of the supposed living dinosaurs reported from the jungles of Central Africa. In 1932, a Swedish plantation owner named Johnson and his native servant were tra-veling through the Kasai valley when they witnessed one attack and devour a rhinoceros. He described it as a 40-foot-long lizard, with a long, thick tail and leonine legs, and long sharp teeth in huge jaws. It was dark red, with vertical black stripes like a tiger’s down its neck, back, and tail. It is unclear from the description whether this animal was bipedal with tiny arms, as the name suggests, or just a gigantic lizard—in which case it would not be a dinosaur. In addition to dinosaurs, other Mesozoic monsters have been reported from Africa. The Great Rift Valley of Kenya is said to be home to a large, sail-backed reptile whose description matches that of the Cretaceous African carnosaur, Spinosaurus. The Lau is an immense plesiosaur-like creature with a long tapering neck, a donkey-like body, and flippers, said to lurk in the dense papyrus swamps around Lake No in southcentral Sudan, East Africa. Bristling tendrils protrude from the animal’s muzzle, aiding it in snaring prey. It was brought to international attention in 1914 when a group of Shilluk natives killed a specimen in the swamps of Addar to use its bones in protective amulets. Other “Lost Worlds” of Mesozoic Monsters Because Conan Doyle’s “Lost World” was located not in Africa but in South America, we should not be surprised that reports of dinosaurs have also emanated from the green mansions of the Emerald Forest, such as this one of the Madidi Monster: In 1907 Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Fawcett of the British Army was sent to mark the boundaries between Brazil and Peru. He was an officer in the Royal Engineers and was well known as a meticulous recorder of facts. In the Beni Swamps of Madre de Dios Colonel P. H. Fawcett saw an animal he believed to be Diplodocus.... The Diplodocus story is confirmed by many of the tribes east of the Ucayali.... (The Rivers Ran East, by Leonard Clark, 1953)10 And in 1955, naturalist Alexander Laime claimed to have seen three plesiosaurs sunning themselves fully on rocks at the summit of the Auyan-tepui River in Venezuela. Two French explorers to the same area saw a similar animal as recently as 1990. Even today, natives living in the vicinity of the Roraima tepui describe large pterosaurs flying over their villages from the plateau high above—just as Conan Doyle described. The huge island of New Guinea—still largely unexplored by outsiders—is home to quite a variety of legendary monsters, including the Pish-meri, or Mermaids (see Chapter 10. “Merfolk”). Among these is a “dinosaur-like reptile” first reported in 1999 from the 100-mile-long Lake Murray in Papua New Guinea. Described by eyewitnesses as being “as long as a dump truck,” it is a bipedal, amphibious animal, approximately 6 feet wide, with two short forelimbs, Fig. 16. Kasai rex Fig. 19. Diplodocus by Bob Giuliani Fig. 17. Spinosaurus by Bob Giuliani Fig. 20. Carnotaurus Fig. 15. Swimming Stegosaur by Oberon Fig. 18 Lau
284 A Wizard’s Bestiary legs “as wide as palm tree trunks,” a long neck, and a slender tail. Its head resembles that of a bull, with large eyes and teeth as long as a man’s fingers. Its back is said to have “largish triangular scoops,” and its skin resembles that of a crocodile. This description sounds very much like a theropod dinosaur. The bull-like head is suggestive of Carnotaurus, but the “largish triangular scoops” are characteristic of stegosaurs. Possibilities Of course, what we are all hoping for is that there really is a Lost World, a Skull Island, a Land That Time Forgot, or a Lost Land of Pal-ul-don somewhere out there with real live dinosaurs—perhaps in South America, New Guinea, or, even more likely, in Africa. But although hope will launch expeditions, hope alone will not manifest a modern-day Jurassic Park. As Professor Challenger did, we will need to bring back something a bit more conclusive than second-hand reports of eyewitness accounts and out-of-focus photographs. I have little doubt that Mokêle-M’Bêmbe is “real” in the sense that there is some actual animal behind the sightings and reports. Just what that animal may be, however, is another matter, as I learned personally from the Mermaid Expedition of 1985 (see Chapter 10. “Merfolk”). It is natural for us to project our own interpretations to fill in the blanks according to our desires and preconceptions. The Mermaid story is an excellent case in point, and a cautionary one. A small head atop a long neck and a large bulky body is certainly descriptive of a sauropod dinosaur. But, as I discussed in Chapter 18, “Lake Monsters,” witnesses have also attributed such sightings to plesiosaurs, which would look very different if we saw the part beneath the surface. On the other hand, Oudemans and Heuvelmans believed the great Sea-Serpent to be a kind of long-necked seal. As I have argued elsewhere, I don’t accept any vertebrate identification for long-necked Lake-Monsters and Sea-Serpents, and feel that the best fit for the recorded observations is with a gigantic, slug-like mollusk. But besides the long neck, two noted features distinguish MokêleM’Bêmbe from those other mystery monsters of lochs and seas. These are the elephantine legs, which leave round, 3-clawed footprints, and the long, thick, reptilian tail, likened to that of a crocodile. If all these elements do, in fact, belong to the same animal, the only known candidate would have to be a sauropod dinosaur. And I truly hope this proves to be the case. However, in all honesty, it must be noted that the African Congo is also home to the Forest Elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), a smaller subspecies than the far better-known Savanna or Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana africana). Its size is, in fact, precisely that which is ascribed to Mokêle-M’Bêmbe. Several specimens of an even smaller dwarf elephant have been collected from the Congo region and exhibited in zoos in Africa, Europe, and the United States. Its height is no more than 6.5 feet, and its color has a decided reddish cast. But, although it has been bequeathed the scientific name of Loxodonta pumilio, this animal’s claim to species or subspecies status is not universally accepted by all zoologists. Both the forest elephant and the dwarf variety inhabit the Congo basin’s dense swamps and marshes, rather than the open savannas favored by the bush elephant. In this regard, they are even more amphibious than other pachyderms—all of which are known Waterline Profiles By Oberon Zell Typical Lake Monster or Sea Serpent Aquatic slug Swimming elephant Sauropod dinosaur Plesiosaur Seal Fig.21. Forest elephant compared with savannah elephant, by B. Heuvelmans
Monsters of Mystery 285 to love bathing and swimming. A swimming elephant with its snorkel trunk held high looks uncannily like the classic image of a Lake-Monster.11 The tops of its ears even resemble the “fins.” (Fig. 22) And all of the recorded sightings of Mokêle-M’Bêmbe by Westerners have been in the water, where its body was submerged with only the back and neck visible. Fig. 22. Photo of swimming elephant taken by Admiral R. Kadirgama off the coast of Sri Lanka. From New Scientist, Aug. 2, 1979. Interestingly, an aquatic elephant-monster called the Water Elephant has also been reported to be dwelling in the Congolese jungles. But elephants have five toes on each foot, not three, and their ropelike tails bear no resemblance to those of crocodiles or sauropods. So, until a successful expedition returns with full-body photos, videos, or an actual specimen, the jury is still out on Mokêle-M’Bêmbe, Iriz Ima, or N’yamala. Likewise the nose-horned, carnivorous EmelaNtouka, Chipekwe, or Groot Slang. Probably it is just a briefly glimpsed rhino enhanced by wishful thinking. But rhinos aren’t carnivorous, and they don’t have crocodilian tails—perhaps it really is a Gryf! And perhaps the Muhuru or the Mbielu-MbieluMbielu really is a Stegosaurus. The only way to know for sure is to go find one! Monster Movies: Living Dino saurs in the Modern World Dinosaurs have always been immensely popular subjects of fantasy films. Here are some that featured living Dinosaurs in the modern world and inhabiting forgotten lands or remote islands. The Lost World (1925) is a silent film adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle novel, with quite realistic dinosaurs by Willis O’Brian that even fooled the great Houdini. In 