Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Significant sightings: Western Tajikistan has
been the traditional origin of a curative drug
said to be made from the skin of wildmen.
Called mu-gö or mu-miyo (possibly from the
Farsi mum, “wax,” though mu also means
“hair”), the preparation was carried by pilgrims
to Mecca and was at one time said to be one of
the sources of wealth for the emir of Bukhara.
The village of Khakimi in the Karatag Valley
was once a production center.
Igor Tatsl and Igor Bourtsev found Gul
tracks near Khakimi, Tajikistan, on August 15
and 21, 1979.
Ukrainian library-school student Nina
Grinyova came close to a Gul nicknamed
“Gosha” in the Varzob River gorge, Tajikistan,
on August 20, 1980, during an expedition to
search for the creatures. Grinyova offered to stay
alone in the woods one night in order to encourage
a close encounter with a Gul that had
been leaving tracks in the area. The Gul approached,
but Grinyova inadvertently scared it
away by offering it a squeaky rubber toy. She experienced
a fugue walking back to camp and believes
that the creature had a psychic effect on
her.
Vadim Makarov discovered a four-toed,
19.25-inch print on the banks of the Varzob
River on September 29, 1981.
Sources: Bernard Heuvelmans and Boris F.
Porshnev, L’homme de Néanderthal est toujours
vivant (Paris: Plon, 1974), pp. 109, 155–161;
Myra Shackley, Still Living? Yeti, Sasquatch and
the Neanderthal Enigma (New York: Thames
and Hudson, 1983), pp. 117–126; Dmitri
Bayanov, “A Field Investigation into the Relict
Hominoid Situation in Tajikistan, USSR,”
Cryptozoology 3 (1984): 74–79; Dmitri
Bayanov, In the Footsteps of the Russian
Snowman (Moscow: Crypto-Logos, 1996), pp.
85–103, 114–120; Ioann Gornenskii, Legendy
Pamira i Gindukusha (Moscow: Aleteia, 2000),
pp. 10–11, 29–30, 136, 157, 159, 161–164.
Gulebaney
Wildm an of West Asia.
Etymology: Possibly Azerbaijani (Turkic),
“wild man.”
Variant names: Biaban-guli, Kulieybani, Vol’moshin’
(for the female).
Behavior: In the summer, catches fishes, crustaceans,
and frogs in the rivers. Approaches villages
in the autumn to raid vegetable gardens.
Distribution: Talysh Mountains, Azerbaijan.
Significant sightings: One evening in the
1890s, noted zoologist K. A. Satunin watched a
female Biaban-guli cross a clearing in the Talysh
Mountains, Azerbaijan.
In the summer of 1947, a soldier in the Azerbaijani
militia named Ramazan was walking
home at night when a shaggy wildman attacked
him and dragged him to the foot of a nearby
tree, where a female was waiting. The two creatures
examined his face and clothes, then
seemed to get into a gutteral argument and
shoving match. Near dawn, they left him alone.
Sources: Konstantin A. Satunin,
“Biabanguli,” Priroda i Okhota, no. 7 (1899):
28–35; Odette Tchernine, The Yeti (London:
Neville Spearman, 1970), pp. 22, 179; Bernard
Heuvelmans and Boris F. Porshnev, L’homme
de Néanderthal est toujours vivant (Paris: Plon,
1974), pp. 162–164.
Gwrach-y-Rhibyn
Mythical Flying Humanoid of Wales.
Etymology: Welsh, “hag of the warning.”
Physical description: Thin female figure.
Swarthy skin. Long, black hair. Sunken, piercing,
black or gray eyes. Long, batlike wings.
Crooked back.
Behavior: Flies low over rivers and streams.
Wears long, black robes. Flapping wings can be
heard against windowpanes. Prefigures a death.
Distribution: Wales, especially Ceredigion.
Significant sighting: Said to have been seen
often in the latter half of the eighteenth century
inhabiting Caerphilly Swamp.
Source: Marie Trevelyan, Folklore and Folk-
Stories of Wales (London: Elliot Stock, 1909),
p. 65.
Gwyllgi
Black Dogof Wales.
Etymology: Welsh, “dog of darkness.”
GWYLLGI 221