Variations: Mahwot’, Mawhot’
The Mahwot is a monstrous creature that makes its home in the Meuse River snaking through the Ardennes. A lizard-like amphibious monster the size of a calf, it runs back and forth on the bottom of the river from Revin to Liège and back. It has been sighted at Revin and Givet on a July night in 1870.
Its primary purpose lies in keeping children away from the water. As an aquatic bogey, it will not hesitate to pull in and devour any child foolish enough to play too near the Meuse.
The mahwot rarely leaves the water. Its appearance on land is believed to be a bad omen, presaging death, war, or pestilence. More importantly, it will haul itself onto land at the beck and call of angry mothers to eat naughty children. As the warning in the local dialect goes, “V’la le Mahwot, si tu n’ti tais nai, d’ji vas t’fouaire mandjie!” (“here’s the mahwot, if you don’t shut up right now, I’ll have you eaten!”). The phrase is effective.
References
Lambot, J. (1987) L’Ardenne. Pierre Mardaga, Brussels.
Meyrac, A. (1890) Traditions, coutumes, légendes et contes des Ardennes. Petit Ardennais, Charleville.
A Book of Creatures 
Whenever I heard of the Mahwot I always thought of the Alkali lake monster from Secret Saturdays
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Which in and of itself is based on the actual Alkali lake monster!
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The bit it says in the dialect sounds like a hilarious caricature of modern day French, it made me laugh. XD I love the somewhat leafy design on its back! Reminiscent of frogfish or octopi, bottom-dwellers designed for camouflage, perfect for something that spends its time at the bottom of a muddy river! Either way, its great to know there’s a river to send naughty children to to be drowned! x)
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Lucky enough for you, there are plenty of creatures the world over that will take misbehaving children off your hands (and some adults too!)
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Based on crocodiles, I assume (since Darren Naish claims they once lived in France)?
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Based on dragons and scary water monsters.
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you know, I’ve been looking at the French dragon creatures posted here and I gotta say I vibe with all of them. They arn’t bad or good. They’re just ok and appreciable where you can look at them and say “ay this is very dragon of this” and I like that.
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Dragons are pretty chill
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Are these texts both untranslated?
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Seems like
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Were these texts saying it was a dragon or is it just a guess based on how it is similar to confirmed french dragons?
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If it’s reptilian it’s a dragon.
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Dragon is more of a family than a species
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Sounds about right. First, you got chunky Western dragons breathing fire and next you have the very skinny Eastern dragons making rain clouds.
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It seems comically small for something so feared. I mean, compared to other water dragons. In real life I would probably still be scared of a reptile that size attacking me.
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Size is always an estimate.
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