#	This data file is generated by 'makedefs'.  Do not edit. 
00001688
aerdrie faenya
0,11
aclys
aklys
627,2
*leax
749,4
amat*rasu *
987,6
*amnesia
Maud
1289,19
angel*
1872,12
anhur
2564,7
ankh-morpork
2988,9
anshar
3481,5
ant
* ant
3774,4
anu
3982,5
*ape
4246,19
*rchon
5262,16
*shikaga *akauji
6179,24
asphynx
7508,5
horned devil
7799,2
incubus
succubus
7893,4
erinyes
8110,2
marilith
8205,5
barbed devil
8483,2
vrock
8577,4
hezrou
8801,2
bone devil
8922,2
nalfeshnee
9040,3
ice devil
9189,4
pit fiend
9403,4
juiblex
jubilex
9603,6
yeenoghu
9965,5
orcus
10244,3
geryon
10427,3
dispater
10588,2
*lzebub
10670,3
asmodeus
10828,4
demogorgon
11019,4
athame
11247,5
athen*
11499,15
atlatl
12414,3
axolotl
12550,1
b*lzebub
12583,7
balrog
12979,9
baluchitherium
titanothere
13483,9
barbarian
13991,34
basilisk
15816,3
barbed devil
15995,2
*bat
giant bat
16085,9
*bee
16580,6
*beetle
16882,6
bell of opening
17192,14
blind io
17708,9
* blob
18226,1
bone devil
18248,2
book of the dead
18364,9
brigit
18821,11
broadsword
19440,5
bugbear
19579,20
*camaxtli
20739,7
s*d*g*r* cat
21143,15
*cat
kitten
22104,4
*centaur
22343,17
*erberus
kerberos
23346,7
chameleon
23751,11
*haro*n
24408,7
chih*sung*tzu
24794,1
*hromatic *ragon
tiamat
24815,16
cockatrice
25789,23
chickatrice
26993,3
pyrolisk
27175,4
cornuthaum
27417,19
couatl
28410,10
cram*
29019,6
*crocodile
29359,5
croesus
kroisos
creosote
29620,8
crom
30060,10
*yclops
30541,31
*ark *ne
31796,8
demogorgon
32234,4
dispater
32455,2
djinn*
32534,8
*dog
pup*
33022,6
shadow wolf
33346,4
mist wolf
33583,5
*dragon
*xoth
33875,9
dwarf*
34424,21
earendil
elwing
35665,15
eel
giant eel
36571,9
elbereth
37065,20
electric eel
37808,5
*elemental
38099,5
~elf ??m*
*elf*
elvenking
38402,19
erinys
erinyes
39464,2
ettin
39591,2
excalibur
39716,14
eye of the aethiopica
40511,8
floating eye
40944,7
flesh golem
41343,21
fog cloud
42491,8
*fung*
42639,21
*gargoyle
43815,14
geryon
44556,3
ghost
44708,10
*giant
giant humanoid
45280,6
~gnome ??m*
gnome*
gnomish wizard
45631,13
goblin
46364,10
gold
gold piece
zorkmid
46895,9
~flesh golem
*golem
47362,18
gremlin
48381,3
grid bug
48549,13
gunyoki
49251,2
hachi
49362,8
heart of ahriman
49840,19
hell hound*
50961,8
hermes
51425,15
hezrou
52337,2
hobbit
52453,10
hobgoblin
53045,23
hom*nculus
54292,13
horned devil
54950,2
*horsem*
death
famine
pestilence
war
hunger
55040,22
huan*ti
56429,5
hu*h*eto*l
minion of huhetotl
56731,6
humanoid
57066,5
human
acolyte
apprentice
archeologist
arch priest
attendant
cave*man
chieftain
guard
healer
ninja
nurse
page
*priest*
ronin
samurai
shopkeeper
student
thug
warrior
*watch*
wizard
player
57328,7
ice devil
57733,4
imp
57936,13
incubus
succubus
58586,4
ishtar
58795,7
issek
59161,13
izchak
59911,18
jabberwock
vorpal*
61087,20
jackal
61707,13
jaguar
62431,4
juiblex
jubilex
62649,6
kabuto
62991,19
katana
64135,3
ki-rin
64302,4
king arthur
*arthur
64521,23
