D is for… Drac
Half dragon, half goblin, all shapeshifting mischief-maker, the Drac lives in the waterways of France. It has a tendency to abduct human girls to serve as wet nurses in its underwater kingdoms.
↧
The ABCs of ABC – D
↧
Article 0
Ruggiero Delivering Angelica by Arnold Böcklin (1873). Just look at that orc! It’s got to be the prettiest fine art dragon ever painted. I love how it seems unfazed by the knight trotting up, and even Angelica seems awfully casual about being held hostage by a dragon.
That said, if you liked this don’t see the sequel painting with the dragon handily beheaded.
↧
↧
Article 0
Good evening then, reader friend… till tomorrow
J. J. Grandville, La Vie Privée des Animaux
↧
The ABCs of ABC – E
E is for… Emela-ntouka
The Emela-ntouka is a big one-horned creature with a heavy crocodilian tail. It is also a surviving ceratopsian dinosaur because there’s no way sub-Saharan people could come up with it on their own.
↧
The ABCs of ABC – F
F is for… Feiyi
One variety of Feiyi-snake catalogued in the Shan Hai Jing has six legs and four wings, and is an omen of drought. Maybe it’s a grasshopper or locust? After all, those show up in warm weather too.
↧
↧
Article 0
The ball was then interrupted by a great vocal and instrumental concert.
J. J. Grandville – La Vie Privee des Animaux
↧
Article 0
Behold, a tortoise!
↧
Article 0
“She danced a saltarello”. [The pun is that saltarello, a dance, sounds like the French sauterelle, “grasshopper”, and both come from the same root meaning “to jump”]
Grandville, Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux.
↧
Article 0
tfw you want to be born but don’t want your mom to lick you to death
↧
↧
Article 0
Giant friendly crabs
↧
Article 0
I hope to prove one day that, in the hands of an intelligent magpie, a quill pen has no less value than in the claws of a wolf or the paws of a fox.
J. J. Grandville, La vie privée des animaux.
↧
Article 0
Sea hare dragon. Why not?
↧
Article 0
Further proof that Canada geese are vicious monsters waiting to murder us in our sleep. From the abstract: “… we suspect that this [nest-defense] aggresssion combined with the Brant’s inability to defend itself due to its smaller size led to this unusual result. The male Canada Goose maintained its attack until the Brant died.”
Dinosaurs. They’re scary.
Krauss, D. A. and Salame, I. E. (2012) Interspecific Killing of a Branta bernicla (Brant) by a Male Branta canadensis (Canada Goose). Northeastern Naturalist, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 701-704.
↧
↧
The ABCs of ABC – G
G is for… Guirivilu
The Guirivilu hails from Mapuche folklore of Chile and Argentina. An aquatic vulpine creature, it has a long prehensile tail tipped with a vicious hook. It is – of course – a threat to anything in the water, but cutting off its tail makes it harmless.
↧
The ABCs of ABC – H
H is for… Haüt
The Haüt is a grotesque South American monster described by Thevet. It is the size of a large African monkey, with a childlike face. Its paws have long claws shaped like fishbones and its fur never looks wet. Despite its ugliness it is harmless and frequently emits deep sighs like a man in pain. As it refuses all food given to it in captivity, it is believed that the haüt, like the bird of paradise, lives on nothing but air.
↧
The ABCs of ABC – I
I is for… Ieltxu
Ieltxu is a Basque spirit that appears as a human, a pig, or a bird shooting flames from its mouth. It is mischievous rather than evil, but that distinction is moot after you’ve spent a miserable night following its flame in the wilderness.
↧
The ABCs of ABC – J
J is for… Jarjacha
The Jarjacha is a long-necked, four-legged nocturnal animal with glowing eyes. It only eats incestuous people. Its mocking call – jar-jar-jar-jar-jar – echoing in the mountains of Peru is a sign that someone in the village has been Up To No Good, and the guilty parties are duly sought out and punished.
↧
↧
The ABCs of ABC – K
K is for… Karnabo
The bastard offspring of a sorcerer and a ghoul, the Karnabo lives in Regniowez in the Ardennes. It has an elephant’s trunk (capable of a chilling whistle) and lethal basilisk eyes. Its misdeeds are many, but it does cure paronychia on Good Fridays.
↧
The ABCs of ABC – L
L is for… Lomie
Found in the forests of Bohemia, the ill-defined Lomie has a bladder full of boiling hot water under its neck. It blasts and scalds assailants before making its escape.
↧
The ABCs of ABC – M
M is for… Markupo
The Markupo is a Philippine serpent with a red crest, a thorny tongue, a forked tail, and a pleasant singing voice. It exhales a poison of extraordinary deadliness – if the poison is sprinkled on a plant, the plant will wither and its very shadow will kill anyone it touches.
↧