And the solution to the previous quiz? It’s a beaver. It is described as living in rivers, both on land and in the water, and building houses with multiple chambers and exits.
Never underestimate the power of an artist who has no idea what they’re drawing.
X is for… Xiao
The name Xiao is used for two creatures in the Guideways, an ape and a bird, both of which are noisy. The Xiao or Raucous-bird has four wings, one eye, a dog’s tail, and caws like a magpie. Eating it cures stomachache and diarrhea. The Guideways assures us that it resembles Kuafu the Boaster (it doesn’t).
Y is for… Ya-te-veo
The Ya-te-veo (literally “I see you”) is, as far as anyone knows, only described by Buel in his book Sea and Land. Since it’s found in both Africa and South America, it’s either a Wegenerian miracle or an amalgamation of all carnivorous plant tall tales. It tends to look like a comfy seat before snaring people in its spiked tentacles and giving them the Iron Maiden treatment. Excellent!
Z is for… Zoureg
The Zoureg is a mysterious Arabian snake. Despite being only a foot long, nothing can stop it once it starts moving. Trees, rocks, human beings – the zoureg goes through them like a hot knife through butter (with fatal results on humans, obviously). The only way to kill it is to decapitate it in its sleep.
Cats are among those things I just can’t draw convincingly. Them and dogs. And horses. And people. Okay, I can draw things convincingly as long as they aren’t realistic.
Anyway! This is the dreaded Wild Cat of Craig-na-Seanean and a little friend. Found near Doo-Lough, this ferocious feline had a moon-shaped marking on its forehead and a sharp nail on the end of its tail. It killed and ate hundreds of people until it was slain by three heroic brothers who impaled it on their spears. The cat was then hacked to particles and burnt to ashes to prevent the potential spread of plague.
The dreaded Tailypo, while endowed with a delicious and highly nutritious tail, is also extremely possessive of its caudal appendage.
I can’t possibly do justice to this marvel. From the pages of the (excellent) Legion of Super Heroes, it’s a not-veiled-at-all retelling of Herman Melville’s book, and it’s the Super-Moby Dick of Space.
You’re all so happy I informed you of its existence.
Gustave Doré’s The Monkey and the Dolphin, from back when dolphins were pretty much mythical beasts. In this case, it’s less a dolphin and more a genetically discombobulated piscoPekingese. The monkey’s cute though.
A friend.
From Rasmussen, K (1929) Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.
That’s an awfully friendly sea serpent
There’s something incredibly unsettling about Gustave Doré’s Bluebeard. Those eyes…
“Birth of a Salesman”, Kelly Freas illustration for the eponymous J. Tiptree Jr. short.
Flat Worms by M C Escher (1959)
Visit scenic India! See the elephants, rhinos, and crocodiles!
From Le Livre des Merveilles.
Visit lovely Bohemia! Get scalded by a beast with a bladder on its neck!
From Le Livre des Merveilles.
From Cobb, “Nematodes and their relationships”.
Just a few of Edward Lear’s Nonsense Botany plants.
Welcome to the ABC 2018 Wrap-Up, the part of the blog where I talk about the state of ABC and what this means for me, for you, and for the rest of the known universe. This has been a strange, messed-up year, one in which I’ve been forced to reevaluate everything I knew or thought I knew, and one in which I’ve heeded some important wake-up calls.
What did we learn?
All this paints a pretty bleak picture, doesn’t it? Well, turns out my loss is your gain. I have decided to go back to updating ABC, at least twice a week as before (and maybe three if I put more elbow grease into it). There are a lot of things I want to tell you about and I want to make sure it gets out there.
Watch this space. Watch it closely.
My new year’s resolution for 2019: go back to producing the quality creature content you know and love.
There is a lake in British New Guinea. It is deep and full of fish, and Abaia, the magic eel, dwells at the bottom. Abaia does not like to be disturbed. Like many snakes and eels in Melanesian beliefs, it is closely associated with weather, storms, and floods.
Once a man found Abaia’s lake and caught many fish. Then he invited the other inhabitants of his village to share in the endless bounty. They too filled their nets, and one woman caught Abaia himself, but the eel managed to escape.
In retaliation for this affront, Abaia caused it to rain that night. The lake water rose and everyone drowned – everyone, save for one old woman who sought refuge in a tree. She was the only one who had not eaten any of the fish.
References
Dixon, R. B. (1916) The Mythology of All Races v. IX: Oceanic. Marshall Jones Company, Boston.