knight
65722,10
~kobold ??m*
*kobold*
66074,5
*kop*
66343,7
kos
66715,6
koto
67030,1
kraken
67048,8
*lady
offler
67506,20
lemure
68840,1
leocrotta
leu*otta
68882,7
leprechaun
69270,18
*lich
70275,7
~* of light
* light
70706,3
gecko
iguana
lizard
70832,9
loki
71359,14
lord carnarvon
72161,8
lord sato
72623,3
lord surt*
72801,9
lug*
73282,8
lurker*
73755,3
lycanthrope
*were*
73911,17
magic mirror of merlin
74904,3
mail d*emon
75081,2
ma*annan*
75171,7
manes
75536,2
marduk
75611,10
marilith
76177,5
master assassin
76429,19
master key of thievery
77332,5
master of thieves
77615,11
medusa
78239,22
*mimic
79432,6
mind flayer
79776,6
minotaur
80110,9
mit*ra*
80607,16
*mithril*
81455,6
mitre of holiness
81790,4
mjollnir
82036,14
~slime mold
*mold
82876,6
mol?ch
83209,16
mumak*
84045,8
*mummy
84501,14
mummy wrapping
85243,15
*naga*
*naja*
86083,4
naginata
86324,18
nalfeshnee
87270,2
nalzok
87388,7
neanderthal*
87791,3
newt
87970,13
ninja-to
88413,1
*norn
88437,14
nunchaku
89187,1
*nymph
89206,23
odin
90497,22
ogre*
91716,16
olog-hai
92615,13
*ooze
*pudding
93409,4
oracle
delphi
p*thia
93613,9
orb of detection
94092,4
orb of fate
94309,7
goblin king
orcrist
94709,9
orcus
95211,3
~orc ??m*
orc*
* orc
uruk*hai
95388,15
osaku
96230,1
owlbear
96276,6
palantir of westernesse
96589,5
*piercer
96835,8
pit fiend
97242,4
platinum yendorian express card
97429,7
poseido*n
97814,17
ptah
98738,9
*purple worm
99215,6
quadruped
99546,5
quantum mechanic
99837,2
quasit
99953,2
quetzalcoatl
100073,13
raiden
100862,1
rat
* rat
100883,2
rock mole
100989,6
rogue
101331,11
rothe
101976,3
rust monster
102118,3
sake
102256,1
salamander
102277,7
sasquatch
102628,4
sceptre of might
102832,6
scorpio*
103135,5
shad*
103409,4
shaman karnov
103602,3
shan*lai*ching
103757,5
shito
104015,1
skeleton
104043,4
slasher
104286,17
slime mold
105264,10
*snake
serpent
water moccasin
python
pit viper
cobra
105824,20
snickersnee
107221,6
*soldier
sergeant
lieutenant
captain
107443,8
solonor thelandira
107903,2
*spider
108003,1
staff of aesculapius
108065,5
statue*
108336,11
sting
108956,12
susano*o
109576,6
tanko
109881,1
tengu
109939,7
thoth
110329,19
thoth*amon
111387,5
tiger
111639,6
titan
111980,11
tourist
112574,18
trapper
113537,5
tripe ration
113840,10
*troll
114432,15
tsurugi of muramasa
115255,5
tsurugi
115560,6
twoflower
guide
115869,23
tyaa
116884,2
tyr
116964,14
*hulk
117773,5
*unicorn
unicorn horn
118043,23
valkyrie
119456,13
vampire
vampire bat
vampire lord
120101,5
vlad*
120373,9
*vortex
vortices
120918,6
vrock
121259,4
wakizashi
121453,2
warg
121566,17
*wight
122414,9
wizard of balance
122908,5
wizard of yendor
123185,10
wolf
*wolf
123765,5
*worm
long worm tail
worm tooth
crysknife
124018,6
wraith
nazgul
124350,17
wumpus
125316,6
xan
125631,12
xorn
126256,5
ya
126521,2
yeenoghu
126632,5
yeti
126897,3
yugake
127075,3
yumi
127260,4
*zombie
127469,5
zruty
127713,2
.
