Japanese Folklore,The Kudan

 

Japanese folklore is full of interesting creatures from oni and spirits to any number of fantastic yokai..

Today we talk about the Kudan, a yokai that takes the form of a fortune telling bovine.

Thought not as old as some other yokai legends like the Nine Tailed Fox or the vicious Oni, the Kudan can be traced back at least as far as the later part  of the Edo period.

 Stories of kudan being born on rural farms where reported in newspapers all over Japan with sightings continuing through the 1940s.

 Because they have a supernatural ability to predict the future and they're predictions  always comes true, a kudan's prophecy was considered absolute truth. During the Edo period, newspaper's would try to increase the credibility of their stories by adding the words “kudan no gotoshi,” or, “as if a kudan had said it” to their articles. This phrase remains in use in the Japanese language today as a way of assuring the reader of the truth of a story.

This yokai has such a respectable reputation  for honesty that images of kudan were used as charms  for good luck, prosperity, and protection from sickness and disaster. Newspapers would tell their readers to hang the printed images of kudan on their houses for protection and good fortune. 

Kudan were such popular yokai that their mummified remains were often carted around in traveling sideshows similar to PT Barnum's sideshow and circus in America.

 These kudan where taxidermy creations made from deformed stillborn calves, or from combined animal parts stitched together to create a chimera-like stuffed animal, one popular example of these kind of creation is the "Fiji mermaid " a taxidermy monkey and fish combo.

 People would  pay a small fee to look at these specimens and hopefully receive some of their good luck. A few of these mummified remains can still be found in museums today.

According to legend, Kudan are able to speak human languages from the day they are born.

Most of them don't live for more than a few days at most, the are said too give  one or more prophecies right after birth and then sadly they die. 

Their prophecies can be any number of subjects ranging from historical events, crop harvest (good or bad), droughts, famines, war, plages or pretty much anything else and no matter what it is the  prediction of a kudan always  comes true. 

Most Kudan are human faced cows, though in very rare occasions they can be cow faced humans 

They can appear anywhere in Japan, but seem to be more prevalent in Kyushu and western Japan..

.....

Paranormal Folklore: The Slide Rock Bolter.

  

The Slide-Rock Bolter is a strange and massive  cryptid   that makes it's home on to of steep mountains, it was first recounted by 19th century  lumberjacks, according to folklore it lives in the mountains of Colorado, but only on mountains where the slope is at an angle greater than 45 degrees. 

It somewhat resembles a large fish, with a large head, small eyes, and a huge mouth,  Its tail ends in a fluke like a dolphin, with enormous grab-hooks that it uses to stay in place high above it's prey until it's ready to strike.

The enormous beast doesn't hunt in a typical manner, instead it's a massive ambush predator.

 It can stay completely motionless for days at a time, watching the gulch below for animals or  tourists unlucky enough to cross it's path.

 The moment it's next meal is in sight, it will lift its tail to release its hold on the crest and let gravity do it's job, sending it barreling downhill, it drools a grease like substance   from the corners of its mouth to increase the speed as  its huge body barrels down the mountain.

It's  helpless victims are scooped  into its wide open mouth as it slides down. The accumulated speed will carry the Bolter up the next slope, where it will once again grasp the ridge with its tail and wait for it's next meal to wonder into it's grasp.

........

Encounters..

Whole parties of tourists are reported to have been gulped down at once. The animal is a menace not only to tourists but to the forest as well. Many spruce-covered slopes have been rendered wastelands as the Bolter knocks the trees out by their roots or mows them down as if with a scythe.

.....

A forest ranger, whose district included the rough country between Ophir Peaks and the Lizard Head, conceived the bold idea of deceiving a Slide-Rock Bolter to slide to its own destruction. A dummy tourist was outfitted with a plaid Norfolk jacket, knee breeches, and a guidebook to Colorado. The dummy was filled with powder and fulminate caps and posed in a conspicuous place. 

The next day the false tourist attracted the attention of a Bolter that had been hanging for days on the slope of Lizard Head. The creature attacked. The resulting explosion flattened half the buildings in Rico, which were never rebuilt. The remains of the unfortunate Bolter made many a meal for the local buzzards that summer

.....................

This cryptid and others can be found in Fearsome Critters (1910)

Paranormal Folklore, Korea's Blue Tiger.

