The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. John Matthews
in her harsh voice and tormenting them with vile punishments.
ALLOCAMELUS
One of the many strange and bizarre creatures found in the bestiaries of European heraldry. The Allocamelus has the head of a donkey and the body and legs of a camel.
ALMA
A creature originating in Siberia and living in the northern forest and wastelands. The Alma has also been seen in Kazakstan and the Caucasus. The name means ‘Wild Man’ in Mongolian. It is a fur-covered humanoid like the Bigfoot or Sasquatch found in the United States. Gigantic and humanoid in shape, it is covered in shaggy brown, black or red fur. Sightings of Almas have been reported since the 17th century, the most recent being in 1948 by the Russian scientist, Alexander G. Pronin, who said it looked very like a man but with much longer arms.
In the mid-19th century, a female Alma with reddish-black hair and with a deeply sloped forehead was captured in Abkhazia in the western Caucasus. It was named Zanya. She reportedly mothered six children by different men of which four survived. These offspring looked like normal humans except for being of much darker complexion and immensely stronger than men. Descendants of these Alma children are said to survive to this day and were investigated by Russian historian, Boris Porshney. He was struck by their Negroid features and powerful jaw muscles. He attempted to unearth the remains of Zanya, but they only succeeded in finding the remains of her original descendants whose skeletal structure was nearer to that of a Neanderthal than a modern human. This find has led to speculation as to whether the Alma is a living survivor of the prehistoric early humans, the Neanderthal.
ALOES
One of a number of strange beasts reported by early explorers of the New World, the Aloes appears in a 16th-century work by the antiquary Ambroise Pare, On Monsters and Marvels, in which it is described as a sea creature which had the head of a goose, a very long neck and four large flippers. It may have been a partial memory of the seal with a bird standing on its back. This is typical of many such descriptions penned by the first European explorers of the New World.
ALOJA
In Catalan tradition in Spain, the Aloja are the fairies who guard the fate of human beings. They oversee the process of birth and are responsible for the provision of plenty. They are similar in nature to the Fates (Moirae).
ALPHYN
This heraldic beast looks like a tiger. It derives from an Arabic chess piece, the equivalent of the European knight of the chessboard. The Arabic name for this piece is ‘al-fil’ and it is usually depicted as an elephant.
ALSVID/ALSWIDER
The name of one of the two great horses (the other was Arvak) that pull the Chariot of the Sun in Norse mythology. Alsvid means ‘all swift’. The gods are said to have fixed a pair of bellows beneath the shoulders of the horse to cool it down.
ALTAMAHA-HA
This water monster inhabits the Altamaha River and the marshes around Darien in Georgia, USA. The creature has not been sighted since the early 1960s, but it is said to be 10–40 ft long with a body 1–2 ft wide. It resembles a giant eel although it is very much bigger than the largest recorded eel.
ALYEONG
In Korean myth, Alyeong was the first queen of Shilla.
When the hero Pak Hyeokkeose was born, elders went in search of a wife for him, looking for a girl who had certain significant features. They found what they were looking for in a Saryang village where a creature had appeared that was a cross between a chicken and a dragon (or Kyery-ong). A child was born from the sides of this creature who was a human girl except that she had a chicken’s beak. When she was bathed, this beak fell off. She was married to the hero when she was 13 years old.
AMAROK
A giant wolf in the mythology and folklore of the Inuit people of the United States and Canada. Its name is curiously similar to that of Ragnarok, the Norse name for the day of doom when the whole world will be swallowed by the giant wolf Fenris. The Amarok is said to be responsible for the deaths of many hunters on the lonely Arctic tundra.
AMBIZE
Another of the strange creatures reported by 16th-century travellers, this beast was said to inhabit the seas around the West African coast, especially the Congo delta. It was described as having the body of an enormous fish, but with the head of a pig or ox. It had human hands instead of fins and a round flat tail like a beaver. Though considered a delicacy by local fishermen, it was extremely difficult to catch due to its great size.
AMEMAIT/AM-MIT/ AMMIT/AMMUT
A giant flesh-eating monster from Egyptian mythology, the Amemait was responsible for consuming the hearts of souls condemned for earthly crimes and misdemeanours. Its name can be translated as ‘Corpse Eater’, ‘Bone Eater’ or simply ‘Devourer’. The Amemait is described as being part hippopotamus, part lion, and part crocodile, and is often depicted as accompanying the god Osiris or as a guardian to the gateway of temples.
AMGWUSNASOMTAKA
Amgwusnasomtaka is the name of the crow-mother of the Hopi Indians of the North American south-west. She has a sharp beak and two warrior sons called Hu who have bull’s horns and tails. They are represented in the purificatory dances of the Hopi with whips made of yucca plants. Each child who is part of these rites is beaten by dancers representing the Hu katchinas (spirits). Amgwusnasomtaka holds the whips of her sons and replaces them from her supply when they wear out. When each child has been beaten in these initiatory rites, she then submits to the same treatment, receiving the lashes upon her back. According to this mystery, Crow-Mother sympathizes with the children in this ritual, which teaches them respect for all the katchinas.
A-MI-KUK
A monster reported by the Inuit people of the Bering Strait and Alaska. Described as a huge, heavy creature with a moist and slimy skin, the A-Mi-Kuk lives in the sea but is also capable of burrowing under the earth to emerge in inland lakes. Instead of legs, it has four unnaturally long human arms and hands, which it uses both to walk upon and to capture its prey. It hunts mostly fishermen and people foolish enough to bathe in the sea, but has also been known to consume large quantities of fish and saltwater birds.
AMMUT
A goddess of the Underworld in Egyptian mythology, her name means ‘Devourer of the Dead’, and she is described as consuming the hearts of those who have led evil lives on Earth. Ammut is often shown in the Hall of the Two Truths, where the hearts of dead people are weighed against a feather to discover whether they have done good or evil in their lives. The head of Ammut is that of a crocodile, her front legs and torso belong to a lion or leopard, and her back legs are those of a hippopotamus.
AMPHIPTERE
Although this is one of the many strange creatures found in European heraldry, the Amphiptere also seems to have been known about more widely. Certainly, anyone bearing this device on their shield was considered to be extremely dangerous and best avoided, especially in battle. In its heraldic form, the Amphiptere is shown with