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The Snallygaster

Cryptid · Pennsylvania Dutch Maryland

The Snallygaster

The Snallygaster is a creature out of the Pennsylvania Dutch country of Maryland, a half-bird, half-reptile horror with a metallic beak, tentacles, and a single eye, said to swoop down on livestock and the occasional person. Its name comes from the German schneller geist, quick spirit, and tales of it were used to frighten children and, later, to sell newspapers in a famous 1909 hoax wave.

Folklore paired it with the hog-like Dewayne Beast as its nemesis, in a mountain bestiary all its own. O Devil, Where Art Thou? gives it a song among the ten.

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