Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Etymology: Greek, “dog-headed.”
Variant names: Calinges, Calystrian, Choromanda,
Cynocephalos, Dog-man, Kalystriai,
Sunamukha.
Physical description: Height, 2–3 feet. Head is
like a dog’s. Snub-nosed. Big teeth. Long beard.
Claws or long fingernails. Both men and women
are said to have tails.
Behavior: Barking language. Eats raw meat.
Drinks sheep’s milk. Lives in caves in the mountains.
Said to live to be 170–200 years old.
Tends sheep and oxen. Uses bow and arrows
and spears skillfully. Hunts hares with ravens,
kites, crows, and vultures. Wears animal skins.
Sails in boats on an oily lake.
Distribution: South and central India west to
the Indus River; North Africa. (The names
India and Ethiopia were widely used synonymously
by ancient and medieval writers.)
Possible explanations:
(1) Various “hill tribes” of southern India,
possibly the Kadar, Irular, Panniyan, or
Kurumba peoples.
(2) The Hamadryas baboon (Papio
hamadryas) has a doglike face and is found
in Arabia, Ethiopia, and Sudan.
(3) The Hoolock gibbon (Hylobates hoolock)
is the only ape found in India, standing
nearly 3 feet when upright.
(4) A derogatory name for any disliked
group of people.
Sources: Herodotus, The Histories, trans.
Aubrey de Sélincourt (London: Penguin,
1996), p. 276 (iv. 191); Ctesias, Indika, in J.
W. McCrindle, ed., Ancient India (Calcutta,
India: Thacker, Spink, 1882), pp. 15–16,
21–25, 52–53, 63, 84–90; Pliny the Elder,
Historia naturalis, in John F. Healy, ed.,
Natural History: A Selection (New York:
Penguin Classics, 1991), pp. 78–79 (vii.
21–27); Ælian, De natura animalium, iv. 46, x.
25; David Gordon White, Myths of the Dog-
Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1991), pp. 26–30, 47–70.
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