The Monster Book. Nick Redfern

so-called “Sidehill Mootie.” A bizarre beast, it had one leg shorter than the other! Lyman explained that, according to his sources, “It was built for the county’s steep hills and could travel only in one direction around the hill. If alarmed, so that it turned around, it tumbled down the hill and could easily be captured alive.” It was, he added, “very ferocious.”

      Lyman also recorded that local Native Americans told of “the most dreaded of strange, forest animals.” It was a creature with the very odd name of the “Hide-Behind.” Lyman explained: “No one ever saw one of the creatures because they always hid behind a tree. But everyone knew that they often followed travelers through the woods.”

      He expanded further on the nature of this near-unique critter of the woods: “If a person was afraid of them and kept looking back, the hide-behind would torment him into a panic. It took a brave man to be the last in line with a group walking through the woods. Old woodsmen said the only way to overcome the fear of the hide-behinds was to ignore them.”

      The Black Forest was also reportedly the home of a terrifying serpent, the “Hoop Snake.” Once again, Lyman had intriguing data to impart on the nature of this deadly thing, which moved across the ground by placing its tail in its mouth and rolling along like a wheel! He elaborated: “As it came close it snapped its tail loose and struck its prey with a poison stinger. Escape was possible by jumping into a tree. The snake would strike the tree with its stinger and, unable to pull it out of the wood, the snake could easily be killed. The stung tree usually died.”

      Other unique creatures of the forest included the Fulleramo Bird, which flew in a very odd fashion: backwards, no less! Recognizing the humor in this, Lyman said: “It never saw where it was going and often hit people in the face! It could make a weird whistle through its tail.”

      Far less humorous was the “Sharp-Tailed Hodag.” According to Lyman, “It was equipped with massive jaws and stout dorsal spines. It was very fond of live dogs which it sopped in mud before devouring. It could be tamed and taught to cut grain with its scythe-shaped tail.”

      This undated photograph supposedly captures an image of a hodag in action. Of course, it’s pretty obviously not a real hodag.

      Lyman explained that, according to his sources, “It was built for the county’s steep hills and could travel only in one direction around the hill.…”

      Of course, Lyman was no fool, or uncritical commentator. In that sense, he recognized that these Black Forest tales had an air of the mythological and the folkloric about them. He didn’t, however, rule out the possibility that the accounts may have had some basis in reality. He closed his study of the bizarre beasts of the Black Forest with the following words:

      “During the long, winter evenings story-tellers would yarn away for hours about all these, and more, impossible creatures. Mothers would tell these tales to wide-eyed children to make them fear the forest, so they would not wander away and get lost. They grew up half believing that the strange animals were an ever present hazard. Today, these weird creatures have all passed away, and so have the talented story-tellers who kept their memory alive. Except for a few recorded accounts, we would never know the entertainment provided by the folklore tales of our ancestors.”

      GIANT BEAVER

      John Warms, who has extensively studied reports of monstrous beasts in Manitoba, Canada, has uncovered tales of giant, marauding beavers in not just Manitoba but also in areas stretching from Alaska to Florida. The term “giant” is not an exaggeration, as we’re talking about beavers the size of people and even larger! As incredible as it may sound, such beasts really did once exist. Warms says:

      “Today we know from recovered bones that the giant beaver is in a separate classification from the one we know so well as Castor canadensis. It has been named Castoroides ohioensis after the state where its remains were first documented.”

      Warms also notes that he has a number of reports on file of “bear-sized beavers,” as well as sightings of huge beaver lodges, ones that come close to the size of an average house. It’s hardly surprising that their lodges would be so huge. After all, not much else would be suitable for creatures that reached heights of seven feet and weights of in excess of 250 pounds. Although the giant beaver is believed to have become extinct around 10,000 years ago—the same timeframe in which the Mammoth and the Mastodon became no more.

      Giant beavers actually once roamed the earth in what is now North America. This is a fossilized skeleton of one such animal, the Castoroides ohioensis.

      It’s important to note that reports like those obtained by Warms are nothing new. One can find reports of huge, violent beavers that cover both the United States and Canada and which date back centuries. As a perfect example, in 1808, Alexander Henry the Younger was exploring the Red River in Manitoba, when he encountered a Native man near the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers—today, the site of the city of Winnipeg. Henry’s journal for that time contains a notable entry that confirms the giant beaver story having been told to him by his Native friend:

      “A Salteaux, who I found here tented with the Courtes Oreilles, came to me this evening in a very ceremonious manner, and after having lighted and smoked his pipe informed me of his having been up a small river, a few days ago, upon a hunting excursion, when one evening while upon the water in his Canoe, watching the Beaver to shoot them, he was suddenly surprised by the appearance of a very large animal in the water. At first he took it for a Moose Deer, and was preparing to fire at it accordingly. But on its approach towards him he perceived it to be one of the Kitche Amicks or Large Beavers. He dare not fire but allowed it to pass on quite near his canoe without molesting it. I had already heard many stories concerning this large Beaver among the Saulteaux, but I cannot put any faith in them. Fear, I presume, magnifies an ordinary size Beaver into one of those monsters, or probably a Moose Deer or a Bear in the dark may be taken for one of them as they are seen only at night, and I am told they are very scarce.”

      While Henry’s words clearly demonstrate his skepticism, they are important in the sense that they confirm that accounts of giant beavers existed centuries ago. As for John Warms’s extensive research, it suggests that the giant beaver is still with us, albeit in deep stealth.

      GIANT SPIDERS

      For vast numbers of the human population spiders provoke a sense of creepiness and dread. And for people with arachnophobia, outright terror. And that’s often as a result of an encounter with a small spider. Imagine, then, encountering a spider the size of a dog! You think it couldn’t happen? It’s time to think again. For decades, accounts have surfaced of giant-sized spiders, ones that easily rival anything conjured up by the world of Hollywood.

      The largest known spider is the South American bird-eating spider, which goes by the name of Theraphosa blondi. One particular specimen, a twelve-year-old named Rosi, has an impressive leg-span of just under twelve inches, making her the largest, living spider on record—ever. That does not mean nothing larger than Rosi exists. It simply means we haven’t formally classified it or them. But, more than a few people claim to have seen such things.

      In 2001, English cryptozoologist Dr. Karl Shuker heard a fascinating story from explorer Bill Gibbons, who spent a great deal of time investigating reports of the Congo’s most famous monster,