1933, King Kong presented living dinosaurs and a gigantic ape on an uncharted island, with more animated monsters by O’Brian. The Land Unknown (1957) takes place in the heart of Antarctica. In The Lost World (1960), an inferior adaptation of the Conan Doyle novel, the “dinosaurs” are just blown-up lizards (referred to in Hollywood as slurpasaurs). In Dinosaurus! (1960), undersea explosions near a Caribbean island release prehistoric creatures, including a T-Rex and a Brontosaurus. One Million Years B.C. (1966), When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), and the 1981 comedy Caveman are all supposedly set in the time of dinosaurs, but because they all included more modern-looking cave people, I am including them here. The Valley of Gwangi (1969) is hidden in the American Southwest, where cowboys rope dinosaurs. The Land That Time Forgot (1974) is based on the 1914 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Baby—Secret of the Lost Legend (1985) is a Disney film about MokêleM’Bêmbe. The Lost World and its sequel, Return to the Lost World, both in 1992, move Conan Doyle’s tale to Africa. Jurassic Park (1993), from the novel by Michael Crichton, features cloned dinosaurs in a high-tech theme park. In Jurassic Park II: The Lost World (1997), the sequel to the 1993 movie, a cloned T-Rex is captured from a second experimental island and brought to Los Angeles, with predictable consequences. In 1998, a really awful version of The Lost World inexplicably moves the location to Mongolia. Jurassic Park III (2001) requires a return to the second island to rescue a boy from ferocious raptors, pteranodons, and a Spinosaurus that has swallowed a cell phone which keeps ringing. The Lost World (2001) is an excellent BBC-TV adaptation of Conan Doyle’s novel, with very realistic CGI dinosaurs. Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005) once again features living dinosaurs on an uncharted island in the 1930s, this time with wonderful CGI creatures. But my personal favorite is Dinotopia (2002), a TV miniseries based on the lovely books by James Gurney, which tell of an island utopia where humans and intelligent dinosaurs have built a magnificent society.11 Fig. 23. Movie poster from the original Lost World (1925)
286 A Wizard’s Bestiary 26. Hairy Hominids & Mystery Monkeys By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart These huge creatures walk constantly upon their hind feet, and never yet were taken alive; they watch the actions of men, and imitate them as nearly as possible…. They build huts nearly in the shape of those of men, but live on the outside; and when one of their children dies, the mother carries it in her arms until it falls to pieces; one blow of their paw will kill a man, and nothing can exceed their ferocity. —Mr. and Mrs. Bowditch, in the late 1800s, describing the Ingheena of Africa1 HIS IS BY FAR THE MOST DIFFICULt chapter to write. The sheer volume of information available is mind-boggling—as are the numbers of reported sightings and the diversity of the creatures described. Dozens of entire books have been devoted to this subject, as well as numerous organizations, Websites, TV documentaries, and periodical publications. A number of researchers have dedicated their lives to the quest for this elusive quarry. Living in the redwood country of Northern California, I myself was involved in the investigation for several years in the late 1970s, with Peter Byrne of the Oregon Dalles Bigfoot Research Center and The Bigfoot News. In this brief space, I can offer only a cursory overview of the subject. Although reports of giant, hairy, manlike creatures have occurred worldwide throughout much of recorded history, the great majority of contemporary sightings come from America’s Pacific Northwest, an unexplored wilderness extending more than 125,000 square miles. In this vast territory, these creatures are commonly known as Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Similar, perhaps even identical, beings are called Kaptar in the Russian Caucasus, Chuhuna in northeast Siberia, Almas in Mongolia, Kangmi in Tibet, Yowies in Australia, and Yeti in Nepal. In medieval Europe they were known as Wodwoses (Anglo-Saxon for “wood man”), or simply as “hairy wild men,” and were a frequent subject of illustration. Also called Wudewasa, Woodhouses, or Ooser, they appear in many medieval paintings, church carvings, and illuminated manuscripts. They are often shown holding large, rude clubs, and sometimes they wear simple kilts of green leaves. Clearly distinguished from apes and monkeys, they were frequently represented by costumed actors in plays, masques, and dramas. Some researchers feel that they might be relict Neanderthals, and they are very likely the basis of legends of giant Trolls and Ogres. There are even legends of giant apes in the British Isles, where they were greatly feared. The Ferla Mohr(Gaelic, “big grey man”) was an aggressive grey ape supposedly living in mountainous areas of Scotland. It was said to stand 20 feet tall. Similar creatures collectively referred to as Giant Monkeys have been reported throughout the globe, and probably involve several species. They range from 4 to 6 feet tall, with barrel chests, thick arms, powerful legs, and bushy tails. Smaller ones are said to resemble kangaroos. They have fierce-looking, baboonlike faces and pointy ears. Their fur may be short to shaggy, and can vary from red to black. Their three-toed tracks are 12-15 inches long, with the larger ones being thinner. American versions are often called Devil Monkeys. Bigfoot The Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest seems to average about 8 feet tall, and leave footprints about 18 inches long. The color of its hair ranges from reddish-brown to grey to black. Males, females, and infants have been reported, often in family groups, and they usually display shy, benign curiosity in contact with humans. They also seem to be basically nocturIan Daniels, from a model by Oberon Zell Fig. 1. Hairy wild man-medieval
Monsters of Mystery 287 nal, for which they have been designated hom*o nocturnus (“night man”), a name originally set aside by Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778) for just such a creature. By all accounts, they seem to have no language, do not make or use tools, and have no mastery of fire—the very qualities that distinguish humans from all other animals. The designation “Bigfoot” first appeared to the public in an article in the October 5, 1958 issue of the Humboldt Times by columnist and editor Andrew Genzoli, and was based on enormous, 16-by-7-inch footprints discovered at a construction site in Bluff Creek Valley in Northern California. Interestingly, this is the same area as the famous Roger Patterson sighting and brief film of a large and distinctly female Bigfoot nearly a decade later, on October 20, 1967.2 Bigfoot seems pretty straightforward as a cryptid, or “hidden animal.” We have many sightings, with consistent descriptions of all aspects of its appearance. Countless eponymous footprints have been found, cast, collected, and analyzed. Really clear ones obtained from smooth river mud show unique dermal ridges, depth impressions consistent with expected weight distribution for such a large bipedal hominid, and particularly nonhuman features such as a double-balled big toe and extended talus. The spacing of prints indicate a reasonable walking stride for the reported leg lengths, as does the flexion of the foot with each step. Although not without controversy, several blurry photos and some film footage have also been taken, and these precisely match the descriptions of eyewitnesses. Hair samples have been retrieved from branches where the creatures have passed, and subjected for DNA analysis. This has indicated anthropoid origin, but of no identifiable species. Feces have been examined and found to contain unknown parasites. The Minnesota Iceman The record even includes a detailed examination of an alleged frozen corpse, viewed in 1968 by Ivan T. Sanderson (then president of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained) and Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans (president of the French Center of Cryptozoology). Sanderson’s drawings and Heuvelmans’ photographs of the so-called Iceman have been widely published. Shortly after this examination, however, the specimen was withdrawn from public display, and has since vanished. Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman says: The original body disappeared, and a model, apparently made in California, replaced it, with various Hollywood makeup artists claiming to have created the Iceman. But Sanderson and Heuvelmans knew of at least fifteen technical differences between the original and the replacement, thanks to photographs of the traveling exhibit taken by Mark A. Hall and Loren Coleman. When the Smithsonian Institution and the FBI got involved, Hansen explained that the creature was owned by a millionaire and declined to have it further examined.”3 In 1981, at a County Fair in northern California, I saw what appeared to be the mummified body of an 8-foot-tall female Bigfoot exhibited as a carnival sideshow attraction by John Strong Jr. of the John Strong Family Circus. In writing this chapter, I contacted John for more details. He confirmed that it was a fake, and filled me in a bit on the history of Bigfoot gaffs (manufactured exhibits) that have become staples of such sideshows. Showman Rick West tells me: “Yep, I had two Bigfoot creatures. One I bought from Jerry Malone that was built by Johnny Chambers and one that Fig. 2. Female Bigfoot--frame from Patterson film, 1967 Fig. 3. Iceman photo by Bernard Heuvelmans and drawing by Ivan Sanderson
