Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

In Greek mythology, Perseus rescued Andromeda,
who was chained to a rock at Yafo, Israel,
where she was beset by a Ketos. Marcus
Aemilius Scaurus claimed to have found the
bones of the monster in 58 b.c. and had them
shipped to Rome, where they were reassembled
for display. Pliny wrote that the backbone was
40 feet long and 18 inches thick.
Possible explanations:
(1) Adrienne Mayor and others have
concluded the Corinthian vase artist must
have used a fossil skull, perhaps that of an
extinct giraffid such as Samotherium, as a
model. However, the teeth look like they
might have come from a reptile or whale
skull, while the sclerotic eye ring is
characteristic of birds and dinosaurs.
Possibly, features from several fossils were
combined.
(2) Scaurus might have found the skeleton
of a beached Sperm whale (Physeter
catodon). These whales are still seen
regularly in the eastern Mediterranean.
Sources: Homer, Odyssey, v. 421, Iliad, xx.
147; Aristophanes, Frogs, 556, The
Thesmophoriazusae 1033; Lycophron,
Alexandra, 954; Diodorus Siculus, Historical
Library, ii. 54.3; Pliny, Historia naturalis, v. 69,
ix. 4–11; Oppian, Halieutica, v. 113;
Pausanias, Guide to Greece, i. 4.1, ii. 10.2, ii.
34.2, iv. 34.2, iv. 35.9, v. 17.11, v. 25.3, viii.
2.7, ix. 26.5, x. 4.4, x. 12.1; Ælian, De natura
animalium, xiii. 21, xv. 19; Katharine Shepard,
The Fish-Tailed Monster in Greek and Etruscan
Art (New York: Katharine Shepard, 1940);
John Boardman, “Very Like a Whale: Classical
Sea Monsters,” in Ann E. Farkas, Prudence O.
Harper, and Evelyn B. Harrison, eds., Monsters
and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval
Worlds: Papers Presented in Honor of Edith
Porada (Mainz am Rhein, Germany: Philipp
von Zabern, 1987); Adrienne Mayor,
“Paleocryptozoology: A Call for Collaboration
between Classicists and Cryptozoologists,”
Cryptozoology 8 (1989): 12–26; Adrienne
Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in
Greek and Roman Times (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 2000), pp.
138–139, 144–145, 157–163.
272 KHEYAK
Kheyak
Giant Hominidof far eastern Siberia.
Physical description: Height, 6–7 feet.
Behavior: Swift runner. Said to have hypnotic
powers.
Distribution: Coastal mountains of the
Khabarovsk Territory, Siberian Russia, on the
Sea of Okhotsk.
Source: Dmitri Bayanov, In the Footsteps of
the Russian Snowman (Moscow: Crypto-Logos,
1996), p. 230.
Khodumodumo
Mystery animal of South Africa, similar to the
Nandi Bear.
Etymology: Unknown; said to mean “gapingmouthed
bush monster.”
Behavior: Nocturnal. Breaks into livestock
pens and steals sheep, goats, and calves. Attacks
silently. Can climb or leap over 6-foot fences
with an animal in its jaws.
Tracks: Round. Claw marks, 2 inches long.
Distribution: Northern Cape, Eastern Cape,
and North-West Provinces of South Africa.
Significant sighting: Numerous attacks were
made on kraals in the Graaff-Reinet area, Eastern
Cape. A posse of more than 100 settlers
failed to find it.
Source: William Hichens, “African Mystery
Beasts,” Discovery 18 (1937): 369–373.
Khot-Sa-Pohl
Cannib al G iant of the midwestern United
States.
Etymology: Kiowa word.
Physical description: Covered with hair.
Pointed head.
Behavior: Terrible odor. Eats human flesh.
Said to be capable of speech.
Habitat: Mountains, plains, swamps, forests.
Distribution: West-central Oklahoma.
Significant sighting: Russell Bates and his
brother saw a tall figure covered with dark hair
when they were setting off fireworks on July 4,
1978, north of Anadarko, Oklahoma. The fireworks
apparently annoyed the creature, and it
stalked off into the woods.