Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Hairy Giants of British Columbia,” Wide
World Magazine, January 1940, pp. 296–307;
Wilson Duff, “The Upper Stalo Indians of the
Fraser Valley, British Columbia,” Anthropology
in British Columbia, Memoirs, no. 1 (1953);
Diamond Jenness, “The Faith of a Coast Salish
Indian,” Anthropology in British Columbia,
Memoirs, no. 3 (1955); Ivan T. Sanderson,
Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life
(Philadelphia: Chilton, 1961), pp. 46–47;
Wayne Suttles, “On the Cultural Track of the
Sasquatch,” in Roderick Sprague and Grover S.
Krantz, eds., The Scientist Looks at the
Sasquatch, 2d ed. (Moscow: University of
Idaho Press, 1979), pp. 39–76.
Sat-Kalauk
Alleged mystery CAT of Southeast Asia.
Variant name: Nabashing.
Behavior: Leaps onto the necks of Sambar
deer (Cervus unicolor) and sucks their blood.
Distribution: Mandalay Division and Kachin
State, Myanmar.
Probable explanation: In 1954, a Sat-kalauk
was captured near Myatkyina and identified as a
Yellow-throated marten (Martes flavigula), a
weasel-like animal with a distinctive, yellow
throat patch.
Sources: Annual Report on Game Preservation
in Burma, 1938; U Tun Yin, “Miscellaneous
Gleanings on Wild Life in Burma,” Burmese
Forester 4 (1954): 24–27.
Satyr
Mythical WILDMAN of Southern Europe. In its
earliest form, it was a Greek elemental spirit of
the forests and mountains. Later, it came to represent
the undeveloped, bestial state of humanity
or, alternatively, an idyllic past. Satyrs were
the companions of the wine god Dionysus.
Etymology: From the Greek sátyros, of uncertain
origin, though possibly derived from the
Hebrew se’ir (“hairy demon”).
Variant names: Fatui ficarii, FAUN, PAN,
SILENUS.
Physical description: Covered with hair. Low
forehead. Small horns. Monkeylike face.
474 SAT-KALAUK
Pointed ears. Snub nose. Full lips. Long beard.
Legs, hooves, and tail of a goat or horse.
Behavior: Found in small groups. Lascivious.
Loves to dance. Plays music on reed pipes (syrinx)
or cymbals. Terrorizes shepherds and travelers.
Habitat: Woodlands.
Distribution: Northern Greece; Egypt;
Turkey; India; other remote islands and lands.
Significant sightings: In the fifth century B.C.,
the hide of a Satyr named Marsyas was a famous
tourist attraction near the source of the
Menderes River in south-central Turkey.
In 86 B.C., a Satyr was found sleeping in a
meadow called the Nymphaeum, near Durrës,
Albania, and taken to the Roman general Lucius
Cornelius Sulla, who was passing through
the area after sacking Athens in the First
Mithridatic War. The Satyr’s speech could not
be understood and sounded like a neighing or
bleating.
Euphemus the Carian was blown off course
to an unknown island in the Mediterranean that
was populated by Satyrs. The creatures had red
hair and horse’s tails, and as soon as Euphemus
landed, they tried to rape the women on board
his ship.
St. Jerome reported that in the early fourth
century, Emperor Constantine traveled to Antakya,
Turkey, to view the remains of a Satyr
that had been preserved in salt.
Possible explanations:
(1) A symbol of precivilized, Neolithic
Greece.
(2) Early Greek tribal groups who followed
the god PAN and revered goats as their
totem animals.
(3) Folk memory of Neanderthals (Homo
neanderthalensis) or archaic Homo sapiens.
(4) An imaginative explanation for fossils of
large vertebrates that are occasionally found
in Greece and Turkey.
(5) Indian Satyrs may have been based on
monkeys.
(6) As early as the fifth century B.C., cleverly
manufactured Satyr masks for Greek
dramatic performances were made from hair
and skins. Fake Satyrs were probably created
as tourist attractions out of human