The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. John Matthews
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Satisfied, Humpback allowed his son to retain the dog, but as soon as dark fell, the dog ran among the buffalo nipping at their heels until they stampeded right into Humpback’s house, smashing it down. As they cleaned up the damage, the boy wept for his dog, whom he assumed had been killed in the stampede. ‘That was no dog, but Coyote the trickster,’ growled Humpback, and that is how buffalo were released into the world.
The tribe were growing increasing cold and hungry, but whenever the bison were driven towards the cliff, they merely swerved right and left. One young woman looked at the escaping herd and cried out in despair, ‘If only one of you will jump into the corral, I will marry you’. Immediately, animals began to fall over the cliff but one leapt over the corral wall and took her at her word, taking her away. After cutting up the newly-killed bison, the girl’s father missed her and went searching for her. He got the help of Magpie, who showed her where his daughter lay. The bison-husband killed his father-in-law by trampling him to pieces. As his wife mourned, the bison remarked, ‘Now you see what it is like when our people are stampeded and killed. But if you can succeed in bringing your father back to life I will let him return to his people.’ The women asked Magpie for help, who searched and found a piece of her father’s backbone. She covered it with a robe and sang until the robe was covering a whole body which began to breathe again. The bison was impressed by the holy skill of human beings to bring the dead back to life again, and he bade his wife to return with her father and teach their people how to dance and sing like the buffalo. Ever since that time, the Blackfoot have danced the Buffalo Dance, wearing the head and skin of the buffalo.
(See Buffalo, Ptesan-Wi, White Buffalo Calf Woman.)
BISTERN DRAGON
According to a 16th-century manuscript held by the Berkeley family of Bistern in Hampshire, England, Sir Moris Berkeley fought and slew a dragon which had been killing whoever it encountered. He also died in the fight, together with all his dogs.
BLACK DOGS
Black dogs appear throughout British folklore as supernatural creatures who are met on the road by unwary travellers. The calf-sized dog is generally described as being covered with black shaggy hair and having red glowing eyes. Most accounts describe it as ferocious and menacing, although others speak of the dog as the guardian of the place that it haunts. In the days before metalled roads, most wayfarers used lonely tracks and drover’s roads which were kept open by the driving of cattle and other beasts. It is widely assumed that Roman roads were the first roads in Britain, but this is not so. Well-marked causeways were present from the Neolithic and Bronze Age when agriculture required causeways with high embankments as ways of leading animals from field to field. Black dogs often make their appearance upon these ancient roads, near to burial mounds, such as Wambarrows in Somerset. Some of the black dogs are said to guide lost travellers along the way, although others can turn vicious, biting and mauling if attacked. It would appear that a black dog is generally a spectral or spirit animal that demarks the boundaries as a guardian and challenges travellers at certain points upon the road.
Inexplicable car crashes that happen on empty roads are often believed to have been caused by the black dog. Celtic traditions about spectral hounds and other dogs abound. The most famous literary dog in this genre is the fearsome ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’, invented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for the Sherlock Holmes’ story of that title. Interestingly, the term ‘to have the black dog’ is a colloquial expression for someone who is feeling depressed. (See Barguest, Black Shuck, Cu Sith, Cwn Annwn, Gytrash and Padfoot.)
BLACK SHUCK
Old Shuck or the Shuck Dog is a one-eyed dog, the size of a donkey, who haunts East Anglia in England. Sparks of green or red fire shower out from his eye. Black Shuck, whose name probably derives from the Saxon word scucca or demon, haunts the salt marshes of this lonely coastline, patrolling the lanes, river banks and dunes that lead to it. Travellers on the road describe feeling the beast’s icy breath and shaggy pelt as it comes alongside them. In Suffolk and Norfolk, Black Shuck’s companionship on the road augers sickness or death, especially for those who have the temerity to challenge it. The Essex Shuck, however, is more of a guardian of travellers, guiding them and protecting them if they are attacked upon the road. It is generally seen near the gallows or in cemeteries.
BLACK TAMANOUS
Among the peoples of the North Pacific coast of America, Black Tamanous was the cannibal spirit who was overlooked when the Great Transformer rid the Earth of all the gigantic primordial beings which were responsible for bringing evil. Black Tamanous continued to stalk the Earth, bringing terror as it sought to gobble up people. He was the leader of the Cannibal Society among the Kwakiutl tribe. They met every year during the winter season to observe the ceremonial eating of human flesh.
BLATANT BEAST
This creature was created by Sir Edmund Spenser (1552–99) in his long poem, The Faerie Queene. The Blatant Beast is clearly modelled upon the Questing Beast of Arthurian legend. It was the offspring of Cerberus and Chimaera, having assorted parts of both creatures, with hundreds of venomous tongues which gave terrific cry as it wandered in the woods. It was finally muzzled by Sir Calidore and dragged in chains to the land of fairy where it escaped, creating havoc.
BLEDLOCHTANA
When the Tuatha de Danaan were fighting against the Formorian people in the Irish legend of Cath Maige Tuired, the Bledlochtana were the monsters that cried out over the whole Earth on the fourth day of the battle; a sound that brought terror to all who heard it
BLEMYAHS
According to Pliny the Elder, the Blemyahs or Blemmyes were a race of humanoid beings who lived in Ethiopia. They had eyes and a mouth in their chests, but no heads at all. These extraordinary folk appeared again in the medieval Romance of Alexander in which they became golden giants whose lower limbs were so covered with profuse hair that they appeared like torsos arising from undergrowth! Sir John Mandeville said that Blemyahs still existed in the Libyan desert. The children’s writer William Mayne gave them a new lease of life in his Blemyah Tales.
BLUE MEN OF THE MINCH
The Blue Men of the Minch are a race of beings who inhabit the strait between Long Island and the Shiant Islands of the Western Highlands of Scotland. They are the causers of storms, rough seas and shipwrecks. They live in underwater caves where they churn the sea. If they swim out to a passing ship in order to wreck it, the only thing to do is keep up a rhyming conversation with them and attempt to have the last word, for only then will they let you alone. Many people believed them to be fallen angels.
One tale speaks of how a Blue Man was captured, taken on board ship and wrapped round with ropes from head to foot by the sailors who believed him to be a strange kind of mortal. However, the ship had not proceeded very far when two more Blue Men approached the vessel, who said to each other, ‘Duncan will be one man,’ and the other replied, ‘Farquhar will be two.’ At this, the bound Blue Man burst his bonds as if they had been spider thread, jumped overboard and swam away, to the mystification of the crew.
BMOLA
Among the Western Abanaki peoples of north-east America, the Bmola was called the Wind Bird, a great bird whose coming heralded the freezing winds of the north.
BOAR
The wild boar is a most ferocious and dangerous animal, standing 4 ft at the shoulder, with curling tusks that can break legs and tear open entrails. Throughout the world, this wild pig has been granted a special place among animals