SPIRIT OF PREY

 

SPIRIT OF PREY

"As we sat down under this tree and were thinking about that night's danger, there we saw a "Spirit of Prey", he was big as a hippopotamus, but he was walking upright as a human-being; his both legs had two feet and tripled his body, his head was just like a lion's head and every part of his body was covered with hard scales, each of these scales was the same in size as a shovel or hoe, and all curved towards his body. If this "Spirit of Prey" wanted to catch his prey, he would simply be looking at it and stand in one place, he was not chasing his prey about, and when he focused the prey well, then he would close his large eyes, but before he would open his eyes, the prey would already be dead and drag itself to him at the place that he stood."

Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard

LONG-WHITE CREATURE

LONG-WHITE CREATURE

"We slept in the bush, but when it was about two o'clock in the night, there we we saw a creature, either he was a spirit or other harmful creature, we could not say, he was coming towards us, he was white as if painted with white paint, he was white from foot to the topmost of his body, but he had no head or feet and hands like human-beings and he got on large eye on his topmost. He was long about 1/4 of a mile and his diameter was about six feet, he resembled a white pillar."

Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard

"Also all the terrible-creatures sent their representatives as "Skulls", "Long-white creatures", "Invincible and invisible Pawn" or Give and take" who fought and won the Red people in the Red-town for the "Palm-Wine Drinker";
Amos Tutuola, My Life In the Bush Of Ghosts

RED-BIRD

 

RED-BIRD

"After that I loaded the gun for the second red creature (red-bird) and within 5 minutes it appeared out again, then I got ready for it. I saw that it was a red-bird, but its head could weigh one ton or more and it had six long teeth of about half a foot long and very thick, which appeared out with its beak."

Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard

TERRIBLE CREATURE OF WRAITH ISLAND

TERRIBLE CREATURE OF WRAITH ISLAND

"I could not approach him as he was as big as an elephant. His figernails were long to about two feet, his head was bigger than his body ten times. He had a large mouth which was full of long teeth, these teeth were about one foot long and as thick as a cow's horns, his body was almost covered with black long hair like a horse's tail hair. He was very dirty. There were five horns on his head and curved and levelled to the head, his four feet were as big as a log of wood."

Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard

RED-FISH

RED-FISH 

"But when these two red creatures were coming out from the hole, they did not walk side by side but following each other and when the one at the front appeared and was coming towards me, it was red-fish in form."

"At the same tim that the red-fish appeared out, its head was just like a tortoise's head, but it was as big as an elephant's head and it had over 30 horns and large eyes which surrounded the head. All these horns were spread out as an umbrella. It could not walk but was only gliding on the ground like a snake and its body was just like a bat's body and covered with long red hair like strings. It could only fly to a short distance, and if it shouted a person who was four miles away would hear."
Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard

ORIONIAN

ORIONIAN

"They were tall and white. I try to see them as men in some kind of white jumpsuits. The one nearest the bank is stretching out a long white arm toward Ruth."

"The arm stretches after her. It stretches and stretches to yards and stays hanging in the air. Small black things are wiggling from its tip." 

"I look where their faces should be and see black hollow dishes with vertical stripes. The stripes were moving slowly."

"'Get in, Althea, we're taking off for Orion.'"

James Tiptree Jr., The Women Men Don't See

EGGIAN

EGGIAN

"His snuffling is partly constitutional — Moa is an amphibian — and partly directed at his current customers, two impossibly cheerful young Comenor."

"Moa Blue's stern reptilian face softens."

"Moa smiles, a toothy effect that would have been intimidating in different context."

"'And' — she takes his scaly hand shyly — 'we'll remember you.'"

"'Well, now, wait till you read this last before too many thanks are in order,' he tells them, showing the glittering array of teeth that had carried his remote ancestors to dominance on his home planet of Hard Eggs."

James Tiptree Jr., The Starry Rift

MURNOO

MURNOO

"It is the embryo of a Murnoo often called a 'sex-animal.' The Murnoo is a very important part of the Ziello race, but it isn't a Ziello."

"The Murnoo grows very fast, and as soon as it releases the teat in the male's pouch it is born — a tiny furry helpless creature who requires care at first, but grows very fast."

"In only about three years it is full grown, but it doesn't look much like its Ziello father and mother. It's much shorter, with a rounded face and ears, rudimentary upper arms, and a short tail."

"Well, as a sex-animal it turned out a strange cream shade, quite lovely, with red ears and paws."

"They look partly like Ziellos and partly like big rabbits."

James Tiptree Jr., Collision

HRATTLI

HRATTLI

"We know it doesn't mean anything — you have Hrattli in top Gal Fed jobs and they look like poached eggs."

James Tiptree Jr., Your Haploid Heart

ESTHAAN

ESTHAAN

"Very human, is my snap reaction. He has the same number of fingers and features, his joints work like ours, and his skin texture — a feature on which i place great hunch reliance — is a cream-yellow version of my own brown. Eyes round, with laugh lines, and his smile shows human teeth with an extra pair of frontals. All quite standard except that his torso looks a trifle thick or blocky."

"'These owl-eyed marshmallows'"

"I rip the pilots clothes, exposing his swollen body. Two great angry scars run from each pubic ligament to above the crest of the pelvis."

"A supreme convulsion sweeps the Esthaan and the two gashes in his flanks swell, pulse, and slowly evert themselves like giant pea pods turning inside out. Amass of wriggling blobs of flesh tumbles down his sides. He screams."

James Tiptree Jr., Your Haploid Heart