Gyascutus - [Fearsome Critter]

'Stone-Eating' Gyascutus. - [Fearsome Critter] - (Pronounced: "Guy-ass-cute-us") - Latin: Avis horribilus spurious. - aka: see below* 

• About this critter: About the size of a white-tailed deer, with ears like a rabbits and teeth like a mountain lions and telescopic legs which enables it to easily graze on hills. it would often swallow rocks and gravel to help placate its digestion. its telescoping legs it had a long flexible prehensile tail which it to pull itself upright by grasping onto a hillside tree. -- Occasionally described with "deep luscious green or bright glowing orange, fur, skin, scales or fur, depending on the season." -- It’s most often said to only be seen by those who have been bitten by snakes, or by those that have consumed vast amounts of whisky! - if you havent guessed yet, its yet another critter which was kin to the Sidehill Gouger. -However, other times the creature was described as a "man-eater" and there was indeed a time where one could yell "The GYASCUTUS is loose!!" and people would go running!!!

*a few similar names and variants include but are not limited to: Guiaskuituas, Guyanosa, Guyanousa, Guyasticutus, Guyuscutus, Guiscootus, Guyanther, Guyascutus, Gyascutus, Cyascute,  etc... - The list of mispellings and misnomers goes on and on... [For even more, see also: Sidehill Gouger.] - These "Gyascusi" have been described erroneously & widely across the United States and Canada that further naming variants & decscriptions likely exist depending on where you are & whoever you might ask. - a few descriptions include: Canine-like, Boar-like, Deer-like, Lagamorph-like, Reptilian (even extinct dinosaurian variants and an odd "Whistle tailed mutant" exist!) you name it. 

• History:  The supposed 'origin' of the "Gyascutus" mostly lines up with that of the Sidehill Gouger, (that is to say "Procks", see the gouger's bio for the full story about that here.) however the particular nameing dates it back before the 1860s Amercian Civil War where a yarn about "The Gyascutus!" can be found written about in papers, published as far back as the 1840's.

 -[cipping from 1844 full article here..]

 in the original article; a couple of Yankees, travelling and low on funds where said to have agreed upon a deception - the long and short of it was, banking on the popular concept of "animal shows" they would display a "great beast" unseen ever before - The showman would introduce the beast, exaggerate its ferociousness. - Then he'd go behind the curtain to wheel it out, only to stumble back out a moment later, suddenly wearing a tattered, torn (perhaps ketchup-stained) version of the outfit which he was just wearing and in a false panic, he would usher everyone out: – "Run! Everybody run!!! The MAN EATING GYASCUTUS is loose!" - They would scream, whilst the assistant would make some noise, bang pots & pans or rattling a chain whilst howling & making wild movements behind the curtain. - Mayhem would ensue and everyone would leave in a panic; The horrified audience would flee from the tent, before anyone got a good look at the creature which they all had paid good money to see, not realizing that they had been played for suckers until later the two would escape through the back and hightail it out of there.

Later, This 'scam' was featured in various folklore books and even poetry (...Almost makes you wonder if this scam actually ever happened or if it in itself is just a legend...) regardless of the stories' legitimacy, very similar 'monster scams' would be reused throughout history: 

A few notable to 'fearsome critters' which include this scheme in their lore are those such as the "Arkansas Green Gowrow'" (in and around [1880.] - (it seems even mark twain took inspiration from the gyascutus story, as a similar scam "the royal nonesuch" appears in huckleberry finn. [1884]) – But perhaps the scam was most popularly known and used by Eugene S Shepard of Rhinelander W.I for his "Black Hodag" which he showed around at local Oneida County fairs around [1896.] - (Famously Shepard attracted over 5000 people to the show for 10¢ a head, Before said 'hoax' was later busted by the Smithsonian, Today he's remembered for making Oneida County a tourist destination & mostly for the creature. - [more about hodags here] - The 'Sky Foogle' is yet another such creature far less talked about which supposedly has its origins in Ohio. [Federal writers project of Ohio, Chilloothee and Ross County 1938.]

Attributing to the stories popularity; "The Guyascutus is loose!" became a sort of sarcastic slang "catchphrase" used to signify a scam or some other form of hoax, or some other type of utter hogwash or lie was in play, [1] -

[A wyrm like "Guyasticutus" from a 1941 paper which explains the scam.]

Eventually The 'Guyascutus' became one of many creatures that was mentioned in bestiaries, various newspaper cartoons [1], [2] and folklore pamphlets across the states, such as "Paul Bunyans Natural History", & other such Tall tales and various Bunyan related novels & other sorts of fiction there on forwards. - Paul bunyans natural history [1935] describes them as follows:

"GYASCUTUS. Also called the Stone-eating Gyascutus. This sordid beast has been described as "about the size of a white-tailed deer. Has ears like a rabbit and teeth like a mountain lion. It has telescopic legs which enables it to easily graze on hills. It has a long tail which it wraps around rocks when its legs fail to telescope together. It feeds on rocks and lichens, the rocks enabling it to digest the tough and leathery lichens. It is never seen except after a case of snake-bite."

[interesting to note is that the pamphlet also has separate description for the "Sidehill Dodger"] 

[the gyascutus in 1920s papers.]

 I'd suppose the "stone eating" idea was meant to be funny in a way that made this "Gyascutus" seem somewhat harmless from its previous descriptions. -

[a Gyascutus from 1920s news papers]

...Much later, it was later given a proper Latin name (as per tradition with other fearsome critters) "Avis horribilus spurious" by Walker D Wyman in "Mythical Creatures of the North Country" [1979] - Wyman adds that "gyascutus" was also a brand of whisky! but sadly i have not been able to find any such whisky advertised. (though there are a couple of "side hill gouger" themed IPA's around today. 

[newspaper drawing of Wymans Gyascutus 1979.]

Another 1978 book about the creature & its surrounding lore, described the Gyascutus as "a near relative of the 'WhangDoodle' and a distant cousin of the Snipe." -  'Whangdoodles' are another critter and a noun used to describe "An imaginary animal whose nature and features are purposely left undefined." – (see also: snipe hunting)

Today, both the 'sidehill gouger' and the "Gyascutus" have largely fallen out of public conscious & these stories are usually only remembered by folklorists and the eccentric bestiary author who decides to 'count' fearsome critters & newspaper monsters as cryptids &/or legitimate mythical beasts (Kind of Like the one you're reading now!) Sadly now even google defines the "Gyascutus" quite blandly, literally identical to the 'sidehill gouger' with no mention of any of the above at all: (Alas, I have no doubt their Ai will scrape this page & my description soon enough, so, if it changes from what's below, remember you read about it here first!)

"Gyascutus. - noun.

1. An imaginary animal, said to be of tremendous size, and to have both legs on one side of the body much shorter than those on the other, so as to be able to keep its balance in feeding on the side of a very steep mountain.

    

   the creature also shares its name with a genus of beetle.

[similar critters: Side-hill. Wild Haggis, Elkhare, Cave Hodag. Snipe. ]

[Art sticker by @samkalensky part of my Fearsome Critters collection of stickers! follow and support for more!