Rare Monsters

  The Aksar is an apocalyptic beast from Arabian mythology, where it’s also known as Dabbat al-Ard, or Beast of the Earth. The Aksar was a chimeric beast with parts from many animals. It had the head of a bull, eyes of a pig, ears of an elephant, antlers of a stag, neck of an ostrich, shoulders of a lion, hips of a leopard, tail of a ram and legs of a camel. Most scholars think this assemblage of animals is meant to just be freaky for the sake of freaky, to get across the idea of ‘monstrousness’, although I think it’s the result of someone explaining a giraffe to another person who’s never seen one before, and many more additions made in repetition. The aksar is said to be a stunning 30 meters tall too. The Aksar would take part in the destruction of the world at the end of time. It would wield Moses’s staff and Solomon’s ring, using them to separate believers from non-believers. Before this, while Moses was on Mount Sinai God brought the Aksar out from its sanctuary to ...

  This was a little known monster that appeared in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania during the summer of 1973, where it terrorized the Amish community. The creature has no official name, but has been referred to as the Amish Country Goat Man, The Mystery Beast and humorously The Goose Grabber. This monster defies categorization and has been lumped in with bit foot, dog man, goat man and the Sheepsquatch, yet it doesn’t neatly fit with any of them. It is a unique being. One thing is for sure, the Amish don’t give up their paranormal stories to outsiders easily. So the fact that they contacted outsiders over these events showed how frightened they were. The first encounter happened to two brothers in the evening, as they were bringing in the hay at the end of the day. While they were working their horses started to startle like a predator was near by. The two brothers went looking for the cause, suspecting a coyote or bear was near. Instead they saw a grey, indistinct bipedal fig...

  The orabou was a creature reported by André Thevet during his journeys, sometime in the 1600 th century. The creature was seen in the waters near Mount Marzouan. No mountain is named Mount Marzouan today, so it’s unknown which mountain this was supposed to be, but it was believed to be near the Red Sea. The orabou was a fish cat hybrid with an unusually humped back. The creature was covered in armour like scales that Thevet compared to brigantine armour. The orabou was nine to ten feet long. It made sounds similar to a cat. According to Thevet, the locals would occasionally fish and eat the orabou, even though the meat was said to cause kidney stones. The locals would treat the kidney stones with a folk remedies made from herbs and the orabou’s own fat. Thevet tried some of the orabou’s meat while he was there. He said it was foul tasting and compared it to preserved camel meat. The orabou was said to be extremely ferocious towards other sea life. Much thought has ...

  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...

  The carcolh is possible the strangest ‘dragon’ in Europe. It’s described as either a giant snail, or a serpentine dragon with a snail’s shell. In addition to this it has several slimy and hairy tentacles on its face. I imagine the hair helps keep copious amounts of slime on the tentacles. The carcolh lives in a network of caverns under the city of Hastingues, in south France. No one knows how it got there or how long it’s lived. During the Spanish invasion of the region in 1635 the treasures of Hastingues were taken down into the caves to be guarded by the carcolh. However the carcolh was loyal to no particular country and would attack humans indiscriminately, so no one has ever been able to retrieve the treasure. After many attempts were made the caves were walled off. Unlike many other European dragons the carcolh has never been defeated. While belief in the existence of the carcolh has all but disappeared, legend has it that it still lurks in the walled off caves. ...

  Tianlu Pixiu The pixiu is a mythical beast from China. It first appeared in the Han dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) and are still popular today, although both their appearance and role have changed greatly over the centuries. Today the pixiu are bringers of wealth and associated with the practice of feng shui. Bixie Pixiu There are two types of pixiu. The bixie, or female pixiu, has two horns or antlers. It was responsible for guarding its masters and protecting them from harm. The tianlu was the male and only had one horn or antler. The male was responsible for guarding and attracting wealth. Today the bixie pixiu has largely been forgotten about and pixius are almost always depicted with one horn. Likewise the pixiu has become more associated with wealth than protection. The pixiu comes in several colors. It is often gold, to represent its association with wealth. It can also be black to represent its protective aspects. The pixiu is often depicted as white or red as well. O...

  The Grand Lake hoedag is a fearsome critter from St Mary’s Ohio, not to be confused with the more famous Wisconsin hodag. It was said to be a lake monster, albeit one that was completely different from the typical plesiosaur / Nessie type. The hoedag was said to be a one of a kind, female creature, not a species. It appeared in news articles from 1912 to the 1960’s, and was never meant to be taken seriously. The hoedag was the size and shape of a giraffe. She had fur on her body and a combination of feathers and porcupine quills on her neck. Her body was covered in a cow spot pattern and had a camel like hump on her back. Her front legs were long like a chicken’s and her back legs were short like a pigs. Both sets of legs ended in plate shaped feet, which were capable of moving over mud and water plants without sinking in. On her head she had a singular green eye, partly covered by cow licked bangs. Her tail stuck up in the air like a flagpole and at the end of it was a red eye. ...

