Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Variant names: Boks or Puks (Bella Coola/Salishan),
Bowis (Tsimshian/Penutian), Pi’kis
(Nass-Gitksian/Penutian), Pokwas, Pukmis
(Nootka/Wakashan), Pukwubis (Makah/
Wakashan).
Physical description: Height, about 5 feet.
Covered with long hair. Face hairless and protruding.
Thick browridges. Splayed nostrils.
Pointed ears. No chin. Strong chest. Long arms.
Behavior: Walks with a stooping gait. Shrieks
and whistles, especially at night. Has a bad odor.
Eats clams. Has no fear of fire. Travels by canoe.
Sometimes described as the spirit of a drowned
person or a transformed otter.
Distribution: British Columbia and Washington
State.
Significant sighting: Represented on carved,
wooden masks used for ritual purposes. One
mask was collected around 1914 from Nass-
Gitksian Indians in northern British Columbia
and is in Harvard’s Peabody Museum. It features
browridges, splayed nostrils, a jutting jaw without
a chin, and thick lips.
Sources: Fr anz Boas and Geor ge Hunt ,
“Kwakiut l Text s,” Memoirs of the American
Museum of Natural History 5 (1902): 250–270;
Thomas F. McIlwr ait h, “Cer t ain Beliefs of t he
Bella Coola Indians Concer ning Animals,”
Archaeological Reports of the Ontario Department
of Education 35 (1924–1925): 17–27; Philip
Dr ucker , “The Nor t her n and Cent r al Noot kan
Tr ibes,” Bulletin of the Bureau of American
Ethnology 144 (1951): 152–153, 325; Alice
Henson Er nst , The Wolf Ritual of the Northwest
Coast (Eugene: Univer sit y of Or egon Pr ess,
1952), pp. 16–17, 34; Br uce Rigsby, “Some
Pacific Nor t hwest Nat ive Language Names for
the Sasquat ch Phenomenon,” Northwest
Anthropological Research Notes 5, no. 2 (1971):
153–156; Edwin L. Wade, “The Monkey fr om
Alaska: The Cur ious Case of an Enigmat ic
Mask fr om Bigfoot Count r y,” Harvard
Magazine, November -December 1978, pp.
48–51; Philip W. Davis and Ross Saunder s,
Bella Coola Texts (Vict or ia, Canada: Br it ish
Columbia Pr ovincial Museum, 1980), pp.
192–199; Mar jor ie M. Halpin, “The Tsimshian
Monkey Mask and Sasquat ch,” in Mar jor ie
Halpin and Michael M. Ames, eds., Manlike
74 BULGARIAN LYNX
Monsters on Trial (Vancouver , Canada:
Univer sit y of Br it ish Columbia, 1980), pp.
211–228; Gr ant R. Keddie, “On Cr eat ing Un-
Humans,” in Vladimir Mar kot ic and Gr over
Kr ant z, eds., The Sasquatch and Other
Unknown Hominoids (Calgary, Alt a., Canada:
West er n Publisher s, 1984), pp. 22–29; John E.
Rot h, American Elves (Jeffer son, N.C.:
McFar land, 1997), p. 183.
Bulgarian Lynx
The Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is thought to have
become extinct in Bulgaria in the 1940s, but
unconfirmed reports indicate it persists in some
areas. Increases in ungulate populations and
reintroductions of this CAT in other parts of Europe
may encourage its return.
Sources: Nikolai Spassov, “Cr ypt ozoology: It s
Scope and Pr ogr ess,” Cryptozoology 5 (1986):
120–124; Kr ist in Nowell and Pet er Jackson,
“Eur asian Lynx,” fr om Wild Cats: Status Survey
and Conservation Action Plan, IUCN, 1996, at
http://lynx.uio.no/jon/lynx/eulynx1.ht m.
Bunyip
Mystery Marsup ialof Australia.
Etymology: Probably derived from the Australian
Banib. A “monster of Aboriginal legend,
supposed to haunt water-holes; any freak or impostor,”
according to G. A. Wilkes, Dictionary of
Australian Colloquialisms, 3d ed. (Sydney, Australia:
Sydney University Press, 1990). The form
Bahnyip appeared in the Sydney Gazette in 1812.
Bernard Heuvelmans thought the word derived
from Bunjil, the supreme being of the Victorian
Aborigines. The name is widely used in Victoria
and New South Wales and was first heard by
whites in the Sydney area. By 1852, the word
had become a synonym for “impostor” or “humbug”
in Sydney. The term bunyip aristocracy
refers to snobbish Australian conservatives.
Variant names: Banib, Bunnyar (in Western
Australia), Bunyup, Burley beast, Dongus (in
New South Wales), Gu-ru-ngaty (Thurawal/
Australian, New South Wales), Kajanprati,
Katenpai, Kianpraty (in Victoria), Kine praty,
Kinepràtia, Kuddimudra, Mirree-ulla (Wiradhuri/Australian,
New South Wales), Mochel