127806,0

	Aerdrie  Faenya is the elven goddess of air and weather. As a rain-
	bringer, she is revered as a source of fertility.  She is, however,
	perceived as a somewhat distant  goddess, and the fact that she  is
	also revered by some aarakocra slightly diminishes the  strength of
	elven  devotion to  her (as does  her definite  neutral tendency in
	alignment). The goddess  herself takes  delight in  the freedom  of
	the skies, the music  of wind instruments,  and (sometimes)  fairly
	severe and  violent thunderstorms. She is  friendly to all  avians,
	aarakocra, ki-rin, and lammasu.
					 [ Monster Mythology, by TSR inc. ]
	A short studded or spiked club attached to a cord allowing
	it to be drawn back to the wielder after having been thrown.
	An Aleax,  according to the  AD&D Fiend Folio,  is a  creature that
	looks exactly  like the character, and  is sent  by the character's
	god to  punish alignment violations. Obviously  - and  luckily - in
	Nethack this is not the case.
	The Shinto sun goddess, Amaterasu Omikami is the central
	figure of Shintoism and the ancestral deity of the imperial
	house.  One of the daughters of the primordial god Izanagi
	and said to be his favourite offspring, she was born from
	his left eye.
	    [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
	Get thee hence, nor come again,
	Mix not memory with doubt,
	Pass, thou deathlike type of pain,
	Pass and cease to move about!
	'Tis the blot upon the brain
	That will show itself without.
		...
	For, Maud, so tender and true,
	As long as my life endures
	I feel I shall owe you a debt,
	That I never can hope to pay;
	And if ever I should forget
	That I owe this debt to you
	And for your sweet sake to yours;
	O then, what then shall I say? -
	If ever I should forget,
	May God make me more wretched
	Than ever I have been yet!
		[ Maud, And Other Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson ]
	He answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed
	is the Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed
	are the children of the kingdom; but the weeds are the
	children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the
	devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers
	are the angels.  As therefore the weeds are gathered and
	burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
	[...]  So shall it be at the end of the world; the angels
	shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
	and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be
	wailing and gnashing of teeth.
		[ The Gospel According to Matthew, 13:37-42, 49-50 ]
	An Egyptian god of war and a great hunter, few gods can match
	his fury.  Unlike many gods of war, he is a force for good.
	The wrath of Anhur is slow to come, but it is inescapable
	once earned.  Anhur is a mighty figure with four arms.  He
	is often seen with a powerful lance that requires both of
	his right arms to wield and which is tipped with a fragment
	of the sun.  He is married to Mehut, a lion-headed goddess.
	The twin city of Ankh-Morpork, foremost of all the cities
	bounding the Circle Sea, was as a matter of course the home
	of a large number of gangs, thieves' guilds, syndicates and
	similar organisations.  This was one of the reasons for its
	wealth.  Most of the humbler folk on the widdershin side of
	the river, in Morpork's mazy alleys, supplemented their
	meagre incomes by filling some small role for one or other
	of the competing gangs.
	    [ The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett ]
	A primordial Babylonian-Akkadian deity, Anshar is mentioned
	in the Babylonian creation epic _Enuma Elish_ as one of a
	pair of offspring (with Kishar) of Lahmu and Lahamu.  Anshar
	is linked with heaven while Kishar is identified with earth.
	    [ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
	This giant variety of the ordinary ant will fight just as
	fiercely as its small, distant cousin.  Various varieties
	exist, and they are known and feared for their relentless
	persecution of their victims.
	Anu was the Babylonian god of the heavens, the monarch of
	the north star.  He was the oldest of the Babylonian gods,
	the father of all gods, and the ruler of heaven and destiny.
	Anu features strongly in the _atiku_ festival in
	Babylon, Uruk and other cities.
	The most highly evolved of all the primates, as shown by
	all their anatomical characters and particularly the
	development of the brain.  Both arboreal and terrestrial,
	the apes have the forelimbs much better developed than
	the hind limbs.  Tail entirely absent.  Growth is slow
	and sexual maturity reached at quite an advanced age.
