Bigfoot and Other Ape-Men
Hairy ape-men abound in the myths of many diverse cultures, although the best known are Bigfoot or Sasquatch in North America, and Yeti in the Himalayas. The mountains of central Asia are home to herbivorous almas, the Kenyan forests harbour the brain-eating chemosit, and Brazil has the vicious mapinguari. The yeren of China, it is said, will faint with joy when it clutches a human; unfortunately, it keeps holding on, wakes up, then eats its victim. Less terrifying is the hibagon of Japan, which stands only 1.5 m (5 feet) tall but has feet two or three times the size of a human’s. The feet of the orang pendek (“short person”) in Indonesia are said to point backwards to confuse anyone tracking them. Australia, too, has ape-men: There have been 3,000 yowie sightings in the Blue Mountains in the past few decades.

Cyclops
Cyclopes (plural of cyclops) are the one-eyed giants of Greek mythology. They toiled as blacksmiths under volcanic Mount Etna to create thunderbolts for Zeus, Hades’ invisibility helmet and Poseidon’s trident. In his Odyssey, Homer described cyclopes as grotesquely ugly, strong, stubborn brutes who were prone to aggression and cannibalism.

Griffin
A griffin has the body and four legs of a lion, and the head, talons and, usually, the wings of an eagle. It is covered in spotted fur or colourful feathers, and sometimes has a serpent’s tail. Griffins are said to live in nests in the mountains.

Griffin-like creatures appear in many cultures in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe going back 3,300 years, and are popular heraldic symbols on coats-of-arms. They can symbolize majesty and nobility, or greed.

Greek legend has it that the Scythians, who controlled much of central Asia and the northern Middle East between 800 BCE and 200 CE, had to battle griffins while mining for gold in the Gobi Desert.

Unicorn
The powerful and benevolent unicorn appears in myths from the East as well as the West. The Asian version has great wisdom, avoids fighting at all costs, and walks so softly it will not crush a blade of grass. Known as a qilin in China or kirin in Japan, it resembles a deer, but with a scaly or multicoloured coat, one, two or three flesh-covered horns, a wolf-like head and the tail of an ox.

Its elusive European counterpart lives deep in the forests. It usually has a white coat, a long, spiralled horn, a beard like a goat and a tail like a lion, and sometimes has cloven hooves like a goat. Often used as a symbol for Christ, the unicorn can dip its horn into poisoned water to purify it. The horns were also thought to have magical curative properties, a belief that proved profitable to medieval Danish sailors and others who found a convenient facsimile to sell in Europe: The tusk of the narwhal, an Arctic whale with a single elongated incisor that can grow to 3 m (10 feet) in length.