Given how popular Netflix KPop Demon Hunters was last year, a large portion of you already know about the  Jeoseung Saja ( Saja boys) though unlike the movie the folkloric version is not evil they are basically underworld civil servants working for the king of the underworld, they  guide souls to the afterlife, and Huntrix, the main girls are essentially a sensationalised version of shaman/ exorcists.  Then we have a fan favorit,  Derpy the blue demon tiger.....(not actually a demon)....

But just like the rest of the characters, he and his bird companion are also based of  Korean folklore and traditional art work..The tiger in general is well regarded in Korea.

.

......

The tiger is considered a symbol of courage and strength,  he is also revered as a guardian that drives away evil.

During New Year, people would hang paintings of tigers  on their doors to ward off bad luck and invite good fortune.

.......

In (Hojakdo 17th century) traditional Korean folk paintings the tiger was usually shown in a more goofy,  comical or even foolish looking  depiction. this was done  as a form of social Satir to make fun of aristocrats..

 In these minhwa paintings, its often accompanied by one or more  magpie. The foolish tiger symbolized the corrupt aristocrats nobile's or government, while the  magpie represented the common people mocking his  authority.

......

Tigers and the Mountain Spirit.

In Korean mythology,  the tiger was viewed as   a companion of the Mountain God Sanshin, holding absolute authority in nature and can be found in many paintings accompanying him.

.....

One more fun fact, the Korean peninsula also resembles a Tiger....

.......

Ok, now on to today's main topic the Blue Tiger, also known as the Maltese Tiger ..

Though this blue kitty is more of a cryptid then a folkloric creature 

  Most sightings come from  the Fujian province of south east China .

Witnesses claim it  has bluish fur with dark gray stripes.

The south Chinese tiger is critically endangered today, due to its illegal and continued use in traditional Chinese medicine, and the "blue" variation  may  already be extinct .

Though most sightings have taken place in south china, the  Blue tigers have also been reported in Korea and Burma.

The term "Maltese" comes from domestic cat terminology for blue fur, and refers to the slate grey coloration. Many cats with such coloration are present in Malta hence the name Maltese, however two of the more well known blue cat breed are  the Russian Blue, and a variety of the British Shorthair, the British Blue, but blue bobcats and lynxes have also been recorded, and there are genetic mutations and combinations that result in a bluish hue, or at least the impression of a blue-gray animal. And black tigers where once considered nothing more then mythical at one point through pelts have proven this to be a real creature, Not thought it's not  actually a fully black tiger, like a panthers fur,  most of the time it's stripes are simply much wider then average which obscure most of the orange fur. Though a fully melanistic tiger isn't impossible for the same reason white tigers exist, its just a rare genetic trait.

.....

A mostly black tiger has been spotted in Odisha, India .......

.........

The first reported sighting of a blue tiger was in 1910...

In  1910, a big game hunter  named Harry Caldwell who was doing missionary work at the time,  claims to have seen and hunted a blue Tiger outside Fuzhou. He describes his encounter  in his book Blue Tiger (1924), and by his hunting companion Roy Chapman Andrews in his Camps & Trails in China (1925, chapter VII). Chapman cites Caldwell thus:

"The markings of the beast are strikingly beautiful. The ground color is of a delicate shade of maltese, changing into light gray-blue on the underparts. The stripes are well defined and like those of the ordinary yellow tiger."

— Caldwell, Chapman (1925)

A more recent report, given to Mystery Cats of the World author Karl Shuker, comes from the son of a US Army soldier who served in Korea during the Korean War. His father sighted a blue tiger in the mountains near what is now the Demilitarized Zone.  This account takes place in 1953. It is also the last know sighting of the blue tiger.

.......

..,

Two apex predators used to roam the wilderness of Korea, up until the 1900s. The Amur or Siberian tiger, the largest species of tiger, which  became extinct on the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945,  during the Japanese occupation large portions of the tiger population where wiped out. Then the Amur leopard went extinct in Korea some time in 1970s. This leaves the Asiatic brown bear and grey wolf as the only two apex predators left in the Korean peninsula, both said to be found in North Korea..

Officially, there are no more wild tigers in Korea today.

The  Siberian Tiger is also critically endangered, they can still be found in  the Sikhote-Alin mountain region in the Russian Far East, with smaller numbers extending into Northeast China.

Unfortunately there are only around 500 - 750 Siberian tigers left in the wild because of illegal hunting and habitat lose ) deforestation most living in eastern Russia or Northern china, though some could still be make there way into Korea now and then.

..🐯..

...

