The Lone Pine Mountain Devil

Monster Number 3: The Lone Pine Mountain Devil

  The Lone Pine Mountain Devil (we'll call it the Mountain Devil) is a monster right out of California folklore. I was personally surprised to find this monster. I've always been obsessed with California monsters and folklore, so why hadn't I ever heard about this creature?
    Many people talk of its similarities to the Jersey Devil. To me it doesn't seem that they have so much in common, they have bat wings and they both have Devil in their names but that's where the similarities end. The Mountain devil is probably best described as a dinosaur -- sort of like a velociraptor --  with bat wings attached to its arms, lot's of fur, feathers, and sharp teeth.  And yes just like any good little carnivore they eat meat. Especially meat stupid enough to walk right into the middle of their pack. In case you still didn't get that, they have been documented eating people before.
    Still don't think that's scary? The Mountain Devils are best known for the incident in the Sierra Nevadas in 1878. It was a priest that documented what happened. Though I will be the first to readily admit that this was a priest I have to imagine that these really did look like "Winged demons". I can't blame the dude, I mean, seeing something like that would've scared the you-know-what outta me.
   Despite all of the scary stories about the Mountain Devil many people believe that it is a protector of the forest. And lots of humans, as most of us know, live to build new settlements. Where do we put these settlements? On undeveloped land. And where's most of the undeveloped land with good climates? The forest. So you can see why they want to kill us when we are encroaching on them.
   These are some badass monsters and kudos to them. Protect the forests, am I right? If they could lay off the killing people that would be cool. Seriously though, I think these things are scary.

Credit for this image goes to:

http://cfile215.uf.daum.net/image/0133CD36512480791ED3DA

Credit for the info in this post goes to:

http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Lone_Pine_Mountain_Devil

To learn more bout this monster please go to:

http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=292

http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Lone_Pine_Mountain_Devil

Blemmyes

Second Monster: The Blemmyes.

   The Blemmyes qualify as a monster in my book. The Blemmeys are a monsters out of Africa they became fictionalized and became a sort of legend in Europe and Africa.  They lived in ancient Libya, around where Egypt is today.
   While some, like the Greeks, said that the Blemmyes were a peaceful people there are more stories of them being cannibals than them being fun loving, and lets all get along.
   The Blemmyes are a tribe of headless men. How could they be cannibals then right? They have no mouths. Well you see, that's the thing. Their faces are placed on their chests, under their collar bones. This probably made it pretty awkward for them to eat and I have a feeling that their whole hand-eye coordination was off. Anyway even Shakespeare seemed to think that they were cannibals, so ya know.
   Either way fictional or not they've gone down in history. They're either scary or awesome or both depending on your view point.

   There is a non fictional tribe of Blemmyes as well that lived from around 600BC to 8th century AD, that lived around Egypt. And no, they are not said to have had faces on their chests. This is more than likely the  tribe that inspired the legend of the mythical Blemmyes.

Blemmy (Legend)

Credit to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_men#/media/File:Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Strange_People_-_Headless_(XIIr).jpg

For info about the Blemmyes credit goes to:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headless_men and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blemmyes

Introduction/The Cockatrice

  This blog is going to center around monsters and other creatures from myths, legends, and folklore. We all know about Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology and some legends, they're the most popular and typically get the most attention. So I'm going to switch it up a little. I'll still write about the more popular subjects too, but I hope that you'll find some monsters that you didn't even know existed. I'll write about 7 monsters each week. Let's go.

First Monster: The Cockatrice

   There are so many monsters that I've found that it's not even funny, but I think one of the most memorable ones has definitely been the cockatrice. A cockatrice is a giant rooster, with the tail of a snake or dragon. It breathes fire and is said to be able to kill someone just by looking at them, supposedly turning the person to stone.
  Remind you of someone? Yep Medusa. Crazy snake haired lady running around turning things into stone because they looked at her. Like Medusa, the cockatrice also stems from Greek mythology, however it is more commonly known in old English folklore.
   You can also find that the cockatrice resides in Japanese bamboo forests. There it's named the Basan. It doesn't have the dragon tale, but still breathes fire, and if you hadn't guessed already this monster wasn't deep in Japanese myth. The Basan was introduced to the Japanese by Europeans, the description is a bit different but it was derived from the cockatrice.
   According to research a sure fire way to kill the cockatrice would be to have it look in a mirror. It can also be killed from hearing a rooster crow.

The Cockatrice

Credit to: http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/1/17172/1362026-cockatrice.jpg

The Basan.

 Credit to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basan#/media/File:ShunsenBasan.jpg

And for the info about the creature itself credit goes to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatrice , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basan , and http://listverse.com/2013/01/08/10-bizarre-mythological-creatures/