288 A Wizard’s Bestiary a friend and I built in 1969. Had the Bigfoot on the road for 5 or 6 years. I knew Frank Hansen, owner of the Iceman, since 1967. I was the last showman to visit him before he died. I took photos during my last visit, of Frank and the creature. Have heard a new Bigfoot Show is being framed to tour this summer.” Fig. 4. Rick West’s Bigfoot gaff I asked Rick for more details on the Minnesota Iceman, and he replied: I first met Frank Hansen in 1967 at the fair in Peoria, Illinois (I was showing a Giant Steer). It was the first year out for the “Iceman.” In the 1970’s Frank framed the creature so it could be displayed in malls (the ‘67 display was in a semitrailer). The creature was encased in a REAL block of ice! I visited Frank in Nov. 2002. (He died early spring 2003) He explained that the creature was designed and built by Howard Ball and his son Kenneth helped. Wax figure artists, Peter and Mary Corral put in the hair. Frank told me another person worked on the creature also but he could not remember his name at our Nov. meeting. The idea was to capitalize on the Bigfoot craze but not call his creature a Bigfoot. The creature I designed and built with a friend in ‘69 was pretty much a copy of Frank’s creature although mine had greater detail.The Jerry Malone creature was on a small trailer with lots of chrome. It was displayed as “What is it?” and was basically another copy of Frank’s show but without the ice. The creature was cast in plaster, I believe. It was heavy and hard. The hair was on the surface and not inserted into the body like Frank’s and my creature’s hair.After I bought it I changed the signage to “Bigfoot.” I sold the Bigfoot show back to Rick Owens. Many people believe there was/are two Hansen creatures, one being REAL. The idea played well for Frank. People will always believe there were two, but the timeline will not support it. Sanderson and Heuvelmans thought they found the Holy Grail! They had been waiting for this moment their whole life. After they wrote their articles saying the creature was real, it would have been hard to admit they had been taken in. When they were up at Frank’s it was winter. The creature was in the closed-up trailer, in ice. They said they smelled rotting flesh. It just so happens that rotting latex has a similar smell. But Sanderson and Heuvelmans wanted/needed to BELIEVE. The Smithsonian Institute was interested in the creature, but backed out of the deal after talking to the California artists. (—Rick West, Dr. West’s Traveling Sideshows and Animal Menagerie; personal e-mail correspondence, April 2007) Canadian Man-Apes Canada also claims another hairy hominid similar to Bigfoot, but this one is considered by the local Indians to be quite different—and far more dangerous, as it preys on humans. It is called Wendigo; also Windigo, Windago, Wiendigo, Witigo, Witiko, or WeeTee-Go. The most feared creature in Inuit and Algonkian folklore, it is described as a lanky, 15-foottall “man-beast” covered in matted fur, with glowing eyes, long, yellow canine teeth, and a hyperextended tongue. Some eyewitnesses insist that the creature is hairless, with sallow, almost jaundiced skin. Popularized by Algernon Blackwood’s short story, The Wendigo (1907), legends of this beast date back centuries. This name is also applied to an alligator-like monster said to inhabit Berens Lake, Ontario, where it tears up fishing nets. But with everyone carrying digital cameras these days, it seems only a matter of time before more con- Fig. 5. Jerry Malone’s Bigfoot gaff exhibit Fig. 6. Bigfoot gaff before insertion of hair
Monsters of Mystery 289 Fig. 8. Salish (L) and Tlingit (R) Sasquatch masks crete evidence is obtained in the form of indisputable images or—the holy grail of all monster-hunters—a physical specimen. Even a corpse or skeletal remains would provide the long-awaited proof necessary for scientific recognition. Indeed, given the history and frequency of sightings, it seems incredible that such a creature could have eluded pursuit for so long. But we have to keep in mind that Bigfoot’s territory is vast—hundreds of thousands of square miles of dense and ancient forest blanketing not only the Pacific Northwest, but most of Canada as well. New animals are still being discovered in much smaller habitats, such as Cambodia (the Forest Ox or Kouprey, Bos sauveli), Vietnam (the Saola or Vu Quang Ox, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), the Philippines, New Guinea, and pockets of equatorial Africa, and a reasonably intelligent hominid that didn’t want to be found could certainly remain hidden indefinitely. In fact, large hairy hominids have been known for centuries by the native peoples of North America’s northern states and provinces, such as California’s hairy big man, Oh-mah. The popular name Sasquatch was coined in the 1920s by teacher J.W. Burns, who conflated several native Canadian words, such as the Salish se’sxac, meaning “wild man.” This is only one of more than 150 local names for a giant hairy hominid reported by local Indians for centuries to be inhabiting the forests from Alaska down through British Columbia. It is even featured in native folklore and iconography, such as these 19th-century masks. Legends of the Nootka and Salish Indians of the Pacific Northwest tell of a massive hairy hominid covered in black bristles. Called Matlose or Caliban of the Nootka (after the monstrous character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest), it has ferocious teeth and claws like a bear. Its terrible cry paralyzes its prey. Haunting the folklore of the Tanaina Indians of subarctic Alaska is a giant biped they call the Hairy Man. Dwelling in the mountains, he is covered in long grey hair, and his eyes are said to have no pupils. He is not aggressive to humans unless they threaten him. Smaller monkey-like creatures are also described in the traditions of the Ojibwa and Cree Indians of Minnesota. Called Memegwicio (“men of the wilderness”), they are said to be the size of 12-year-old children, with hair-covered faces. Canada’s Sasquatch was first seen by white men in 1811, and since then hundreds of sightings and encounters have been reported. It is anywhere from 6 to 12 feet tall, weighs 600–900 pounds, and is covered with shaggy black or reddish-brown hair. It has long arms, and an apelike face with a flat nose. Walking upright as a human does, it leaves humanlike footprints up to 20 inches long. It also has a distinct and very foul odor, similar to a combination of skunk and wet dog. There is every reason to think that Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Matlose, Wendigo, and all the other names by which these creatures are known represent a single species, which probably includes at least one variety of the Himalayan Yeti. The burning question seems to be this: is it human, or ape? Yeti and Other Asian Anthropoids As North America has its Bigfoot, Asia is home to the even more famous Yeti. Also known as Ginsung, Metoh-kangmi, Nyalmo, Rakshi Bompo, Rimi, Thloh-Mung, the Wildman of the Himalayas, or, famously though erroneously, the Abominable Snowman, this snow-dwelling man-ape is said to live high up in the cold, desolate Himalayan mountains of Tibet and Nepal. It is described by eyewitnesses as 7– 10 feet tall and covered in long, coarse hair—silverwhite in the snowy mountains and orange-brown in the lower forests. As with its American cousin, the only evidence for its existence consists of a few hair samples, footprints, and questionable sightings. Upon examination, however, the “yeti scalps” preserved in lamaseries have turned out to be ritual objects fabricated from the skin of the goat-like serow, and the mummified “yeti hands” were those of langur monkeys. According to the Sherpas, there are actually four types of Yeti, all distinguished by size, Fig. 7. Wendigo Fig. 9. Yeti, by Heuvelmans