Paranormal Russia: The Seven Giants

 

Have you ever heard of the Seven Giants?

It a famous rock formation in Russia, the colossal rocks are also tied to a legend about a wizard.....

All seven stand between 98 and 138 feet tall...

There are a few different ways to get to them, you can go by road from the Komi Republic, hiking or skiing over the Dyatlov Pass from the Sverdlovsk region, or helicopter. 

Up until 2004, a car route from the Sverdlovsk Region was also available, with a visit to the Dyatlov Pass, the Otorten Mountain and the source of the Pechora River. It was officially banned to preserve two protected areas.

 All seven stone pillars are located west of the Ural Mountains in the Troitsko-Pechorsky District of the Komi Republic in the Pechoro-Ilychski Reserve on the mountain Man-Pupu-nyor, between the Ilych and Pechora rivers.

 They are also known as the Seven Strong Men Rock Formations and the Poles of the Komi Republic. 

These massive stones are a popular tourist destination and have  been given the title of one of the Seven Wonders of Russia.

They were even commemorated on a stamp.

............................

...The Legend...

The legend comes from folklore of the Mansi people.

According to myth,  the pillars were once a group of giant Samoyeds marching through the mountains to conquer the Mansi people. When the giant warriors reached the holy Mansi mountains and laid eyes upon them, a powerful shaman (sometimes called Yallingner) confronted the group.

The shaman used his ceremonial drum and magical powers to stop the invading giants in their tracks and turning them into stone. However, the shaman himself was unfortunately also affected by his own magic and turned to stone as well. Now they all stand as giant pillers of stone forever.

 This myth explains why six of the stone's stand close together in a line, while the seventh stands slightly separated from the rest, representing the petrified shaman.

In the Mansi language, Manpupuner (or Man-Pupu-Nyor) translates literally to "Little Mountain of the Gods".

......

Also, in case you're wondering, these are the Seven Wonders of Russia..

1. Lake Baikal, in Irkutsk Oblast, Buryatia.

2. Klyuchevskaya Sopka and the Valley of Geysers located in Kamchatka Krai. Is a massive active volcano and  the second-largest collection of geysers in the world, right after Yellowstone in the United States.

3. Mamayev Kurgan, in Volgograd, Oblast.

.........

4. Peterhof in Saint Petersburg.

..........

5. Saint Basil's Cathedral, in Moscow.

........

6. Manpupuner Roc Formation (The Seven Giants), in Komi Republic. 

.........

7.Mount Elbrus, in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, Caucasus Mountains just north of the Georgian border.

........

Paranormal Folklore and Mythology, Lughnasadh / Lammas.

 

According to Irish Mythology and the pagan wheel of the year Lughnasadh was a Celtic  holiday founded by the god Lugh as  a  funeral feast and athletic competition and Funeral games to commemorate the death of an earth goddess.

On the Celtic/ pagan calendar  Lughnasadh is a holiday that coincides with Lammas celebrating the first harvest.

Both ancient celebrations are traditionally  held on August 1st...

Lammas often overlaps with or is used interchangeably with Lughnasadh. It's one of the eight major Sabbats on the Pagan Wheel of the Year, honoring the importance of the grain harvest and Mother Earth's bounty. Early Irish Christians celebrated the first bountiful grain  harvest of the year by consecrating freshly baked loaves of bread during a church service.🥐🥖🍞

Other variations of the word are Lunasa, Luᵹ̇nasaḋ, Lughnasadh and Lughnasa.

In Modern Irish, the spelling is Lúnasa  which is also the name for August, Mí Lúnasa (Month of August) and Lá Lúnasa (Day of Lúnasa).  In Modern Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig), the festival and the month are both called Lùnastal  In Manx (Gaelg), the festival and the month are both called Luanistyn

The competition usually consist of multiple events  including matchmaking, horse racing, hurling, trading and of course a large feast.

Originally religious rites included an offering of the First Fruit of the grain harvest, a feast of the new food,  sacrificing a bull, ( no longer practiced) followed by a ritual dance.

Original festivals where held on top of hills, this tradition of climbing hills and mountains at Lughnasadh is still practiced in some areas and is recast as a Christian pilgrimage. The best known is the Reek Sunday pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday in July. 

One custom Lughnasadh had in common with Imbolc and Beltane was visiting holy wells,  specifically clootie wells. Visitors  would pray for health while walking sunwise around the well; they would then leave offerings, usually coins or clooties. Although bonfires were lit at some of the open-air gatherings in Ireland, they were rare and not important to the celebrations itself.

