Bavalorous. - [Fearsome Critter]

Bavalorous. - [Fearsome Critter] - (Latin: Therionius Tricauda unicornus.) - aka "Three-tailed Bavalorous" ,"Ring-tailed Bavalorous", 'Banalorous.'

• About this critter: The proverbial “King of the Lumberwoods” Described by Old Lumberjacks in the early 1900's as "Half Animal and Half Bird." - The front half of the beasts body was covered in long feathers, the back had hind Legs like a buffalos or a cow, ending with pointed cloven hooves. A flexible, long neck and a sturdy horn that "corkscrewed" from its forehead. - [Others described them with shaggy lion-like legs in the front, wings, and a face either like a bald buzzards, making it appear feel kin to the mythical "Griffin."] - The illustrious glory of the Bavalorous was its three tails: One ending in a sharp pike, mainly used for fighting. Another was broad, flat and heavy. sometimes it used as a bludgeoning weapon, but more often as a seat, chair or as its "throne" which it would lean against to sit. The third tail had vibrant shimmering plumage like that of a peacocks, it used this third tail to bat away pests and flies.- The creature's appearance was said to leave anyone who saw it utterly gobsmacked to see such a bizarre & majestic thing in the woods, Mundane animals where said to pay it food & berries as tribute as it sat on its fat tail like a throne, however; The Bavalorous was "vain to a fault" and it would become so enamoured with the beauty of its own feathered tail, that it would spend hours admiring the glistening colors: it would become utterly mesmerized and constantly open and close it, wave it back and forth, hypnotized by the beauty stemming from its own rear end.  Jealous, the creatures enemies soon saw this as a weakness and this lead to the creatures dethroning. (and extinction.) - [In a few early stories, it did battle with the giant lumberjack, Ol'Paul.] 

• History: One of many Fearsome Critters which was described in  Professor Walker D Wymans "Mythical Creatures of the USA and canada" [1969 & 79] - the entry goes as such, below is a clipping from my personal copy of the 1979 edition:

Wyman states that his source for this story was a column from the "St. Paul Sunday Pioneer Press" [now "Twin cities pioneer press."] - Published February 23rd 1958 in which Reporter "Earl Chapin" a writer and reporter who interviewed several local lumberjacks from the Minnesota area and was told the story of this creature. -Sadly, after Searching the archives such (as newspapers.com & a few others) I am unfortunately unable to find the paper or a clipping of said interview, and so, at present i believe this paper is sadly "lost media" at time of writing.  [Note: if anyone can find the paper/article with the above date. - Please reach out to "samkalensky@gmail.com" with the subject line "Bavalorous article" - I've also recently reached out to the Pioneer Presses Editors, but sadly I've yet to receive a response!]

Aside from Wyman's Paper trail; The absolute earliest illustrated appearance of "Three-tailed Bavalorous"  can be found included in a version of "The Wonderful Adventures Of Paul Bunyan" - Louis Untermeyer [1973] w illusrations by Everett Gee Jackson] –

[Left to Right: Pinnacle hen (a mix of both the GillyGaloo and pinnacle grouse.), a Hodag (oddly described in this story instead as a "fighting cock"), A Guyascutus. & finally, The Bavalorous. – Note: I'm unsure if this illustration appears in earlier prints of the book, utermyers version of the story dates back to at least 1945!]   

...Aside from that, the creature was also drawn in the leader telegrams: "Wisconsin lore and legends" April 2nd 1988, The illustration is directly based on Wymans description:

[image source is newspapers.com]

• Variants: Quite Notably; the "Ring-tailed Bavalorous" predates all of the above: Appearing In some of the earliest paul bunyan novels & tall tales from the 20s onwards, the creature instead more commonly goes by the name "Ring-tailed Bavalorous", this variety features in a number of early Paul bunyan novels begging in the 20s, and making appearances in the 40s, 70s, etc, where in it is described as  far more aggressive, with the head of a bald buzzard & the front paws of a lion & a striped rainbow tail, it attacks Pauls Campsites during "The blue winter."  – Though the creatures described appearance varies wildly between tellers. - it was illustrated in one such story by Ennis Rees in 1964 [pictured below] for reasons unkown; in the 1973 reprint of Louis Untermeyers version of the same story the "ring tailed bavalorous" has again replaced been replaced by the "three-tailed bevalorous". so it feels unclear which one is 'correct.' –

[Ennis Rees, 1964] 

[the 'ring tailed bavalorous' is mentioned among other bunyan critters in a 1920 paper.] 

I decided to just title this entry as the "Bavalorous" for short as i don't care to draw what is essentially the same beast twice. – (although in retrospect: a bird that stares at its own behind all day does brings to mind the goofus bird.) - The creatures name itself seems to derive from "Valorous" as in either context, the bavalorous somewhat resembles a mythical Griffin. (which is often a symbol of 'valour' & braveness.' most frequently appearing on the coat of arms & heraldry for for kingdoms. ) - Speaking of heraldry, The three-tailed bavalorous was one of many critters rhymed about in Lenwoods lexicon of lumberwoods lore [2019.] - Lenwood's description has been taken and pollinated on the odd fandom wiki article here as well, of course without any sources or credit, nicely preserving the critters name, but also causing some confusion. – (on that note; a common naming typo? or perhaps a 'naughty pun?' shared on wiki's forms and such seems to be "Banalorous" however this name does not appear in any books or papers to my knowledge unless i'm missing something.)

[Griffin-esc heraldry of the 3 tailed bavalorous as seen on the digital books cover]

• Possible Cryptid: Snallygaster Connection? – Although the following is most likely completely unrelated, I cant help but wonder if this critters naming is at all related to or perhaps derived from early sightings of the 'Maryland Snallygaster' (which during the earliest 30's-40's was in papers instead going by the similar sounding name "Bovalopus-snallygaester" it would have been first been titled as such in 1909.) - until later 'snallygaster' took hold as the creatures 'proper name'. the creatures feel similar in appearance and the names sound similar.  I only bring it up here: as a 'hunch' for where this critter might've gotten its name from! It could have originated as a misnomer or a parody. (As always, lets not overly conflate the two, it seems more likely to be simply be a coincidence.) 

['Bovalopus' VS "Snalagestor" ...mentioned along side Sidehill Gougers in a 1930 article]

...Anyway!! i'd assume that the moral of the Bavalorouses story is: "don't be so vain that you look at your own rump all day!" - which is also the joke, i suppose. -  ahem - regardless, it's a uniquely fabulous beast nonetheless and its one that certainly doesn't get spoken of or over-analyzed enough. - I digress, it certainly makes for a fun entry. - Sadly perhaps unless by chance someone comes across the earlier mentioned "Earl Chapin Lumbermen interview from 1958" there's really not much more that can be said about it!

See also: Paul Bunyans Natural history, Snallygaster, goofus bird.

incidentally this marks critter #151, if this where pocket monsters (it feels like it might be legendary.)

Sticker Art by @Samkalensky part of my fearsome critters collection of stickers check my shop and support me on patreon.com/samkalensky for more.