Got 8 hours to kill? Consider perusing the cryptids on Wikipedia which includes such delights as:
* Ahool: "Named for its distinctive call A-hool (other sources render it ahOOOooool), it is said to live in the deepest rainforests of Java . It is described as having a monkey/ape -like head with large dark eyes, large claws on its forearms (approximately the size of an infant ), and a body covered in gray fur. Possibly the most intriguing and astounding feature is that it is said to have a wingspan of 3 m (10 ft). This is almost twice as long as the largest (known) bat in the world, the common flying fox."
* The Grinning Man: "There are bright street lights in that area, which gave the boys a good glimpse of what they called 'the strangest guy we've ever seen.' Yanchitis noticed the strange entity first. 'He was standing behind that fence', he stated later to investigators. 'I don't know how he got there. He was the biggest man I ever saw.' 'Jimmy nudged me', Marvin Munoz reported to police, 'and said, Who's that guy standing behind you? I looked around and there he was... behind that fence. Just standing there. He pivoted around and looked right at us... then he grinned a big old grin.'"
* Hellhound: "A hound which appears to people surrounded by flames as if from hell. The legend is if you see it three times you will have an untimely death." Status = "discredited"
* Loveland Frog: "A businessman is said to have seen three or four 3-foot (0.91 m)-tall frog-faced creatures squatting under a bridge near Loveland. They were described as having wrinkles instead of hair on their heads, lopsided chests, and wide mouths without lips, like frogs. One of them is said to have held up a bar device that shed sparks. A strong odor of alpalfalf and almond and was reportedly left behind."
* Pope Lick Monster: "A half-man and half-goat or half-sheep cyrptid reported to live beneath a Norfolk Southern Railway trestle over Pope Lick Creek, in the Fisherville area of Louisville, Kentucky... According to some accounts, the creature uses either hypnosis or voice mimicry to lure trespassers onto the trestle to meet their death before an oncoming train."
* Rainbow Tiger: OK. I confess. This one is not from Wikipedia, but from my son who swears he saw one at the zoo. "They have all the colors of the rainbow. What colors are in the rainbow? Not gold. Not silver. What about testicle? No, testicle is not a color. Rainbow tigers are the most beautiful animal, more than a butterfly. There are also the ice tigers. They are blue and white and gray and like to swim...."
What are some of your favorites?
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See, also: Laws of Silence on the Tale of the Lambton Worm
Don't forget the Creepy Gnome!
ReplyDelete'Creepy gnome' back on prowl
'Creepy gnome' terrorises town
And the pink dolphin!
ReplyDeleteWeird pic, that. It looks fake, no?
ReplyDeleteI recently went thru a Umberto Eco phase kickedof by reading his "Baudolino" which, come think of, fits in with your recent War Pigs Post. Filled with cryptid (hiumans included). It strikes me that antiquity and the middle ages were rife with cryptids. Knowing so little of the world outside his or her village, it could be populated with whatever creature the imagination could produce.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't answer the question of sightings, though...
hey, so happy to see you post here b/c i forgot about this post. my son was only 4 when he told me about rainbow tiger. he's still always going on and on about rainbow man, a superhero he made up. i'll have to read this to him. he'll get a kick outta the color testicle.
ReplyDeletei haven't read eco, tho he's long been on my "to read" list.
that's an interesting theory you just presented: crytips stem from little villages not knowing what's just outside their borders.
i know you didn't really say exactly that.
you noted that this theory accounted for people to accept reports of strange beings. after all, how could people know what was just beyond their village's horizon?
you also noted the weakness: how to explain the sightings?
this is where contemporary society comes into play, i think. if i see a rainbow tiger, and i live in a jungle village of 42 or 27 people (or whatever), there's little chance of anybody else seeing a rainbow tiger.
unless we have the internet.
(or unless we're commenting to each other on this post.)
Maybe in the jungle village a group belief could set in more easily than in a larger more urbanized society? This is actually a really cool topic but I'm to fried to do it justice. Just struck me that in antiquity and the middle ages, so many cryptids were widely believed to exist. I think Baudolino a character makes the point that if he can imagine something, it must exist. Which is kind of like the ontological proof of God's existence, no? But people really believed in them and their proof was that someone imagined it and would be unable to conjure up something which didn't exist....am I right in thinking this was a strain of thinking in Medieval thinking? Ouf. My head is block of wood today....
ReplyDelete