Traditionally, the holiday was celebrated on  the first day of August.  Though after the christianization of Ireland  most of the  festivities where changed to the nearest Sundays – either the last Sunday in July or first Sunday in August.

Since the late 20th century, Celtic neopagans have observed Lughnasadh as a religious holiday. Other names for the festival are Mountain Sunday, Garland Sunday and Bilberry Sunday.

A common theme in the story of  is the tragic fate of a woman who is carried off or held against her will, and later dies out of shame, exhaustion grief , or an unspecified natural cause.

Another version regarding the  Lughnasadh site of Tailtin says the festival was founded by Lugh as funeral games in memory of his foster-mother tailtiu. 

Folklore  says she died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture.  Tailtiu may have been an earth goddess who represented the dying vegetation that fed mankind.  Another tale, about the assembly site of Nass,, says that Lugh founded the festival in memory of his two wives, the sisters Nas and Bói.  One theory is that it was a mourning (or wake) for the end of summer. There are several different versions of it's origins. 

Another goddess associated with  Lughnasadh is Áine ..

She is an Irish Goddess of the Summer Solstice and of Lughnasadh who brings love, protection, fertility, wealth and sovereignty. 

As a Moon Goddess she is the guardian of  livestock, crops, and cattle and as a Sun Goddess, she takes the form of ‘Lair Derg’, The Red Mare so fast that no one can outrun. In  this form she travels the country bringing blessings to everyone.

🏵️🥖🍞🥐🍁🇮🇪☘️👨‍🌾🌾

Arkansas Bigfoot 👣

 

Arkansas Bigfoot..

First hand account by eyewitness near Russelville, AR in  the summer of 2003.

It was late summer at my grandfather's cattle farm. My grandfather owns XX's of acres of property in Pope County, in the city of Russelville. 

He lives on a small corner of his property on about XX acres of land on which he grazes his cattle. One night when were sitting on the porch of his trailer home, we noticed that something was disturbing the cattle. 

The "Brem" Cattle that were usually calm and scattered by the barn on the far side of the property, came running to the fence as they usually did when threatened by a Coy dog. Without giving it a second thought we hopped in the truck, grabbed the night vision binoculars and the high beam and started around the perimeter of the grazing land. 

We saw nothing until we came down near the pond where the cattle were watered. At first, we missed it with the night vision goggles because it was so still. But when we ran the light through the trees, we caught the glare from its eyes looking right at us. It was too far up in the trees to be a deer or a coy dog and the eyes were too big to be an oppossum or coon. We trained the light on its eyes and as we scanned down the tree, we saw what looked like a very large man leaning very still against the tree. He was huge, around 8 feet tall with black hair and eyes. 

His hair covered every inch of his body except for his face which was slightly less hairy around the eyes and forehead. I saw him first because I was using the high beam to scan the tree line and brush for eyes. 

I was too afraid to say anything and by the time I finally found the words to say and pointed grandpa in the right direction, the creature had turned and walked away. The next day we went to look where the creature was standing, but we found no prints because of the shale that was used to form the levy for the pond

...................

..................

If any of you plan on camping this summer  or heading to the forest for relaxation, keep an eye out for the big hairy guy  👣 and have a great summer.

Paranormal Folklore, Angrboða Mother of monster's...

 

 

 

 

Angrboda, Wife of Loki and  Mother of Monsters. 

The name Angrboða first  appears in the Poetic Edda (Völuspá hin skamma) and is later detailed in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda in the 13th century.

She's from Jötunheimr, the land of giants.

In Norse mythology Angrboða is the giant wife of Loki,  she gave birth to Jörmungandr, the world serpent, Hel, ruler of the dead, and Fenrir, the ferocious giant wolf. All key figures in Ragnarök ( the end of the world).

Though she is the embodiment of motherly love, caring greatly for each of her children even though  all of them are monstrous  creatures that will eventually take part in the end of the world and death of the Norse pantheon. She is still a kind mother 


Her name means She who brings grief" or "messenger of sorrow," because of the tragic role her children will eventually bring.

......


She is only mentioned once in the Poetic Edda (Völuspá hin skamma) as the mother of Fenrir by Loki. The Prose Edda (Gylfaginning) describes her as "a giantess in Jötunheimar" and as the mother of three monsters: the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard serpent Jörmungandr, and the ruler of the dead Hel.