	[ A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa by Dorst ]

	Aldo the gorilla had a plan.  It was a good plan.  It was
	right.  He knew it.  He smacked his lips in anticipation as
	he thought of it.  Yes.  Apes should be strong.  Apes should
	be masters.  Apes should be proud.  Apes should make the
	Earth shake when they walked.  Apes should _rule_ the Earth.
		[ Battle for the Planet of the Apes,
			by David Gerrold ]
	Four-handed, tailless,  mammal of  the  order of  Primates, of  the
	sub-order  of _Anthropoidea_,  which of  all  mammals most  closely
	resembles man (both in appearance and in behaviour).
		      [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
	Archons are the predominant inhabitants of the heavens.
	However unusual their appearance, they are not generally
	evil.  They are beings at peace with themselves and their
	surroundings.
	Archons are the primary  inhabitants of the Seven Heavens. The five
	varieties of archon (Lantern, Hound,  Warden, Sword, and Tome) have
	wholly different appearances.  The various types look like  spheres
	of  light,   dog-faced  humanoids,   bear-like  humanoids,   winged
	humanoids,  and hawk-like humanoids respectively. Although there is
	a distinct  hierarchy among the varieties,  there is  no rivalry or
	jealousy  there.  Each  has  his   role  to  fulfil  and   that  is
	recognition enough for an archon.
	However strange  and frightening  their  appearance, archons  never
	seem evil. Rather, they appear  as beings at peace  with themselves
	and their environment.
				    [ Monstrous Compendium 8, by TSR inc. ]
	Ashikaga Takajui was a daimyo of the Minamoto clan who
	joined forces with the Go-Daigo to defeat the Hojo armies.
	Later when Go-Daigo attempted to reduce the powers of the
	samurai clans he rebelled against him.  He defeated Go-
	Daigo and established the emperor Komyo on the throne.
	Go-Daigo eventually escaped and established another
	government in the town of Yoshino.  This period of dual
	governments was known as the Nambokucho.
	[ Samurai - The Story of a Warrior Tradition, by Cook ]
	On July 8, 1336,  he and his samurai entered Kyoto, forced Go-Daigo
	to retire,  after which  he seized  power himself  and installed  a
	puppet prince on the throne  (the current Japanese  imperial family
	are  the   descendants  of  this   puppet  emperor  that   Ashikaga
	installed).

	Go-Daigo escaped,  though, wouldn't  admit to  have been  defeated,
	and  opened a new "capital"  in Yoshino (south of  Kyoto), where he
	and few  of his  descendants claimed  to be  running a  government,
	known as  the "Southern Court". The  period between  1337 and 1392,
	when Japan was ruled by two courts, is known as the Nambokucho.

	That "government" disappeared, naturally, after a  few generations,
	and Ashikaga's  Muromachi regime lasted for  a long  time. The last
	Ashikaga daimyo in power was the 14th descendant of Takauji.
        This small,  inoffensive-looking snake shares the feared power
        of petrification with its distant relatives the cockatrice and
        basilisk. Just one touch from its blunt snout  can render  one
        motionless for all eternity.
	[ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
		Horned devils lack any real special abilities,  though  they
		are quite difficult to kill.
		The incubus and succubus are male and female versions of the
		same  demon, one who lies with a human for its own purposes,
		usually to the detriment of the mortals who  are  unwise  in
		their dealings with them.
		These female-seeming devils  attack hand to hand  and poison
		their unwary victims as well.
		The marilith, a type V demon, has a torso shaped  like  that
		of  a human female, and the lower body of a great snake.  It
		has multiple arms, and can freely attack with all  of  them.
		Since it is intelligent enough to use weapons, this means it
		can cause great damage.
		Barbed devils lack any real special abilities,  though  they
		are quite difficult to kill.
		The vrock is one of the weaker forms of demon, being only  a
		type  I.   It  resembles a cross between a human being and a
		vulture and does physical damage by biting and by using  the
		claws on both its arms and feet.
		``Hezrou'' is the common name for the type II demon.  It  is
		among the weaker of demons, but still quite formidable.
