LIVING HINDOO IDOL

LIVING HINDOO IDOL
"All the objects—organic and inorganic alike—were totally beyond description or even comprehension. Gilman sometimes compared the inorganic masses to prisms, labyrinths, clusters of cubes and planes, and Cyclopean buildings; and the organic things struck him variously as groups of bubbles, octopi, centipedes, living Hindoo idols, and intricate Arabesques roused into a kind of ophidian animation."
H.P. Lovecraft, Dreams In the Witch-House

"Makara: This is the name of a monster of the sea in the traditions of India, Thailand, and Indonesia. Indeed, the name may be translated as 'Sea Monster,' but this being is depicted variously as a gigantic and grotesque crab, or as part crocodile and part bird, or as part deer with the hindquarters of a fish. The name 'Makara' is often applied to any composite monster with elements of both fish and mammal and may often have parts of an elephant, especially the trunk, when depicted as a guardian on Hindu temple gateways. It is the steed of the gods Ganga and Varuna and, occasionally, of Vishnu. It is the equivalent of the Western zodiac sign of Capricorn in the Hindu calendar."

Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters and Dragons