The Children......
🔥👱‍♀️🐺🐍🔥

,....

🏵️Happy Mother's Day Weekend🌸

Paranormal Folklore, The 1882 Dragon train attack.

 

Did a Dragon attack a train ???

 A reported attack by a "flying serpent" on a Southern Pacific Railroad train in the Colorado Desert in 1882 is a famous American frontier legend. Several passengers claimed to witness a scaled, roaring creature attacking the train, with the incident later reported by The Illustrated Police News on March 18, 1882, and in other newspapers at the time.

 ......

 

 According to the Los Angeles Times, this is exactly what happened to a Southern Pacific train on Jan. 17, 1882, relayed by the engineer and fireman and corroborated by passengers when the train arrived in Los Angeles that night.

 They said that when the flying snake reached the track, the swiftly moving train clipped off a portion of its tail. This painful offense enraged the enormous serpent and it flew after its steel attacker "two miles faster than chain lightning." 

The angry animal overtook the train in moments and, striking from a position of safety above, "gave the train a lively thrashing, roaring like a cow in distress all the time." As women and children screamed, the beast shattered several windows in its onslaught. 

The serpent then pulled back and sailed off. Given a moment to recover, several passengers upholstered their pistols and unleashed a shower of lead after the beast as wind whistled past the damaged window frames. The bullets, if they hit their target at all, had no effect as the monster winged its way back across the desert sands. "This is vouched for by everyone who was on the train, and is given or what it is worth," stated the Times.

....

There were several other Dragon, Flying Serpent, Thunderbird/Terodactyl  sightings throughout 1800's, many will claim they were nothing more then tall tales or exaggerated Folklore, but given some of the eyewitnesses testimonials,  it still seems like people were truly witnessing something strange in the same way we still have so many modern cryptid and ufo sightings today.

🐲🐉

Vietnamese Folklore' Nguoi Rung The Wild Man

Nguoi Rung, The Rock Ape of Vietnam 👣

 During the Vietnam war many soldiers stationed there had sightings or encounters with strange humanoid creatures that appeared human like at a glance but we're far more beast then man.

Locals called them Nguoi Rung," or  "wild man of the forest,"  the US soldiers called them Rock Apes because of there propensity for hurling rocks at them(often in retaliation for being shot at.)  There throws were said to be very strong and accurate even throwing back grenades sometimes.

No specimen was ever officially captured but there were several stories about sightings and attacks by these odd Cryptids. In some stores solders claimed to have killed one or more only for a he others to drage they're fallen comrade back into the forest.

Both American and North Vietnamese forces, claimed to have had encounters with these creatures,  most involving patrols encountering them on trails. 

One place ightings have seemed to have a lot of sightings was the mountainous jungles of the Central Highlands, especially around  (Dong Den Mountain) near Da Nang , also known as Monkey Mountain.

.... 

The Battle of Dong Den..

A battle allegedly took place between the US Marines and a large group of Rock apes in the Quang Nam Province in 1966, at a place called  Hill 866 , In this account, a Marine unit was reporting to their captain that they had spotted movement in the jungle assuming it was the   Viet Cong. The captain told his unit over the radio hold there fire. Not long after, the unit reported back that, rather than Viet Cong, they were being surrounded by hairy, bipedal humanoid creatures.

The captain told the unit not to waste ammo by firing on the creatures, they should instead throw rocks. This however backfired, as the creatures began throwing the rocks right back at them. At this point, the Marines guessed there were hundreds of these creatures, far too many  to drive off by simply throwing rocks .

The Marines were told to change tactics and use their bayonets to fight the creatures. Soon after the order was given, the captain heard over the radio what sounded to him like an epic battle. Afterwards, men were sent out to investigate. The location was covered with injured—but not dead—Marines and allegedly the bodies of several Rock Apes. This became known as the Battle of Dong Den, though the only evidence of the event and the dead Rock Ape bodies littering the battlefield seems to be eyewitness accounts. What actually happened to the dead apes is unknown. In some accounts the other's would carry there dead back into the woods.

.........

The Rock Apes are basically a smaller jungle version of Bigfoot/ Sasquatch eyewitness accounts claim they were bipedal standing anywhere from four to six feet tall (smaller ones may have been younger member's of the group) with long brown or reddish fur and a stocky/ muscular build .

Some skeptic's claim people were seeing things because of extreme stress(and drugs) others claim what maller as witnessed was a small local monkeys like a gibbon which is nowhere near the size of what the rock apes are supposed to be.