		Bone devils attack with weapons and with a great hooked tail
		which causes a loss of strength to those they sting.
		Not only do these demons, which are of type IV, do  physical
		damage  with  their  claws and bite, but they are capable of
		using magic as well.
		Ice devils  are  large  semi-insectoid  creatures,  who  are
		equally  at home in the fires of Hell and the cold of Limbo,
		and who can cause the traveller to feel the latter with just
		a touch of their tail.
		Pit fiends are among the more powerful of devils, capable of
		attacking  twice with weapons as well as grabbing and crush-
		ing the life out of  those  unwary  enough  to  enter  their
		domains.
		Little is known about the Faceless Lord,  even  the  correct
		spelling  of  his name.  He does not have a physical form as
		we know it, and those who have peered into his  realm  claim
		he  is  a  slime-like  creature who swallows other creatures
		alive, spits acidic secretions, and causes  disease  in  his
		victims which can be almost instantly fatal.
		Yeenoghu, the demon lord of gnolls,  still  exists  although
		all his followers have been wiped off the face of the earth.
		He casts magic projectiles at those close to him, and a mere
		gaze  into  his  piercing  eyes  may  hopelessly confuse the
		battle-weary adventurer.
		Orcus, Prince of the Undead, has a rams head  and  a  poison
		stinger.   He is most feared, though, for his powerful magic
		abilities.  His wand causes death to those he chooses.
		Geryon is an arch-devil sometimes  called  the  Wild  Beast,
		attacking  with  his claws and poison sting.  His ranking in
		Hell is rumored to be quite low.
		Dispater is an arch-devil who rules the city of Dis.  He  is
		a powerful mage.
		Baalzebub has been known as the lord of the flies.  His bite
		drips  poison,  and a mere glance into his eyes can stun the
		hapless invader of his realm.
	It is said that Asmodeus is the overlord over all of hell.
	His appearance, unlike many other demons and devils, is
	human apart from his horns and tail.  He can freeze flesh
	with a touch.
		Demogorgon, the prince of demons, wallows in filth  and  can
		spread  a quickly fatal illness to his victims while rending
		them.  He is a mighty spellcaster, and he can drain the life
		of mortals with a touch of his tail.
	The consecrated ritual knife of a Wiccan initiate (one of
	four basic tools, together with the wand, chalice and
	pentacle).  Traditionally, the athame is a double-edged,
	black-handled, cross-hilted dagger of between six and
	eighteen inches length.
	Athene was the offspring of Zeus, and without a mother.  She
	sprang forth from his head completely armed.  Her favourite
	bird was the owl, and the plant sacred to her is the olive.
	    [ Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch ]
	Athena, the  Greek goddess of war and peace, the peaceful arts, and
	wisdom.  Patron defender of many Greek cities, Athens in particular
	(then called Pallas Athena),  she is a major  goddess of the  Greek
	pantheon  and, according to Hesiod, the daughter  of Metis (Wisdom)
	and Zeus, born fully  armed from his head. A goddess of  battle and
	allegedly  a snake  goddess,  she is  a deity  who also  stands for
	discipline against  the more unruly conduct  of such  as Hermes and
	Poseidon.
	Her  symbol is the Aegis,  the skin of  a sacrificial  goat. She is
	also associated with ship-building and domestic crafts.
		      [ after the Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
	A device used to throw spears for longer distances.  A short
	staff with a handle at one end and a cradle for the spear at
	the other.
	A mundane salamander, harmless.
	The "lord of the flies" is a translation of the Hebrew
	Ba'alzevuv (Beelzebub in Greek).  It has been suggested that
	it was a mistranslation of a mistransliterated word which
	gave us this pungent and suggestive name of the Devil, a
	devil whose name suggests that he is devoted to decay,
	destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic...
		[ Notes on _Lord of the Flies_, by E. L. Epstein ]
	...  It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as
	if a cloud had bent over it.  Then with a rush it leaped
	the fissure.  The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed
	about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air.  Its streaming
	mane kindled, and blazed behind it.  In its right hand
	was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it
	held a whip of many thongs.
	'Ai, ai!' wailed Legolas.  'A Balrog!  A Balrog is come!'
