Rare Monsters

  The cadejos are ghostly black dogs from Central American legend. They are similar to the black dog legends from England, except there are two different cadejos, one is black and evil, and the other is white and good. The cadejo’s appearance varies greatly from region to region. However most of the time they have hooves like a goat on both feet. Sometimes they have goat horns as well. The black one is sometimes said to drag a chain behind it too. The white cadejo has blue eyes and the black cadejo has fiery red eyes. Cadejos are very large for dogs, being comparable to the size of a cow. Legend has it that God sent the white cadejo to protect people who were out at night, people travelling along country roads, drunks and people down on their luck. The devil saw this and was so angered by it he created the black cadejo to attack those same people. The cadejos most often interact with people in the country side, especially farmers who live near volcanoes. It’s said before...

This entry is going to indulge in some original research. Something I’ve noticed among dogman encounters is the occasional mention of horned dogmen. The cryptid community is usually pretty thorough in classifying subtypes of cryptids. For instance there’s standard, hyena and rottweiler types of dogmen, based on their head and muzzle shape. Yet I haven’t seen anyone else in the cryptid community discuss horned dogmen as a category, just scattered unrelated stories. It’s possible that’s because these creatures aren’t always considered dogmen, but demons, or goatment who happen to have a canine head, although I would think that quality is important enough to change what sort of cryptid they’re classified as. So I’ve gathered here all the horned dogmen stories I could find.  Caldwell’s beasts This first encounter happened to Roger Caldwell in October of 2005. He was on a hiking trip along the Appalachian Trail through North Carolina at the time. Mr Caldwell was an experienced hiker who...

  The zburator is a type of demon from Romanian mythology. The name means flyer. The zburator's true form is that of a wolf with draconic features and bat like wings. It's often depicted with fire as well, either being surrounded by flames, or having a mane or tail of flame. This is especially prevalent when the zburator flies across the sky at night in the form of a shooting star. The zburator is capable of shape shifting. Most often it takes on the form of a handsome young man. It uses this capability to visit women at night and temp them into sleeping with it. The zburator most favours women who are engaged, or otherwise in a relationship but not married yet, and takes great delight in convincing these women to cheat on their partners. Zburators are often invisible to all except the women they pursue. Zburators drain their victim's life force through sex, much like an incubus. This leaves their victims tired, pale and anemic. Zburators are often compared to vampires, e...

  The nguruvilu is a monster from Mapuche legend in Chile. It looks like an elongated fox, which can coil around like a snake. It's still fur covered like a fox. It has long sharp claws. The name nguruvilu means fox snake in Mapuche. The nguruvilu lives an amphibious life in rivers and can hide itself in the form of common water creatures. It's a dangerous trickster who drags people underwater and drowns them. The nguruvilu can make the water deep or shallow. It can make the river look inviting to lure people in and can also make whirlpools and rapids at will. It delights in drowning lone victims and watches the village morn. The only way to get rid of an nguruvilu is through the efforts of a machi, the Mapuche version of a shaman. At the river's edge the machi will make offerings to the gods and good spirits to protect him. Then he will dive underwater and guided by good magic will capture the nguruvilu in the form of a fish, frog or snake. He then threatens the nguruvi...

  Tiangou is a celestial canine from Chinese mythology. He is usually associated with eating the sun or moon during eclipses but has many more roles than this. Tiangou's name means celestial dog. In his best known interpretations Tiangou is a giant black dog surrounded by flame. The most famous story about Tiangou is when he ate the moon in pursuit of Change'E. HouYi the legendary archer hero was given an elixir of immortal for his many great deeds. However his wife Chang'E drank the elixir before he could. For this the gods imprisoned Chang'E on the moon. They did this by making Chang'E so light that she floated up to the moon and couldn't step on the Earth. As Chang'E was floating away HouYi's dog licked up some of the immortal elixir that had been spilled on the ground. The dog grew in size to be larger than the heavenly bodies. It pursued Chang'E, trying to get the rest of the immortality elixir through her. The dog eventually ate the whole moon ...

In the years between 1764 and 1767 there was a string of some of the most bizarre animal attacks on farmers in history. In the French region of G é vaudan close to 300 people were reportedly killed by an unknown animal, who's species has never been identified. G é vaudan was a remote, mountainous and heavily forested region in southern French, which is now part of Loz è re. It was rugged and rural, the majority of people lived as shepherds and wood cutters. People didn't have access to the education and advancements of the enlightenment found in the more populous northern regions of France. For the average farmer life had changed little from the medieval era. The local noble ruler, the Marquis D'Apcher, spent most of his time in the royal court at Versailles, so actual leadership of the communities in G é vaudan was in the hands of the church and local elders. Rural people here lived a meagre life filled with hunger and hardship. Further compounding the hardships for the...

  Valravn, meaning raven of the slain, is a sort of boogieman from Denmark. Valravns were created when a raven ate the flesh of the fallen in battle who had not been given a proper burial. The valravn was a thoroughly evil creature that sought to bring harm to the surrounding communities. After being transformed the valravn gained human intelligence and various magical abilities that allowed it to spread pestilence and misfortune. It also gained the ability to shape shift into wolves or a half wolf – half raven form. Even with these abilities valravns still sought out more power. The one thing they desired the most was the ability to take on the form of a black knight, which they could only gain by devouring the heart of a child. How they accomplished this was usually left to the imagination. However in one traditional Danish song a valravn offered to protect a maiden on her way to her marriage in return for her first born child, echoing similar trickster deals made with fairies an...

       The kludde was an evil spirit or boogeyman from the low countries, spanning Belgium and the Netherlands. The kludde was always associated with water and inhabited places like swamps, reed beds, ponds and under bridges. While the kludde was capable of travelling over land, it couldn't enter hallowed ground, such as church yards.      The kludde gets its name from the sounds it makes. Although it's known regionally as kleure, klerre, or waterkledde.      The kludde was a dangerous monster, luring anyone who travelled by night into its swamp. There it would kill its victim, either by strangling or drowning. The kludde was capable of causing confusion and fear in its victims just by proximity, even without being seen. The kludde was especially dangerous to children, which it would hunt down even when closer victims were available. Because of this the kludde was used a as boogeyman to scare children into not going outside at night. ...