290 A Wizard’s Bestiary with the teh in the name of each implying a flesh-andblood animal. The largest (13–16 feet tall) is the Nyalmo or Dzu-Teh (“big thing”); the medium-sized one (7–9 feet) is the Rimi or Meh-Teh (“manlike thing”); and the smaller (man-sized) and best-known is the Rakshi Bompo or Yeh-Teh (“that thing there”). Many believe that the Yeh-Teh is simply the Nepal Gray Langur Monkey (Semnopithecus schistaceus), which is fairly common in the higher plains of the Himalayas, and that the Dzu-Teh is really a Himalayan Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus). Then there is the Teh-Lma (“that there little thing”), the least known, said to be 3–4 feet tall and covered in reddish-grey hair, with hunched shoulders and a pointy head. It eats frogs and other small animals. West of the Himalayas, in eastern Afghanistan, as well as in the Shishi Kuh valley in the Chitral region of Northern Pakistan, there dwells a shaggy hominid called Barmanu (“big hairy one”). Similar to the American Skunk Ape, it is noted for its revolting stench. Although the only recognized ape outside of Africa is the Orangutan (Pongo), a remarkable number of other unknown apelike creatures are continually being reported throughout Asia and Indonesia. Although there seem to be far too many distinct species for these reports to be credible, locals insist that they really exist, and are awaiting discovery by modern science. Most famous perhaps are the Almas, or Mongolian Wild Men. Also known by the names Albasty, Abnuaaya, Almasti, they are said to dwell in the Altai Mountains near Tien Shan in the province of Sinkiang, Mongolia. These wild people live as animals do, and are covered with hair except on their hands and faces. Although this description would seem to describe some sort of unknown ape, some cryptozoologists have suggested they may be remnant Neanderthals. In Siberia, hairy hominids or man-apes called Chuchunaa (Tungus, “outcasts”) have been seen clothed in animal skins, leading some researchers to speculate that they may represent a relic population of neanderthals. Also known as Mulen, Bandit, or Siberian Snowman, they have been described by eyewitnesses as being tall and humanlike, with broad shoulders, protruding brows, long, matted hair, and occasionally unusual fur coloration. These may be the same as the Almas. Further west, in the Volga region of Russia, a hairy hominid called Ova, with backward-pointing feet, is said to menace travelers by tickling them to death. But touching its vulnerable spot—a hole under its left armpit—renders it helpless. Perhaps by the time the stories traveled that far from either Europe or Asia, they were beginning to get a bit strange. Large hairy hominids are also said to inhabit the forests and mountains of China’s remote Hubei province. Called Yìrén (“wild person”), they are typically reported to be covered in reddish-brown hair, although some white individuals have also been sighted. Their height is estimated at 5–7 feet, although some colossal specimens more than 10 feet tall have been reported. They are known by many other names, including Yiren, Yeh Ren, Sangui, Hsing-hsing, Fei-fei, Chinese Wildman, Wildman of Shennongjia, Man-Monkey, or Ren Xiong (“man-bear”). In a Chinese dictionary compiled in 200 BCE during the Chou dynasty, the Fei-fei was described as a 10- foot-tall hairy cross between a human and an orangutan, with an appetite for human flesh. Some think that the Yìrén or Fei-fei may be a surviving Gigantopithecus, and others suggest it may be a relict population of mainland Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), supposedly extinct in China since the Pleistocene. In the small country of Bhutan, on the eastern side of the Himalayas, locals describe a tall, hairy creature they call the Migyur. It stands 9 feet tall, with long arms and a nose like those of an ape. In April, 2001, DNA tests performed on Migyur hair samples indicated that they belong to an unidentified creature completely unknown to science. Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at the Oxford Institute of Molecular Medicine, and one of the world’s leading experts on DNA analysis, examined the hair. “We found some DNA in it, but we don’t know what it is. It’s not a human, not a bear not anything else we have so far been able to identify. It’s a mystery and I never thought this would end in a mystery. We have never encountered DNA that we couldn’t recognize before.”4 Japanese folklore also includes tales of a huge hairy hominid called Mountain Man. Said to dwell in mountain forests, he is seldom seen, but fearful locals leave offerings to appease him. The foul-smelling Hibagon is a smaller Japanese hominid. One was sighted in Hiwa in 1972. Looking much like a gorilla, it was about 5 feet tall, with a bristle-covered face, glaring eyes, and a snub nose. Fig. 10. Almas Fig. 11. Chuchunaa by Xander Fig. 12. Yeren
Monsters of Mystery 291 Hibagon footprints can be as much as 10 inches long and 6 inches wide. The Story of Zana In Abkazia, in the Western Caucasus, large hairy hominids are called Abnauaayu. In the early 19th century, a female was captured. Named “Zana,” she was passed through several hands, eventually coming into the possession of a nobleman, Edgi Genaba, who took her to his estate in the village of Tkhina on the Mokva River, where she lived for many years until her death in the 1880s or ‘90s. Over years of captivity in a strong enclosure, Zana gradually became tame enough to be allowed the freedom of the estate. But she always returned for meals, and to sleep in a hole she made under an awning near the house. Her skin was black, or dark grey, and her whole body covered with reddish-black hair. The hair on her head was tousled and thick, hanging mane-like down her back. …Over decades that she lived with people, Zana did not learn a single Abkhaz word; she only made inarticulate sounds and mutterings, and cries when irritated. But she…carried out commands given by her master…She was very tall, massive and broad, with huge breasts and buttocks, muscular arms and legs, and fingers that were longer and thicker than human fingers. She could splay her toes widely and move apart the big toe. …Her face was terrifying: broad, with high cheekbones, flat nose, turned out nostrils, muzzle-like jaws, wide mouth with large teeth, low forehead, and eyes of a reddish hue. But the most frightening feature was her expression which was purely animal, not human. …[Her teeth] were so strong that she easily cracked the hardest walnuts. She lived for many years without showing any change: no grey hair, no falling teeth, keeping strong and fit as ever. Her athletic prowess was enormous. She would outrun a horse, and swim across the wild Mokva River even when it rose in violent high tide. Seemingly without effort she lifted with one hand an 80-kilo sack of flour and carried it uphill from the water-mill to the village. …She took swims the year around, and preferred to walk naked even in winter, tearing dresses that she was given into shreds. Zana became pregnant several times by various men of the village. But the half-breed babies didn’t survive her cold-water ablutions, until the villagers took four of them—two boys and two girls—from her and raised them as their own. Other than being powerfully built and strong, with dark skins, these offspring seemed entirely human, and possessed full speech and reasoning. After several fruitless attempts in the 1970s to locate and excavate Zana’s grave, Russian archaeologist Boris Porshnev was able to find and exhume the skeleton of her younger son, Khwit, who died at the age of 65-70. Porshnev brought the skull to Moscow, where it was examined by physical anthropologists, with the study published in 1987. The skull (Fig. 15) clearly exhibits primitive features, resembling that of a Neanderthal. ApeMen of the Indies The thousands of islands comprising the East Indies are the remnants of a once-great mountainous region called Sunderland, which extended southward from present-day Indochina. Similarly, dry land once connected all the Philippines, and New Guinea was part of Australia. All the low-lying areas, however, were drowned by the South China Sea when the ocean levels rose at the end of the last Ice Age 10,500 years ago. The conversion of highlands into islands isolated populations of people and animals from each other and from the rest of the world. The largest islands of Indonesia are Borneo and Sumatra, respective homes to the two known species of orangutan. This name derives from the Malay and Indonesian phrase orang hutan, meaning “person of the forest.”6But from the Malay Peninsula throughout the many islands of this region, apelike creatures continue to be reported which have not yet been firmly identified by science. These may eventually prove to be nothing more than orangutans, but it is possible Fig. 13. Hibagon (stamp) Fig. 14. Exhumed skull of Zana’s son, Khwit Fig. 15. Map of Ice-Age Sunderland by Oberon Zell
