Our database went down a few days ago, leaving me with nothing to do, so I basically spent the entire day reading about “cryptids” on wikipedia. Cryptids are creatures hypothesized to exist based on evidence, usually anecdotal, that is not strong enough to scientifically prove their existence. This group includes bigfoot, the yeti, el (la?) chupacabra, the Loch Ness monster (well not anymore, probably), the Jersey Devil, and mermaids, to name a few. There are also quite a few other less glamorous critters (the Kting Voar, or “snake-eating-cow of Cambodia”, for instance).

I spent quite a long time on the Bigfoot article because it was so well written. It quotes numerous sources and goes through all the evidence both for and against the existence of the ol’ hairy guy. The basic gist is that while bigfoot (or sasquatch, if you prefer) may or may not exist, there is certainly goings on in the forests of the Pacific Northwest that are not all hoaxes. It makes you think. If you grew up during the 80s like I did, you probably saw the movie “Harry and the Hendersons”, which I’m sad to say was made into a TV show (and I’m even more sad that I watched). Bigfoot was popular! Even more popular in the 70s. For that lovable, fictional hairy guy to actually be… something… out there makes for some interesting mental fat-chewing.

Another cryptid I came across (how’s that alliteration for ya?) is the Fear Liath, or Am Fear Liath Mòr (a.k.a. The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui). This one is either a creature or “presence” thought to haunt Ben MacDhui, the 2nd highest mountain in Scotland and Great Britain. It’s said to be biped, and resembles a yeti, being very tall and covered with short hair. The interesting twist to the Greyman is people generally describe an uneasy feeling attached with the sightings.

In one such 1925 sighting, recounted by the climber John Collie, he says that as we was walking alone near the summit of Ben MacDhui when he suddenly heard a “crunch” sound behind him, and the crunching sounds continued to follow him though only one per every three or four of his steps, as if something with a very large stride was pacing him. Seized by a sudden onset of terror, Collie ran through a field of boulders for four or five miles before stopping.

One of the plausible explanations offered for the Greyman is that the large gray apparations perceived may be a Brocken spectre, which is where the shadow of a person on a high mount is cast, when the sun is at a certain angle, on the low-lying clouds around them, appearing like an enormous human form, even moving as the clouds swirl about. Brocken spectres are also usually accompanied by a glory, which is a sort of corona of colored lights appearing around the brocken’s originating vantage point, which in the case of a person is the head, so it seems like a halo.

I really have no specific unifying point to make about cryptids, only that they make for interesting reading when you’re bored, especially when you enjoy learning about the strange.