Nrocinus - [fearsome critter]

Nrocinus - [Fearsome Critter]

• About this Critter: A pocket-sized pony thought to be a relative to the Unicorn, local to the mountains of northern BC. They live on old sodden rooftops (Their diet consists of soot licked from chimneys!) very easy to catch as they're so small and don't fight back. (Gloves are recommended as their fur is absolutely filthy, blackened by coal.) They are farmed for their singular horns which sell for a high price!

• History: The Nrocinus is a fearsome critter, mentioned just twice in "Tall Tales of British Columbia" [1983] The story in which the critter is mentioned goes as follows:

"21. TRAVELS IN THE NORTH..."

"I was up north trapping and the weather turned cold; didn't know how cold as the mercury froze in the bulb. I thought to heck with it and got my new Model "A" pick-up out and was going to California for the winter. Not being too stakey; I decided to take some mink, silver fox , and couple of those one horned nrocinus along and sell them to animal farms in the States. (They were all easy to catch as they hung around the chimney on the sod roof of my dugout) The trip didn't start out too good as I got a couple of punctures right off the bat; it was alright in a way as it was too cold for the tires to go flat. (Actually I was in California for two weeks before they thawed out enough to be repaired.) While waiting in a bar getting the tires repaired, a bush pilot friend of mine coincidentally came in the bar. It turned out that he was there for the same reason and had been flying over the same area at the same time that I was there. He had some engine trouble and had to set down on a frozen cloud to make engine repairs. He said he was lucky as a real high wind came up just after he took off, and the sharp edges of that frozen cloud sliced the top right off that mountain , so now we know how some of those mountains got flat tops.

Yours truly Duncan J. MacMillan.

P.S. I made a mistake and took two male Nrocinus down to the States (hard to tell the difference)."

The storyteller's section at the end of the book say that Mr.Macmillan was a prospector, logger, fisherman & railroad worker born in Vancouver in 1922, the story notes mention that the author apparently sent it into the provincial archives in a letter on June 21 1982 & that Duncan did not mention the story in their recorded interview. - (i have not yet been able to locate said letter on their online database, but i will update when I visit in person in future!)

[Photo of Duncan MacMillian.]

The story notes sadly do not mention the Nrocinus at all, they do however highlight that the weather being so cold that 'mercury freezing' was an exaggerative parallel to other folklore and stories found in New Jersey. I'd also add that the "walking on cold clouds" bit is a parallel to some gremlin stories. (and other older myths) - Notably: The story does not give a solid description of how the creature looks (However 'Nrocinu' IS 'Unicorn' spelled backwards, so we can assume!?) - it also does not mention exactly where duncan's dugout might have been in BC other than that its "Up North" but it does mention that he travelled the province extensively. - (bit of a colossal stretch, but Coombs Market in Victoria BC has been famous for goats that live on the markets sod rooftop since 1973. - it was a big attraction at the time. Perhaps he took inspiration from there?) 

see also: Tall tales from British Columbia, Unicorn