292 A Wizard’s Bestiary that some may yet turn out to be previously unknown primate species. Here is a sampling: Orang Dalam—Hairy hominids of Malaysia, said to be 6–9 feet tall, with red eyes. Males have much hair about their head, chest, arms, and legs. They give off a powerful odor likened to monkey urine. At first contact they appear friendly, making overtures and approaching slowly. Then they invariably become frightened and flee into the jungle. This is certainly the Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), called Mias-Pappan in Borneo. Stinking Ones—Malodorous, white-skinned hairy hominids occasionally seen and smelled in the jungles of Malaysia. Batutut—A small, red, apelike creature reported to dwell in the rainforest of the Malaysian state of Sabah. It is thought to be related to the little frogeating hairy hominid known as the Teh-Ma (in Vietnamese, the Nguoi-Rung). Perhaps this is a pygmy species of orangutan. Ebu Gogu—Small, hairy, inarticulate cave dwellers first reported by Portuguese sailors visiting the Indonesian island of Flores in the 16th century. Sightings continued well into the 19th century. Then, in 2003, the subfossil remains of seven diminutive hominids were discovered on the tiny island. Officially designated hom*o floresiensis (“man of Flores”), they were immediately dubbed hobbits in the popular press. Ranging in height from 3 to 4 feet, they appear to have been a dwarf race of hom*o erectus. Orang Pendek (or Sedapa, Batutut)—A hairy hominid reported to be dwelling in the millions of acres of rain forests on the island of Sumatra. Standing 3– 5 feet tall, its brownish skin is covered with short black or brown hair, and it has a long black mane. It has no tail, and its arms are shorter than an ape’s. It walks mostly on the ground, and its footprints are very similar to a human’s. The creature eats primarily fruit and small animals, and is seen fairly often by locals, who say it has a rudimentary language, although the Sumatrans cannot understand it. It’s possible that this is the Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii), the smaller and rarer of the two known species of orangutans. However, some researchers have proposed that the so-called hobbits of nearby Flores are also likely candidates. Kapre—Giant hairy hominids in the folklore of the Philippine Islands, they are said to be 7–9 feet tall and covered in long, shaggy brown hair. The Kapre lives in groves of bamboo, acacia, and mango, and may be encountered sitting under a tree smoking a pipe of tobacco. He is usually friendly and helpful to humans, especially women, but he also has a mischievous side, often leading travelers astray in the forest. Australian ApeMen An Australian hairy hominid, similar to the Yeti or Bigfoot, is described as 6–14 feet tall, more human than ape, with broad shoulders and no neck. Popularly known as Yowie, it is covered in longish hair ranging from black or dark brown to shades of red, tan, and almost white. Dark brown or reddish are the most common colors. It leaves footprints up to 16 inches long and 8 inches wide. The first report from European settlers dates to 1881, but the Aborigines had always known of them, calling them Youree. The settlers initially named them Yahoos, after a subhuman race in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1727). These terms eventually combined into Yowie. Like most hairy hominids worldwide, Yowies are said to have an overpowering stench. The smaller individuals, probably juveniles, are quite shy, whereas the taller ones are bolder and often aggressive. In fact, there is such a difference between the two groups in behavior, size, and coloration that some researchers think they are two species—or at least sexually dimorphic ones. Some even think they may represent a relict population of hom*o erectus, known to have inhabited Sunderland. Maori natives on the South Island of New Fig. 16. Orangutan Fig. 17. Orang Pendek by Heuvelmans Fig. 18. Bombala Yowie seen by Charles Harper in southeast Australia in 1912 (FPL) Fig. 19. Moehau
Monsters of Mystery 293 Zealand tell of a large hairy hominid with bony fingers that they call Moehau, Moeroero, or Maero. These are solitary creatures, but will kidnap people if given the chance. Those living in the mountains are called Moeroero, and those in the interior are called Maero. Said to be strong and aggressive, they are described as resembling a man covered over with hair, but smaller and with long claws; they inhabit trees and live on birds. Sightings have been reported since the 1840s. African ApeMen No, this isn’t about Tarzan. But it might be about his foster people, the Mangani, or Great Grey Apes. Many have assumed these creatures to be gorillas, but Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the Tarzan series, clearly distinguished between them, referring to gorillas as Bolgani. Because there is no mention of chimpanzees per se in the Tarzan books, I had always thought that the Mangani must be chimps. But it now seems more likely that they were bonobos, or even the recently discovered Bili Apes. Accounts of African apemen should really begin with the Ingheena—a quadrumana (four-handed animal) reported by travelers Mr. and Mrs. Bowditch in the late 1800s, from the vicinity of the Gaboon River. They had not seen it themselves, but according to the natives, “these huge creatures walk constantly upon their hind feet, and never yet were taken alive…one blow of their paw will kill a man, and nothing can exceed their ferocity.” 7 These were, of course, Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), considered mythical at that time, when it was believed that all great apes were orangutans. It took a while for gorillas and chimpanzees to become recognized by science, even though there were many reports of them. The Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei) was acknowledged only in 1901, and Bonobos (Pan paniscus), identified in 1928 by American anatomist Harold Coolidge from a skull in Belgium’s Tervuren Musem, were simply called pygmy chimpanzees until recently. Indeed, their status as a separate species from Common Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) is still being hotly debated in some circles. Bonobos, however, are distinguished from other apes by walking upright, “having a matriarchal and egalitarian culture, and the prominent role of sexual activity in their society.”8They are thought to be our closest relatives on the primate family tree. On August 14, 2003, the Associated Press reported the discovery of a possible new species of anthropoid ape in the northern part of Africa’s Republic of Congo. The Bili Apes, which stand up to 6 feet tall and have feet nearly 14 inches long, were first documented in 2002 by primatologist Shelly Williams. According to a National Geographic report, “The apes nest on the ground like gorillas but have a diet and features characteristic of chimpanzees.”9 Preliminary genetic testing with non-nuclear DNA, however, indicates a close relationship with a subspecies of Common Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).10 A shaggy, blackhaired, bipedal, apelike creature was sighted by an entomologist in Guinea, West Africa, in November of 1992. Local natives call it Fating’ho, and they claim it is neither a chimpanzee nor a gorilla. It has not been identified by science. Small furry hominids have been reported from Tanzania, East Africa, as well. They are known as Agogwe (Kakundakri in Zimbabwe, or Sehit on the Ivory Coast). They were first reported in the early 1900s by big game hunter Captain William Hitchens, who encountered two of them on a lion-hunting safari in East Africa. In 1927, while traveling along the coast of Portuguese Africa, Mr. and Mrs. Cuthbert Burgoyne saw two apparently identical creatures walking peaceably among a troop of baboons without causing a stir. But none of these diminutive anthropoids have been seen since, and they may now be extinct. With grotesque features and aggressive behavior, Agogwe are 3–4 feet tall, bipedal, long-armed, and covered with a scraggly coat of thick, russet hair over reddish-yellow skin. This description does not match that of any known apes, and Bernard Heuvelmans suggested that they may be remnant Australopithecines. 11 The Canary Islands (from Latin Insularia Canaria, “island of the dogs”) are an archipelago of seven volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean off Morocco, along the northwest coast of Africa. A shaggy manape called Hirguan is said to dwell on the island of La Gomera. Probably this is an isolated population of Fig. 20. Ingheena (from Buel) Fig. 21. Bonobo Fig. 22. Bili Ape
