Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

(2) For other possibilities, see BIG BIRD and
THUNDERBIRD.
(3) A Native American legend, not based on
fact.
Sources: Jacques Marquette, “Voyage and
Discovery of Father Marquette and Sieur Joliet
in North America” [1681], in Sidney W.
Breese, The Early History of Illinois (Chicago: E.
B. Myers, 1884), pp. 235, 258–259; Henri
Joutel, Diaries [1687], in Jean Delanglez, ed.,
The Journal of Jean Cavelier (Chicago: Institute
of Jesuit History, 1938), pp. 11–20; Amos
Stoddard, Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of
Louisiana (Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1812),
p. 17; John Russell, “The Piasa: An Indian
Tradition of Illinois,” Alton (Ill.) Evening
Telegraph, September 28, 1836; Henry Lewis,
The Valley of the Mississippi Illustrated [1854]
(St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1967),
pp. 281–283, 303; Perry A. Armstrong, The
Piasa, or The Devil among the Indians (Morris,
Ill.: E. B. Fletcher, 1887); Tom H. English,
“The Piasa Petroglyph: The Devourer from the
Bluffs,” Art and Archaeology 14 (1922):
151–156; Norbert Hildebrand, “The Monster
on the Rock,” Fate 7 (March 1954): 13–19;
Wayne Calhoun Temple, “The Piasa Bird: Fact
or Fiction?” Journal of the Illinois State
Historical Society 49 (1956): 308–327; Ruth
Means, ed., The Piasa (Alton, Ill.: Arts Council,
1970); John E. Hallwas, “John Russell and the
Piasa Legend,” Midamerica 9 (1982): 9–22;
Everett L. Sparks, In Search of the Piasa (Alton,
Ill.: Alton Museum of History and Art, 1990);
George E. Priest, The Great Winged Monster of
the Piasa Valley: The Legend of the Piasa (Dallas,
Tex.: George E. Priest, 1998); John L. Moore,
“The ‘Piasa’ as a Representation of the
‘Underwater Panther,’” Cryptozoology Review 3,
no. 1 (Summer 1998): 20–26; Sue Hurley,
“Piasa Bird Takes Flight,” St. Louis Post-
Dispatch, September 14, 1998; Piasa Bird,
http://www.altonweb.com/history/piasabird/.
Pictish Beast
Unknown FRESHWATER MONSTER depicted on
rock carvings in Scotland.
Physical description: An animal with charac-
434 PICTISH BEAST
teristics resembling both a swimming elephant
and a dolphin. Elongated beak or trunk. The
head has a crest that may be a stylized way to
show a porpoise spouting. Flippers. Tail has a
curled tip.
Distribution: Rodney’s Stone, at Dyke, in
Moray; Brough of Birsay in the Orkney Islands;
the Dunfallandy Stone, in Perth and Kinross;
the Maiden Stone, near Pitcaple, Aberdeenshire;
Port Elphinstone Henge, near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire;
the Rhynie Pict Stones, Aberdeenshire;
Aberlemno, Angus.
Significant sightings: The Picts were wild
tribes that lived in Scotland during Roman
times. They carved about fifty different types of
symbols into rough stone and rocky outcrops,
many dating from the sixth century and earlier.
One of these symbols is the Pictish beast.
Possible explanations:
(1) A Dolphin (Family Delphinidae) or
Porpoise (Family Phocoenidae), based on the
shape of its head and a stylized spout.
However, it has legs and a tail without flukes.
(2) A swimming elephant, based on the
trunk.
(3) A Celtic KELPIE or WATER HORSE,
suggested by Elizabeth Sutherland.
Sources: Elizabeth Sutherland, A Guide to the
Pictish Stones (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1997); Karl
Shuker, Mysteries of Planet Earth (London:
Carlton, 1999), pp. 154–157.
Pikelian
GIANT HOMINID of far eastern Siberia.
Etymology: Chukot (Chukotko-Kamchatkan)
word.
Physical description: Gray-brown body-hair.
Behavior: Cave dweller. Eats roots and wild
animals. Steals reindeer meat from hunters and
stores it.
Distribution: Magadan Region, Siberia.
Source: Dmitri Bayanov, In the Footsteps of
the Russian Snowman (Moscow: Crypto-Logos,
1996), p. 227.
Pinini
LITTLE PEOPLE of southwestern United States.
Etymology: Tewa (Kiowa-Tanoan) word.