S is for… Shuyu

One of the many denizens of the Guideways, the Shuyu is a four-headed (or four-eyed) cawing red chicken with six feet and three tails. Eating it cures melancholy.

R is for… Rosmaputh

The Rosmaputh is a hideous creature found in the Caspian Sea. It has a man’s head covered with bristles and armed with long sharp teeth. It has a long neck, scaleless skin, broad shoulders, and flippers that reach to the tail. Its tongue is shaped like a laurel leaf. When out of the water it screams nightmarishly.

I always thought the Protoceratops-griffin connection was unrealistic, but this does a way better job of taking it apart than I ever could!

Q is for… Qique

Another of the many monstrous man-eaters of the Shan Hai Jing, the Qique or Qi-magpie looks like a white-headed chicken with rat’s feet and tiger’s claws. It lives on North Shouting Mountain.

P is for… Peteliae

Aelian describes the Peteliae as tiny, pale crabs that form in mud. They have small wings that are incapable of flight, instead generating only enough lift to speed them up a bit. Eating them is good for sciatica.

O is for… Opimachus

The chargol insect of Leviticus begat the ophiomachus (“snake fighter”) of the Septuagint, by way of Aristotle’s account of snake-eating locusts. This in turn begat the opimachus of the Ortus Sanitatis, which merges it with the snake-fighting secretary bird. Did it beget the word “opinicus” as well?