294 A Wizard’s Bestiary the Barbary Macaque (Macaca sylvanus), a large, apelike, tailless monkey found in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria and Morocco, as well as (famously) on the Rock of Gibraltar. South American Apes According to science, indigenous apes are entirely unknown in the Western Hemisphere. Interestingly, however, in Sea and Land (1887), J.W. Buel reports that “Dr. Lund has furnished us with descriptions of the Brazilian orang outan, which he calls the Caypore, obtained principally from the legends of the natives.” And in the early 19th century, German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt heard stories from the Orinoco about furry, humanlike creatures called Salvaje (“wild”). These were said to build huts, capture women, and eat human flesh. All apelike creatures reported in South America are collectively dubbed Mono Grande (“large monkey”). Such a creature—one of a pair—was shot, killed, and photographed in 1920 by Swiss geologist François de Loys, during an expedition to the jungles of Venezuela. In 1929, Dr. George Montadon named it Ameranthropoides loysi (“Loys’ American anthropoid”). It is commonly referred to as the De Loys ape. Skeptics have dismissed the unique photo as nothing more than a Spider Mon- key (Simia paniscus), although it has an adult body length of only 20 inches. But recently, fossilized remains have been found of a giant pre- historic howler-spider monkey, which, if still living, could ac- count for this specimen. American Anthropoids Even though there seem to be entirely too many species of unknown apes to be accounted for, at least most of the above seem to represent physical animals, and hopefully, more of them will be officially discovered over time and take their places in the zoological catalogues. But when we turn to the United States, reports begin to get decidedly weird. Far from the traditional northwestern haunts of Bigfoot or Sasquatch, sightings of somewhat similar but distinctly different hairy hominids have proliferated during the 20th century. To distinguish them from the others, researcher Loren Coleman coined the term Napes—an acronym for North American Apes. Invariably dubbed with colorful local names, these large primates have been reported mostly from the forests and swamplands of the southeastern and midwestern United States. Skunk Ape (or Southern Bigfoot)—A large hairy hominid reported in Florida, with more than 100 sightings during the 1970s and 80s. However, the earliest published report is from 1942, in Suwannee County, by a man who claimed the creature rode on his running board for half a mile. Their presence is announced by a revolting stench similar to rotting cabbage. Eyewitnesses usually describe them as having reddishbrown fur, but their color can range from black to white. Albino specimens commonly have bald heads and nostrils the size of half dollars. They have long, dangling, apelike arms with clawed fingers, and they tend to snort. Tracks suggest that there are two species: the larger has three toes and an aggressive disposition, while the smaller 5-toed variety is shy and harmless. The mention of red fur has led some researchers to speculate that an escaped Orangutan (Pongo) may be the basis of the sightings. But the 3-toed footprints cast doubt on this identification. Marked Hominids— Hairy hominids resembling Bigfoot, but smaller and more human in build. They are smelly, social creatures that live in forests and mountains of the frozen north. Sturdy, muscular creatures with large eyes and big bellies, they are nocturnal and omnivorous. Some, such as Old Yellow Top, have light-colored manes; others have patches of light fur surrounded by darker fur; and Fig. 23. DeLoys Ape Fig. 24. Skunk Ape Fig. 25. Marked Hominid
Monsters of Mystery 295 some appear to be nearly albino. A large hairy hominid sighted in Ohio several times over the past century was named Old Yellow Top for its mane of yellow hair. Otherwise mostly black, it is said to be about 7 feet tall. It was seen in 1906, 1923, 1946, and 1970, when it nearly caused a bus to crash. An apparently identical creature had also been reported in the mining district around Cobalt, Ontario, Canada, since September of 1906. Its large body was covered with long, dark hair, but the fur on its head was light yellow. It, too, was named Yellow Top. Honey Island SwampMonster—A 7-foot-tall, Bigfoot-like creature reported for centuries to be dwelling in the Honey Island Swamp, near New Orleans, Louisiana. Covered with dingy grey hair, its weight has been estimated by witnesses to be 400– 500 pounds. But most memorable are its sickly yellow eyes, set far apart, and its horrific stench of death. Indians called this creature the Letiche, a carnivorous aquatic humanoid, which they believed was once an abandoned child who was raised by alligators. Cajuns call the beast the Loup Carou—similar to Loup Garou, a term for “werewolf.” It has been blamed for the numerous human and livestock deaths that have plagued the area for decades. Devil Monkeys—Strange baboon-like creatures with powerful kangaroo-like legs have been reported throughout the American Midwest and as far north as Alaska. One was even sighted in downtown Chicago! They seem to be extremely aggressive, attacking people and even moving cars. Some researchers have speculated that they may be a remnant species of an ancient family of primates called Tarsiids or Simopithecus. 12 Momo (abbreviation of Missouri Monster)—A large, stinky, hairy hominid reported from the backwoods of Missouri. It has so much fur that you cannot see its face. Murphysboro Mud Monster—A shrieking, 7-foot-tall, white-haired, apelike monster reported on May 25, 1972, by more than 200 witnesses around Murphysboro, in central Illinois. Myakka Ape—A hairy hominid reported to be dwelling in the swamps around Sarasota, Florida. It is described as a chimp- or orangutan-like animal. Booger—A large, apelike creature sighted in the area around Clanton, Alabama, in the fall of 1960. It made cries like a woman screaming, and left big footprints in the sand along a creek. El Campo Ape Man— In 2004, residents of El Campo in Matagorda County, Texas, reported bizarre encounters with what one eyewitness described as a 5-foot tall, grayish animal that resembled a large monkey. Fouke Monster—A large, hairy man-ape reportedly stalking the backwoods and creeks of Miller County in Arkansas. It has been known to attack and kill animals. One three-toed footprint that was cast in plaster measured 13.5 inches long. In October 2003, witnesses throughout northwest Arkansas reported sighting a large, apelike creature, which they compared to Florida’s Skunk Ape. Orange Eyes—A huge hairy hominid reported since 1959 near the Charles Mill Reservoir outside of Mansfield, Ohio, from which has also been reported a bizarre, armless, amphibious humanoid known as the Mill Lake Monster (see Chapter 30. “Monsters of Mystery”). Orange Eyes is estimated to be 11 feet tall, and weigh 1,000 pounds. The most recent reported encounter with this creature was in June of 1991. There is also a Mexican version of the North American Bigfoot, called El Hombre y el Oso (“bearman”). It has been sighted in wilderness areas across the land, from the western desert of Chihuahua to Veracruz on the Gulf Coast. Fig. 29. El Hombre y el Oso Theories: Monster, Man, or Myth? When I first met Peter Byrne in 1978 at his Bigfoot Research center in the Oregon Dalles, I inquired about his theory regarding the zoological classification of these creatures. His response has remained a Fig. 26. Honey Island Swamp-Monster Fig. 27. Momo Fig. 28. Man-Ape