  Bai Ze is a monster from Chinese mythology. It’s also found in Japan, where it’s known as hakutaku. It is a good and pure creature responsible for warding off evil spirits. The bai ze was a wise and intelligent creature. It was one of the nine spiritual beasts which resided in heaven. Bai ze descended to Earth where it taught the Yellow Emperor about the various harmful ghosts in the world and how to expel them. These lessons resulted in the Bai Ze Diagram, a scroll depicting various harmful spirits and how to ward them off. The Bai Ze is mentioned many times throughout Chinese literature. Over time the bai ze became a protective charm. Images of the beast were hung in homes or carried with people to ward off ghosts and disease. The bai ze has many varying appearances in Chinese mythology. In the History of Yuan, written in 1370, the bai ze was described as having the head of a tiger, the body of a dragon, a single horn and a red mane. In the Sancai Tuhui, written in 1609, the ba...

I’ve seen articles written about Cathach the dragon a few times. Each time her sisters were mentioned by name, but descriptions were never given for them. So I was determined to find out what her two draconic sisters also looked like.  The story starts with three Tuatha-De-Danann brothers, Crohan, Sal and Daltheen fighting a campaign against the boars of Ireland and successfully wipe them out but one. The last one, the All Devouring Sow, mates with the gatekeeper of hell and birthed three dragons in revenge, the sisters Cathach, Dabran and Farbagh. They were subsequently nursed by the red demon of Western Ireland. Farbagh was the oldest of the sisters. She was a cat like dragon with a crescent moon on her forehead and a deadly nail on her tail. The three brothers slayed Farbagh by waiting for her to pounce from a height on them and skewering her on their spears as she landed. When the three brothers returned home they were told a prophecy that their sister Aonbhean would marry Diar...

  While most people know panthers as a jungle cat today in medieval bestiaries it was a very strange beast indeed. Just like other ‘mythical’ creatures like the calopus and the crocatta, the panther in medieval bestiaries is an example of a real animal from far off lands gaining a mythical status, to the point where it barely resembled it’s real life counterpart. The panther was first known to the ancient Greeks. To them it was still very cat like, being almost identical to a normal leopard, but with a multicolored coat. It was considered the mount of Dionysus. The panther was handed down from Greek records to medieval bestiaries, but by this time Europe was cut off from areas of the world where leopards actually lived, and the details of panther’s nature was largely forgotten. Instead the panther was made into an allegory about Christ gathering the people of the world. The panther would feast and then sleep for three days in a cave. On the third day the panther emerges and emits a...

  Many people know about the chupacabra. It’s one of the most popular alien or cryptid monsters. Yet the chupacabra is so regionally varied it’s practically different monsters in different regions. In mainland USA the chupacabra is known as a mutant hairless canine creature, often with spikes and vampiric fangs. In Puerto Rico where the chupacabra originated from it’s a very different monster. The creature is a humanoid reptilian thing, shaped like a bulkier grey alien with scaly reptile skin, glowing red eyes and spines down its back. Yet even within Puerto Rico there’s a different, even stranger, chupacabra, which was seen in a one off encounter. In October of 1973, Hector Jusino and his friends drove out to El Yunque National Forest for a camping trip. They were 16 at the time, and experiencing their first real freedom to be out on their own for the night. El Yunque, the highest point in Puerto Rico, was no stranger to the paranormal, having several other creatures spotted there...

  The Telchines were primordial daemons from Greek mythology. They were associated with the sea, smithing and the Island of Rhodes. They created Cronos’s scythe and Poseidon’s trident. They also raised the infant Poseidon. However, even though they initially aided the Olympian gods, the Telchinese eventually turned to evil and defiled the soils of Rhodes, causing Zeus to punish them. Every detail in the Telchine’s story beyond these broad strokes is variable, making them hard to pin down.  Telchines have multiple origins that contradict each other. They were either the children of Pontus and Gaia, or Tartaros and Nemesis, or of the goddess Thalassa alone. Sometimes they’re said to be created from the blood that was spilled when Uranus was castrated, however this contradicts the Telchines creating Cronos’s scythe, which he used to perform this act. Regardless of their origins the Telchinese are always regarded as primordial beings, created by the primal forces of the universe T...

  What follows is a report of a cryptid or alien creature that feels oddly connected to the previous entry of this blog. Yet the only thing that connects them is the cephalopod appearance of the creatures, and that both stories took place in Spain, albeit on opposite sides of the country.  In the summer of 1961 Arquimedes Sanchez and an unnamed coworker were driving through the Basque Mountains in the province of Vizcaya. They were hauling construction equipment, driving along the road at night. However the two of them knew the route well and had done this run many times before.  They were nearing their destination at Puerto de Barazar when an alarmingly strange creature climbed over the embankment on the side of the road and ran in front of the truck. It was an octopus like being covered in rusty red hair. It walked upright on four tentacles (yes, I know I drew six) and stood about 3 to 4 feet tall.  Mr Sanchez slammed on the breaks and stopped before hitting the cr...