		   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	Extinct rhinos include a variety of forms, the most
	spectacular being _Baluchitherium_ from the Oligocene of
	Asia, which is the largest known land mammal.  Its body, 18
	feet high at the shoulder and carried on massive limbs,
	allowed the 4-foot-long head to browse on the higher branches
	of trees.  Though not as enormous, the titanotheres of the
	early Tertiary were also large perissodactyls, _Brontotherium_
	of the Oligocene being 8 feet high at the shoulder.
		[Prehistoric Animals, by Barry Cox ]
	They dressed alike -- in buckskin boots, leathern breeks and
	deerskin shirts, with broad girdles that held axes and short
	swords; and they were all gaunt and scarred and hard-eyed;
	sinewy and taciturn.
	They were wild men, of a sort, yet there was still a wide
	gulf between them and the Cimmerian.  They were sons of
	civilization, reverted to a semi-barbarism.  He was a
	barbarian of a thousand generations of barbarians.  They had
	acquired stealth and craft, but he had been born to these
	things.  He excelled them even in lithe economy of motion.
	They were wolves, but he was a tiger.
	    [ Conan - The Warrior, by Robert E. Howard ]
	Hrun the  Barbarian crept  soundlessly along  the corridors,  which
	were lit  with a  light so  violet that  it was  almost black.  his
	earlier  confusion was  gone. This was obviously  a magical temple,
	and that explained everything.
	   ...
	Observe Hrun,  as he leaps  cat-footed across  a suspicious  tunnel
	mouth. Even in this violet light his skin gleams  coppery. There is
	much  gold about his person, in  the form of anklets and wristlets,
	but otherwise  he is naked except  for a  leopardskin loincloth. He
	took  that in the  steaming forests  of Howondaland,  after killing
	its owner with his teeth.
	In his right hand  he carried the magical black sword  Kring, which
	was  forged  from a  thunderbolt  and has  a  soul  but suffers  no
	scabbard. Hrun  had  stolen it  only  three  days before  from  the
	impregnable  palace  of the  Archmandrite of  B'Ituni,  and  he was
	already regretting it. It was beginning to get on his nerves.
	"I tell you  it went down that last  passage on the  right," hissed
	Kring in a voice like the scrape of a blade over stone.
	"Be silent!"
	"All I said was -"
	"Shut up!"
				[ The colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
        At first glance an unassuming lizard; at first touch instantaneous
        petrification. Such is the life of the feared basilisk.
	[ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook 
	Barbed devils lack any real special abilities, though they
	are quite difficult to kill.
	A bat, flitting in the darkness outside, took the wrong turn
	as it made its nightly rounds and came in through the window
	which had been left healthfully open.  It then proceeded to
	circle the room in the aimless fat-headed fashion habitual
	with bats, who are notoriously among the less intellectually
	gifted of God's creatures.  Show me a bat, says the old
	proverb, and I will show you something that ought to be in
	some kind of a home.
		[ A Pelican at Blandings, by P. G. Wodehouse ]
	This giant variety of its useful normal cousin normally
	appears in small groups, looking for raw material to produce
	the royal jelly needed to feed their queen.  On rare
	occasions, one may stumble upon a bee-hive, in which the
	queen bee is being well provided for, and guarded against
	intruders.
	The common name for the insects with wings shaped like
	shields (_Coleoptera_), one of the ten sub-species into
	which the insects are divided.  They are characterized by
	the shields (the front pair of wings) under which the back
	wings are folded.
	    [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
	"A bell, book and candle job."
	The Bursar sighed.  "We tried that, Archchancellor."
	The Archchancellor leaned towards him.
	"Eh?" he said.
	"I _said_, we tried that Archchancellor," said the Bursar loudly,
	directing his voice at the old man's ear.  "After dinner, you
	remember?  We used Humptemper's _Names of the Ants_ and rang Old
	Tom."*
	"Did we, indeed.  Worked, did it?"
	"_No_, Archchancellor."

	* Old Tom was the single cracked bronze bell in the University
	bell tower.
