The Sasquatch. Baba Yaga. Curupira. They are all bizarre creatures who have been widely claimed to exist — although nobody has delivered proof. This means that they are cryptids — or mythical creatures — and they are consigned to the realm of pseudoscience…
The Most Famous Mythical Creature of Every Country in the World — Illustrated
…but that does not mean that they are not real.
Every culture is riddled with unconscious fears and shared hang-ups. When a sequence of strange events occurs, it does not take long for someone to conjure a scapegoat whose weird characteristics fit the crime. If the scapegoat catches the imagination of the locals, the legend grows and mutates over the weeks, years, and centuries. The cryptid lives and breathes in the minds of those who believe and those who say they do not.
An article pertaining to the most famous mythical creature in every state in the United States appeared at The Gate back on Friday, March 29, 2019 — but now the search has been identifying the most popular mythical creature in every country of this weird old planet of ours.
According to that article, a bestiary is a catalog of animals, birds, and other natural — or imaginary — phenomena. Intended not as a textbook but as an inspirational — and often scientifically dubious — compendium, the bestiary first appeared in ancient Greece, but the form achieved greater popularity in the Middle Ages.
The purpose of the bestiary — according to one author from the twelfth century — is “to improve the minds of ordinary people, in such a way that the soul will at least perceive physically things which it has difficulty grasping mentally: that what they have difficulty comprehending with their ears, they will perceive with their eyes.”
A series of posters which celebrates the most famous mythical creatures in each country in the world has been created; and this article — which was written by Barbara Davidson from CashNetUSA — gives more details about them.
I have been given express written permission to use the images and the verbatim text from the aforementioned article in this article. With articles such as this one, I sometimes add brief notes — but I am not knowledgeable enough about them to add much value to the information which is already here.
Bestiaries and encyclopedias — such as Monsters and Mythical Creatures from Around the World — have been trawled and longlisted the “who’s who” of cryptids in every country in the world. Then, the numbers were crunched on Google to see which creatures were the most searched in each location.
Sometimes, multiple countries shared the same cryptid. In these cases, special attention to the fine details reported by the spooked ancestors and trembling tourists who have come into contact with them over the years. As an example, the English dragon is winged and lizard-like, while the Chinese dragon is wingless and snakeish.
Finally, illustrator Laimute Varkalaite contributed to creating a series of maps which show the most notorious cryptid in every country on earth: the mythical creatures that refuse to properly not exist.
Key Findings
The most searched or most famous cryptid — or mythical creature — in:
- The United States is the Sasquatch, which is a hairy, forest-dwelling humanoid.
- North America is the Madre de Aguas of Cuba, which is a horned, bullet-proof snake as fat as a palm tree.
- South America is La Tunda, a hag with the power to shapeshift into the object of your desire — before sucking your blood.
- Europe are dragons — specifically, in England.
- The Middle East and Central Asia region is the Turkish dragon, with the Egyptian griffin — which is a lion with the head and wings of an eagle — in second place.
- The rest of Asia and Oceania is the Chinese dragon, followed by the cunning, ape-like Orang Pendek in Indonesia.
- Africa is the Namibian Flying Snake.
North America
“The hairs which you recently delivered to the FBI Laboratory on behalf of The Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition have been examined by transmitted and incident light microscopy,” wrote the assistant director of the FBI’s science and tech division in 1977. “It was concluded that the hairs are of deer family origin.” Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch (from the Salish word “se’sxac” or “wild men”), has eluded capture for over two centuries – helped by the occasional hoax to keep cryptozoologists and the FBI off the scent.
Nicaragua’s signature cryptid is literally death on wheels. La Carretanagua is an ox-cart driven by a skeleton and pulled by ghostly steers. The myth probably emerged from the plundering of native villages by Spanish colonists in the 16th century.
To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in North America, please view the gallery of images below:
Europe
The dragon is the most-searched cryptid in England, Wales, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, San Marino, and Italy. The Welsh dragon even features on the national flag. This dragon was said to have been discovered at an underground lake beneath the Dinas Emrys hill in the 5th century. In 1945, a lake and a fortress dating to the 5th century were indeed found during excavation work at the hill.