But who really knows, most countries seem to have similar stories regarding Wild Men or human like apes that stalk the forest or mountains they can't all be simply seeing things ...

.

Paranormal Folklore, The Utah Giant Rabbits.

 

 The Utah Giant Rabbits.

 In 1965, a Utah man reported seeing two giant rabbits in Washington County, this is just one of the many local folklore tale that contributes to the area's history of cryptid sightings, (Bigfoot, The Bear Lake monster, Skninwalkers and more). 

These creatures are sometimes described in as being as large as cows or having unnatural, "monster" proportions.

Similar tales of, “monster rabbits,” have also been reported in Australia, where they were believed to be, “living diprotodonts,” or large, “sthenurine kangaroos / Giant Kangaroos.

🌲🌳🐇🌳🌲

Korean Folklore, Daltokki, the Moon Rabbit.

 

The origins of the Moon Rabbit myth can be traced back to ancient China, know as the Jade Rabbit. However Japan and Korea have similar talis of this immortal bunny. ( will have a post on the Japanese and Chinese version up  soon)

The Korean version of the Moon Rabbit starts with three animals—a rabbit, a fox, and a monkey they all share a similar goal to become the  embody of the virtues of Buddhism. To test their commitment, the Emperor of the Heavens  comes down  to earth and disguises himself as a  beggar, seeking food. The fox gives him a fish,  the monkey gives him some  fruit. But the rabbit, unable to find food, decides offer up himself as a meal and  to sacrifice himself by jumping into a fire. Moved by his act of selflessness, the Emperor appointed the rabbit as the guardian of the moon, immortalizing its noble act  among the stars and placing an image of the rabbit on the moon for All to see.

In Korean folklore, the Moon Rabbit, known as “daltokki” (달토끼), is often depicted standing beneath a gyesu tree (Korean laurel or cinnamon tree).

diligently pounding rice in a mortar to make rice cakes. 

The image of  Moon Rabbit’s Making rice cakes is heavily association with rice cakes with the Korean autumn festival called Chuseok. 

This holiday emphasizes family unity, gratitude, and the sharing of food, mirroring the rabbit’s virtues of selflessness and communal harmony. Families gather to prepare and enjoy songpyeon (half-moon-shaped rice cakes), reflecting the rabbit’s celestial activities and reinforcing the cultural importance of togetherness.There is also a  children’s song inspired by this hard working bunny  called “Half Moon” (“반달”), written in 1924 by Yoon Geuk-young.

In Chinese myths he is called the Jade Rabbit and is a friend) companion to Chang's the moon goddess, is job on the moon is to create the elixir of life. In the Japanese version he makes sticky rice cakes ( mochi).

...............

The  first version of this tail comes the second century. The earliest version was included in a Chinese  collection of poems  called  the Chu Ci. The poem in question suggested that during the Warring States Period (475 BCE–221 BCE), there was a mythical hare living on the moon and pounding herbs for celestial beings. In the 10th century, Chinese scholars compiled the Taiping Yulan, an ancient encyclopedia that also mentioned the hare on the moon. However there were no rabbits in China at the time, the original moon animal was the hare, and it was called “Jade Hare” or “Gold Hare.”

The earliest known version of the story in Japan appeared in the Konjaku Monogatarishū, a collection of ivery 1,000 poems written  into the Heian period (794–1185)

.....

The rabbit symbolizes  immortality, self-sacrifice, and the eternal cycle of life.

The Al mi-ràj /Almiraj .

 The Almiraj is another jackalope like rabbit cryptid. 

It's described as a small rabbit like animal usually said to have yellow fur and a long black unicorn like horn growing from the top of it's head.

According to Arabic lore, unlike a standard herbivore dite of a typical rabbit the Almiraj   is a fearsome carnivores animal  that can be found on Dragon Island / Sea serpents island (Jazirat al Tinnin located in the Indian Ocean .

It's mentioned in in Qazwin's The Wonders of Creation... Marvel's of things created and miraculous aspects of things existing from 1260 AD. Tough the oldest copy of Qazwini in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB) currently located in Munich is dated a 464

 It shows a miniature painting of the dragon and a horned rabbit 

..........

 The dragon is shown eating bull's filled  with, sulfur left as a trap by Alexander the great as a means of killing the dragon.

It was successful and as a reward he was gifted a horned rabbit as thanks.

This little bunny has also been featured in several videogames, anime and DnD.