		[ Eric, by Terry Pratchett ]
	On this particular day Blind Io, by dint of constant vigilance
	the chief of the gods, sat with his chin on his hand
	and looked at the gaming board on the red marble table in
	front of him.  Blind Io had got his name because, where his
	eye sockets should have been, there were nothing but two
	areas of blank skin.  His eyes, of which he had an impressively
	large number, led a semi-independent life of their
	own.  Several were currently hovering above the table.
	    [ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
	Animated protoplasm.
	Bone devils attack with weapons and with a great hooked tail
	which causes a loss of strength to those they sting.
	Faustus: Come on Mephistopheles.  What shall we do?
	Mephistopheles: Nay, I know not.  We shall be cursed with bell,
	book, and candle.
	Faustus: How?  Bell, book, and candle, candle, book, and bell,
	Forward and backward, to curse Faustus to hell.
	Anon you shall hear a hog grunt, a calf bleat, and an ass bray,
	Because it is Saint Peter's holy day.
	(Enter all the Friars to sing the dirge)
		[ Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, by Christopher Marlowe ]
	Brigit (Brigid, Bride, Banfile), which means the Exalted One,
	was the Celtic (continental European and Irish) fertility
	goddess.  She was originally celebrated on February first in
	the festival of Imbolc, which coincided with the beginning
	of lactation in ewes and was regarded in Scotland as the date
	on which Brigit deposed the blue-faced hag of winter.  The
	Christian calendar adopted the same date for the Feast of St.
	Brigit.  There is no record that a Christian saint ever
	actually existed, but in Irish mythology she became the
	midwife to the Virgin Mary.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
	Bring me my broadsword
	And clear understanding.
	Bring me my cross of gold,
	As a talisman.
		[ "Broadsword" (refrain) by Ian Anderson ]
	Bugbears are relatives of goblins, although they tend to be
	larger and more hairy.  They are aggressive carnivores and
	sometimes kill just for the treasure their victims may be
	carrying.
	Bugbears are giant, hairy  cousins of goblins who frequent the same
	areas  as  their smaller  relatives.  Bugbears are  large and  very
	muscular, standing 7' tall.  Their hides range from light yellow to
	yellow brown  and their  thick coarse  hair varies  in colour  from
	brown  to  brick  red.  Though  vaguely   humanoid  in  appearance,
	bugbears seem to contain the  blood of some large  carnivore. Their
	eyes recall  those of  some savage  bestial animal, being  greenish
	white with  red pupils, while their  ears are  wedge shaped, rising
	from the  top of  their heads. A  bugbear's mouth  is full of  long
	sharp fangs.
	Bugbears have two main goals  in life: survival and  treasure. They
	are  superb  carnivores,  winnowing  out  the   weak  and  careless
	adventurer, monster, and animal. Goblins  are always on  their toes
	when  bugbears are present, for  the weak or  stupid quickly end up
	in the stewpot.
					 [ Monstrous Manual, by TSR, Inc. ]
	A classical Mesoamerican Aztec god, also known as Mixcoatl-
	Camaxtli (the Cloud Serpent), Camaxtli is the god of war.  He
	is also a diety of hunting and fire who received human
	sacrifice of captured prisoners.  According to tradition, the
	sun god Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into Mixcoatl-Camaxtli
	to make fire by twirling the sacred fire sticks.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
	Imagine a sealed container, so perfectly constructed that no
	physical influence can pass either inwards or outwards across its
	walls.  Imagine that inside the container is a cat, and also a
	device that can be triggered by some quantum event.  If that event
	takes place, then the device smashes a phial containing cyanide and
	the cat is killed.  If the event does not take place, the cat lives
	on.  In Schroedinger's original version, the quantum event was the
	decay of a radioactive atom.  ...  To the outside observer, the cat
	is indeed in a linear combination of being alive and dead, and only
	when the container is finally opened would the cat's state vector
	collapse into one or the other.  On the other hand, to a (suitably
	protected) observer inside the container, the cat's state-vector
	would have collapsed much earlier, and the outside observer's
	linear combination has no relevance.
	        [ The Emperor's New Mind, by Roger Penrose ]
	Well-known quadruped domestic animal from the family of
	predatory felines (_Felis ochreata domestica_), with a thick,
	soft pelt; often kept as a pet.  Various folklores have the
	cat associated with magic and the gods of ancient Egypt.