296 A Wizard’s Bestiary guide to me over the three decades since, though I have not always followed it myself: “Theories,” said Peter, “are a true researcher’s worst enemy. When you have a theory, you will only see evidence that supports your theory, and you’ll miss or ignore evidence that doesn’t. So I try not to hold a theory; I just seek to follow the evidence.” Keeping this wise admonition in mind, here are several theories that have been proposed and passionately advocated over the years—specifically regarding the large hairy hominid commonly referred to as Bigfoot. Hoaxes Unfortunately, there have been many hoaxes associated with Bigfoot that have muddied investigations and diminished credibility of the phenomenon among establishment scientists. These hoaxes have included men dressing up in gorilla suits to be filmed and photographed in wilderness settings, as well as bogus footprints created with oversized wooden shoes or even replicas of genuine plaster footprint casts. One gruesomely determined hoaxer apparently went so far as to stretch the flayed skin of a butchered gorilla foot over a carved wooden mold. Several oft-cited photos and sightings have been admitted as hoaxes by people who claim to have participated in the deception, while other witnesses just as fervently continue to maintain their authenticity. The frequency of revealed hoaxes, however, has certainly necessitated the critical examination of all evidence, which is to the good. In this regard we must certainly include the several artificial Bigfoot mummies and stuffed carcasses that have toured in carnival sideshows since the original Minnesota Iceman was examined by Sanderson and Heuvelmans in 1968. Such gaffs, as they are called by showmen, are a thriving art form created by ingenious taxidermists who are rather proud of their work, and pleased that so many are fooled. Escapees Although this theory would not seem applicable to the 6- to 9-foot-tall shaggy bipeds we are primarily concerned with here, nonetheless many skeptics insist that sightings must be of known apes, such as orangutans, gorillas, or chimpanzees—possibly escapees from a zoo, circus, or animal park. And to give them credit, some of the American reports—such as those of the Myakka Ape and the El Campo Ape Man—may be examples of this, especially in the swampy regions of Florida and Louisiana. Certainly, known apes would seem to account for most of the creatures sighted in Asia, Indonesia, and Africa. Gigantopithecus Bigfoot researcher Grover Krantz (1931–2002) was the major proponent of the theory that the North American Bigfoot—and probably the Himalayan Nyalmo or Dzu-Teh Yeti as well—represents a relic population of the presumed extinct Ice Age anthropoid called Gigantopithecus, which is believed to have lived from 5 million to as recently as 100 thousand years ago. Only a few teeth and mandibles of this prodigious primate have been recovered, mostly from caves in Southeast Asia. These bear similarities to both humans and apes, but unfortunately, they provide little information as to the proportions and stance of the living animal. Nonetheless, paleontologists estimate that an adult Gigantopithecus would have stood more than 10 feet tall, and weighed about 1,200 pounds. It may have resembled a modern gorilla or orangutan, and many scientists think it was probably quadrupedal. But Kranz has pointed out that the very few jawbones found are U-shaped and widen towards the rear—providing space for the windpipe within the jaw, and allowing the skull to sit squarely upon a fullyerect spine like humans, rather than projecting in front of it, like great apes. It is on this basis that great ape sculptor Bill Munns designed this model (Fig. 33).13 Paranthropoids When I first began studying the Bigfoot phenomenon upon moving to the Pacific Northwest in the mid-1970s, I was struck by the similarity of Bigfoot photos, descriptions, and drawings to reconstructions of a large Pleistocene proto-human called Paranthropus robustus (also called Australopithecus robustus or Australopithecus boisei ) . Dwelling in South Africa between 2 and 1.2 million years ago, this hominid was nearly twice Fig. 30. Gigantopithecus blacki —life-size model by Bill Munns Fig. 31. Paranthropus
Monsters of Mystery 297 Fig. 33. hom*o erectus the size of the little Australopithecus africanus believed to have been our own ancestor. The length of its limbs and the proportions of its massive pelvis are quite unlike those of either humans or apes. Another significant feature is the prominent saggital crest atop the skulls of both Paranthropus and Bigfoot.14 The single feature of Bigfoot that we have been able to study extensively is its eponymous footprint. One aspect of those prints cannot be overlooked by even the most casual observer: the forward position of the big toe is not that of an ape, but of a human. There are enough significant differences between these prints and ours that their species cannot be hom*o sapiens. But they could be Paranthropus (“the other man”). In 1971, crypto-anthropologist Gordon Strasenburgh first proposed the scientific name Paranthropus eldurelli for the Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest. Today, this identification is gaining credence among serious investigators, and it is the one I, too, find most convincing.15 We are so used to thinking of humans as the only species of our genus, hom*o, that we tend to overlook the fact that it was not always so. Just as there are several species of each of the great apes, early hominids also exhibited species diversity. Perhaps some of our presumed-extinct cousins still survive, undiscovered out there in the vast northern forests. Missing Links Since Darwin, just about every discovery of a primitive hominid has been hailed in the popular press as a missing link between modern humans and our anthropoid ancestors. It has seemed only too obvious to draw the same conclusion regarding sightings of hairy hominids, and many have done so, assuming these creatures to be surviving examples of our proto-human progenitors. Given the distinctly humanoid appearance of their footprints, this is not an unreasonable conclusion, nor is it a far stretch from the Paranthropus hypothesis. It is an especially credible proposition for African hominids presumed to be still surviving in their (and our) original homeland, along with several other species of known and unknown apes, most of which have been discovered only in the last century. Australopithecus(“southern ape”) was proposed by Bernard Heuvelmans16 as a likely contender for the identity of several of the smaller varieties of ape-men, especially the 3- to 4-foot-tall African Agogwe. Discovered by Raymond Dart in 1924, several species lived in Africa during the Pliocene era, 4 to 2.4 million years ago. The famous “Lucy” was a representative of the older A. afarensis. She and the later A. africanus were slenderly built, or gracile, and are believed to have been the direct ancestors of modern humans. Unfortunately, the last sighting of an Agogwe was in 1927, and if they did exist at that time, they may not any longer. Under present conditions of warfare and poaching, gorillas and chimps are severely endangered. Indeed, “when the bough (on the Tree of Life) breaks, the cradle (of Life) must fall.” The first fossils of Pithecanthropus erectus (“erect ape man”) were discovered in Java, Indonesia, in 1891 by the Dutch anatomist Eugène Dubois. Popularly known as “Java Man,” a second specimen was located on the same island in 1936. At the time, these were the oldest hominid remains yet found, and many referred to them as the missing link between humans and apes predicted by Darwin’s theory of evolution. In turn, the remains were then cited to validate Darwin’s theory. Subsequent discoveries of the same creatures in East Africa during the 1950s and 70s have led to a reclassification, and Pithecanthropus has now been absorbed into the broader species of hom*o erectus (“erect man”). They became the first hominids to leave Africa around 2 million years ago, when lowered sea levels of the Pleistocene era permitted extended migrations along the exposed continental shelf around Arabia, India, and into Sunderland (now Indonesia). They also appear to have been the first to master fire. Various sightings of mystery hominids throughout Indonesia have been evidenced as possible survivals. Neanderthals hom*o sapiens neanderthalensis is now believed to have been of the same species as our own—sapiens—but of a different subspecies. Inhabiting Europe from 130,000 to 24,000 years ago, they had 99.5 percent of the same genes we have, but little if any of their genetic heritage survives among modern humans. Famous for enduring much of the Ice Age through their invention of clothing (made from tanned hides stitched together using sinews and bone needles), neanderthals used to be depicted as hulking, hairy, brutish figures—the archetypical “caveman” of popular conception. More recent discoveries have mitigated that image, as it was learned that the first specimens discovered suffered from severe arthritis and rickets owing to chronic vitamin D deficiency. Fig. 32. Australopithecus