Bosnia’s Tur, a giant bull, lives underground on the head of a giant fish who swims an endless sea. The bull needs only twitch his ear to cause an earthquake up above. Thankfully, Allah also created a fly to buzz around Tur’s head, frightening the bull into keeping still.
To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in Europe, please view the gallery of images below:
South America
La Tunda is Colombia’s most popular cryptid, even though this one-legged hag’s special move is to fart on seafood and offer it to her prey. Her victims are unfaithful men and naughty children, who La Tunda lures by shapeshifting to resemble their lover or mother. The only way to spot her is to check her legs: the missing one has been replaced by a molinillo, or wooden spoon.
Paraguay boasts a lizard with seven dog heads for its most famous mythical creature. Teju Jagua is the cursed offspring of an evil spirit and a mortal woman. Thankfully, part of his curse is to be mostly harmless. While Teju Jagua’s eyes can shoot fire, he diets on fruit and honey rather than roasted human flesh. Good boy!
To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in South America, please view the gallery of images below:
Middle East and Central Asia
Jinn are notorious across this region. Known more commonly in the west as genies, jinn occupy inanimate objects and take on human or animal form to create magic and mischief. Most famously, they grant wishes only to deliver unexpected results. You are most likely to encounter a jinni in Iran, Jordan, or Iraq, and the creature is the most-searched in half of the countries in this region.
Bu Darya, a mythical creature of Bahrain, is one such jinn in a different form. This ‘lord of the sea’ (also known as the ‘sea devil’) is a giant merman who sneaks onto ships at night to kidnap sailors to eat. Bu Darya is also known to imitate the cries of distressed sailors or women to lure his prey.
To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in the Middle East and central Asia, please view the gallery of images below:
Rest of Asia and Oceania
Naturally, the island nations of Oceania are beset by aquatic cryptids such as mermaids, shark gods, and serpents. The Adaro are mermen who haunt the waters around the Solomon Islands. An adaro has a swordfish-style spear growing from his head, but attacks by flinging poisonous flying fish at victims’ necks. Oh yeah, and the Adaro travel to the sun and back along rainbows.
Georgia’s most-wanted is the devi. These hairy, horned ogres have multiple heads – and the more heads a devi boasts, the stronger he is. A devi’s heads will grow back if you manage to chop any off, so it is recommended to defend against him with guile rather than violence.
To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in the rest of Asia and Oceania, please view the gallery of images below:
Africa
The Namibian Flying Snake has everything you want from a cryptid: slitheriness, up to 25 feet long, 30-foot wingspan, bioluminescent crest, horns, an inflatable neck, and a ferocious roar. And it smells like tar. The creature has been witnessed in the Karas Region since the 1940s, where it feeds on livestock and frightens farmers.
“There are no bears in Africa,” stated a 1961 article in Boys’ Life, “yet men keep seeing this huge, mysterious beast in the jungle.” The Nandi bear is a famous beast of Kenya and Rwanda. This upright, nocturnal creature has thick, red hair and is known for scalping those who startle it. But the creature has also been blamed for the occasional crushed skull.
To get a closer, more personal, and detailed look at each cryptid in Africa, please view the gallery of images below:
Fantastic Beasts and Where They Will Find You
Some of the mythical creatures in our study are clearly the result of some imaginative myth-making. Others may be misidentified or as-yet-unidentified animals that very closely obey known physical laws. In each case, something sparked these cryptid tales that captivate (and terrorize) audiences in every country around the world.
Meanwhile, in the woods or below the surface of the water, whatever really ate those children or appeared in the background of an innocent holiday photo may not be very different from what the people imagine.
Summary
For each country, a long list of famous mythical creatures was compiled, using sources such as Monsters and Mythical Creatures from around the World by Heather Frigiola — as well as Wikipedia and numerous independent sites.
To determine which mythical creatures from the long list were the most popular, they were ranked by total search results on Google, using the search terms [Country] + [Mythical Creature].
The results showed that numerous countries share the same mythical creature. In these instances, additional details were added which could help to distinguish them. For example, both England and China have ‘dragon’ as the most popular creature, but an English dragon has wings and a more lizard-like appearance, whereas a Chinese dragon does not have wings and has a more snake-like appearance.
Click here for the full research behind this project.
Have you heard of any of these mythical creatures? If so, how many?
Source: CashNetUSA.
