Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Physical description: Half woman, half fish.
Distribution: East ern Medit erranean Sea.
Significant sighting: Worshiped in Phoenicia,
where Lucian saw her mermaidlike image in t he
second cent ury a.d.
Sources: Diodorus Siculus, History, ii.; Lucian
of Samosat a, De dea Syria; Gwen Benwell and
Art hur Waugh, Sea Enchantress (London:
Hut chinson, 1961), pp. 28–29.
Dev
Wildm an of West and Cent ral Asia.
Etymology: Tajik (Persian), “demon.” The
Indo-European root dyeu- is t he basis for bot h
t he Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan) devah (“god”) and t he
Avest an daēva (“demon”).
Variant names: Daeva, Div, Paré.
Physical description: Height , 4 feet 10 inches.
Covered wit h shaggy, reddish-brown or black
hair. Black skin. Has horns, claws, fangs, and
t ail.
Behavior: Bipedal. Travels eit her singly or in
pairs. Feeds on marmot s and ot her rodent s.
Distribution: Armenia; Nort hern Iran; t he
Pamir Mount ains, Tajikist an.
Significant sightings: Geologist B. M. Zdorik
ran across a Dev sleeping along a pat h high in
t he upper reaches of t he Dondushkan River in
t he Pamirs, Tajikist an, in 1934. It s body was
covered wit h yaklike fur. Zdorik and his guide
panicked and fled before t he creat ure awoke.
The local people said t here were families of
Devs living in t he Tal’bar and Safid-Dara Valleys.
An adult Dev had been caught in 1933 at
a flour mill a few miles from Tut kaul, where it
was kept chained up for t wo mont hs before it
escaped.
Sources: Boris F. Porshnev and A. A.
Shmakov, eds., Informatsionnye materialy,
Komissii po Izucheniyu Voprosa o “Snezhnom
Cheloveke,” 4 vols. (Moscow: Akademiia Nauk
SSSR, 1958–1959); Ivan T. Sanderson,
Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life
(Philadelphia: Chilt on, 1961), pp. 310–311;
Dmit ri Bayanov, In the Footsteps of the Russian
Snowman (Moscow: Crypt o-Logos, 1996), pp.
78–80.
126 DEV
Devil Bird
Myst ery Bird of t he Indian subcont inent .
Physical description: Pigeon-sized bird t hat is
rarely seen but oft en heard. Long t ail.
Behavior: Noct urnal. Cry is a hideous, st rangling
sound, said t o be heard in cemet eries.
Distribution: Sri Lanka.
Significant sighting: Mit ford of t he Ceylon
Civil Service saw a big black bird by moonlight
at Kurunegala in t he ninet eent h cent ury. It s cry
was like a boy being t ort ured and st rangled. He
t hought it was a night jar of some t ype.
Possible explanations: None of t he following
emit anyt hing like t he report ed cry of t he Devil
bird, but many are similar in shape and plumage:
(1) The Brown wood owl (Strix
leptogrammica indranee) was assumed by
Charles Pridham and James Tennent t o be
t he Devil bird. It measures 14–21 inches,
and it s call is a series of t hree or four short
hoot s. Some hold it responsible for an eerie
scream.
(2) The Forest eagle owl (Bubo nipalensis
blighi ), suggest ed by G. M. Henry. It s call
is a deep hoot , while it s mat ing calls are said
by some t o consist of shrieks like t hose of a
woman being st rangled.
(3) The Sri Lanka frogmout h
(Batrachostomus moniliger) only at t ains a
lengt h of 9 inches, and it s call consist s of
liquid chuckles or soft “karoo” or “whoo”
cries. It is shy and not oft en vocal.
(4) The Gray night jar (Caprimulgus indicus),
proposed by William Vincent Legge, makes
rest rained “chunk-chunk-chunk” calls.
(5) The Sri Lankan Changeable hawk-eagle
(Spizaetus cirrhatus ceylanensis) has a ringing
scream “kleee-klee-ek,” whet her perched or
on t he wing. It also has a rapid “ki-ki-ki-kiki-ki-ki-keeee,”
beginning short , rising in
crescendo, and ending in a scream.
(6) The Mount ain hawk-eagle (Spizaetus
nipalensis kelaarti ) has a noisy “klu-weet -
weet ” call.
(7) The Orient al honey buzzard (Pernis
ptilorhynchus ruficollis) emit s loud and highpit
ched ringing not es.
(8) A composit e bird creat ed from t he calls
of several species.