298 A Wizard’s Bestiary Dr. Myra Shackley, a world expert on neanderthals, has proposed that the Almas of Mongolia and the Chuchunaa of Siberia may represent relic populations of neanderthals, surviving into the 20th century. In her 1983 book, Still Living? Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal Enigma, she also provides an analysis of the medieval European Wildmen, or Woodwoses, tracing them back to the Satyrs, Fauns, and Silvestres of classical lore. But she concludes disappointingly that these are entirely creatures of myth, and do not represent relict survivals—an assumption that seems unwarranted to me.17 Hobbits In 2003, the subfossil remains of seven diminutive hominids were discovered on the tiny Indonesian island of Flores. Officially designated hom*o floresiensis (“man of Flores”), they were immediately dubbed hobbits by the media, due to the popularity of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. Only 3–4 feet tall, with skulls the size of a grapefruit, they appear to have been a dwarf island-race of hom*o erectus. Stone tools associated with the remains indicate that they existed from 18,000 to as recently as 12,000 years ago— well into the time period of modern humans in the area. It is believed that they and other unique animals on the island were exterminated by a volcanic eruption about 12,000 years ago. However, Portuguese sailors visiting Flores in the 16th century heard native descriptions of small, hairy, inarticulate cave-dwellers they called Ebu Gogo. Sightings of these creatures continued into the 19th century. And some researchers have proposed that Sumatra’s Orang Pendek may also be surviving Flores men.18 Humanzee Also known as the Chuman, or Manpanzee, this is a hypothetical chimpanzee/human hybrid. Chimpanzees and humans are very closely related, having in common 95 percent of DNA sequences, and 99 percent of coding DNA sequences.19 Numerous claims have been made over the years for experimental or feral hybrids, most famously in the case of one named “Oliver.” But when the candidates were subjected to DNA tests, no such hybrid specimen has ever been confirmed. Oliver turned out to be pure chimp, albeit with very little hair. Aliens? This may seem like an absurd notion to introduce, but it cannot be ignored. Particularly in the American South and Midwest, many sightings of large, hairy hominids include aspects of Fortean weirdness. Some of these creatures seem to have no facial features, some have long claws rather than fingers, and others leave three-toed tracks. And quite a few appear incomplete, as if they are holographic projections and part of them is invisible. Such sightings are often accompanied by reports of UFO activity in the vicinity. There is really no way to integrate these sorts of anomalies into any coherent theory of biological evolution and natural history, and I deem it wise to not even try. Reports of this nature, I submit, can only be relegated to investigators’ “X-files.” Monster Movies: Hairy Hominids Willis O’Brien’s seminal King Kong (1933) introduced the world to the eponymous giant gorilla. It was followed by many sequels and imitations, beginning immediately with O’Brien’s own Son of Kong (1933), and his later Mighty Joe Young (1949). The Snow Creature (1954) and The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (1957) both feature the legendary Yeti, which also made a brief cameo appearance in The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964). Konga (1961) is an obvious Kong rip-off, shortly followed by more films that continued the saga of the mighty Kong: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), King Kong Escapes (1967), and Kong Island (1968). The 1976 King Kong is an updated remake of the original, but without the dinosaurs. The abysmal Queen Kong (1976) and Mighty Peking Man (1977) followed hot on its heels. Quest for Fire (1981) pits hom*o erectus against neanderthals. King Kong Lives (1986) resurrected everyone’s favorite giant ape. Harry and the Hendersons (1987) is a family film featuring an endearing Bigfoot, and was turned into a TV sitcom of 72 episodes over three seasons. It was followed by a moving remake of Mighty Joe Young (1998). Wendigo (2001) is a brooding horror film of the Canadian legend. In 2005, Peter Jackson reprised the original story of King Kong with a special effects extravaganza remake. On the DVD, a bonus mockumentary has Kong descended from Gigantopithecus. King of the Lost World (2005) is a forgettable return to the land of the giant gorilla. Abominable (2006) features the Yeti, and Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006) includes a Sasquatch. Fig. 35. hom*o floresiensis Fig. 34. Neanderthal Fig. 36. Oliver
Monsters of Mystery 299 Modern Mysteries 27. DemonIC Dogs By Ash “LeopardDancer” DeKirk Standing over Hugo, and plucking at his throat, there stood a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon. And even as they looked the thing tore the throat out of Hugo Baskerville, on which, as it turned its blazing eyes and dripping jaws upon them, the three shrieked with fear and rode for dear life, still screaming, across the moor. One, it is said, died that very night of what he had seen, and the other twain were but broken men for the rest of their days. —Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles LACK DOGS ARE A WHOLE CLASS OF monstrous, canine apparitions prevalent in European folklore, showing up quite frequently in English and Scottish lore. These beasties, also called Hellhounds, are said to be huge dogs, roughly the size of a calf (though some as big as horses have been reported), covered in thick, shaggy, black fur, and with glowing red eyes. Despite their name, these creatures are not necessarily black, as there have been reports of white, spotted, yellow, and brown ones. Sometimes, though very rarely, there are reports of Cerberean Black Dogs sporting two or three heads. The Hellhound’s canine teeth are often described as longer than average, and, to many people, they seem to be grinning at some hidden knowledge, rather like a canine Cheshire Cat. Black Dogs may be benevolent, they may be malicious, or they may be neither. These apparitions appear at places that serve as transition archetypes—places such as lonely county rounds, ancient highways, bridges, crossroads, and shadowed entrances. Some Hellhounds guard treasures or sacred places. More often than not, if you leave a Black Dog alone, it will not bother you; but if you should attempt to harm one, you are the one who will suffer. Black Dogs can inflict frightful wounds that may prove fatal. Indeed, in much of the folklore that describes these creatures, to see one is a portent of death, though there have been purported instances of Black Dogs guiding lost travelers to safety. Black Dogs are also associated with fire—specifically, the flames surrounding the hound, and the presence of scorched earth and/or claw marks burned into wood or metal left in the beast’s wake. Local Variants The names for the Black Dog are many and varied: In Scotland they are the Cu Sith, in Wales they are known as Gwiyllgi, on the Isle of Man they are called Mauthe Dhoog, and in Ireland they are the Coinn Iotair. Other names include Black Shuck, Barghest, Ki Du, Gytrash, Padfoot, Rongeur d’Os, Saidhthe, Skirker, Suaraighe, and Trash. Here is an alphabetical listing of a number of important Black Dogs: Barghest (also Barguest, Barvest, or Boguest; from German, Bahrgeist, “Spirit of the Bier”)—One of the many Black Dogs of English and European myth, the Barghest can be as small as a bull mastiff or Mauthe Dhoog Fig. 1. Faust confronts a Black Dog in his study.