	Of all the monsters put together by the Greek imagination
	the Centaurs (Kentauroi) constituted a class in themselves.
	Despite a strong streak of sensuality, in their make-up,
	their normal behaviour was moral, and they took a kindly
	thought of man's welfare.  The attempted outrage of Nessos on
	Deianeira, and that of the whole tribe of Centaurs on the
	Lapith women, are more than offset by the hospitality of
	Pholos and by the wisdom of Cheiron, physician, prophet,
	lyrist, and the instructor of Achilles.  Further, the
	Centaurs were peculiar in that their nature, which united the
	body of a horse with the trunk and head of a man, involved
	an unthinkable duplication of vital organs and important
	members.  So grotesque a combination seems almost un-Greek.
	These strange creatures were said to live in the caves and
	clefts of the mountains, myths associating them especially
	with the hills of Thessaly and the range of Erymanthos.
		     [ Mythology of all races, Vol. 1, pp. 270-271 ]
	Cerberus, (or Kerberos in Greek), was the three-headed dog
	that guarded the Gates of Hell.  He allowed any dead to enter,
	and likewise prevented them all from ever leaving.  He was
	bested only twice:  once when Orpheus put him to sleep by
	playing bewitching music on his lyre, and the other time when
	Hercules confronted him and took him to the world of the
	living (as his twelfth and last labor).
	Name of a family (_Chameleonidae_) and race (_Chameleo_) of
	scaly lizards, especially the _Chameleo vulgaris_ species,
	with a short neck, claws, a grasping tail, a long, extendible
	tongue and mutually independent moving eyes.  When it is
	scared or angry, it inflates itself and its transparent skin
	shows its blood:  the skin first appears greenish, then
	gradually changes color until it is a spotted red.  The final
	color depends on the background color as well, hence the
	(figurative) implication of unreliability.  [Capitalized:]
	a constellation of the southern hemisphere (Chameleo).
	    [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
	When an ancient Greek died, his soul went to the nether world:
	the Hades.  To reach the nether world, the souls had to cross
	the river Styx, the river that separated the living from the
	dead.  The Styx could be crossed by ferry, whose shabby ferry-
	man, advanced in age, was called Charon.  The deceased's next-
	of-kin would place a coin under his tongue, to pay the ferry-
	man.
	A Chinese rain god.
	Tiamat is said to be the mother of evil dragonkind.  She is
	extremely vain.
	Avaricious,  supremely vain,  and  profoundly Lawful  Evil,  Tiamat
	proclaims  herself  the   creator  of  all  evil  dragonkind,   and
	certainly many evil dragons  revere her as their creator and patron
	deity.  She  infests the  uppermost  of  the  Nine  Hells with  her
	consorts,  each a  Great Wyrm  of different  colour -  one red, one
	white, one green, one blue, and one black.
	Tiamat's Avatar appears  as a gigantic five-headed dragon with  one
	head of  each of  the chromatic  (evil) dragon  types. Each  head's
	colour  runs the length  of the  neck and into  the forepart of het
	body  as stripes,  gradually blending  to  three  stripes of  grey,
	blue-green,  and  purple  over her  back  and  hind-quarters,  then
	merging into a muddy dark  brown tail. Her underbelly and  legs are
	greenish white fading into her upper body colours.
					 [ Monster Mythology, by TSR inc. ]
	Once in a great while, when the positions of the stars are
	just right, a seven-year-old rooster will lay an egg.  Then,
	along will come a snake, to coil around the egg, or a toad,
	to squat upon the egg, keeping it warm and helping it to
	hatch.  When it hatches, out comes a creature called basilisk,
	or cockatrice, the most deadly of all creatures.  A single
	glance from its yellow, piercing toad's eyes will kill both
	man and beast.  Its power of destruction is said to be so
	great that sometimes simply to hear its hiss can prove fatal.
	Its breath is so venomous that it causes all vegetation
	to wither.

	There is, however, one creature which can withstand the
	basilisk's deadly gaze, and this is the weasel.  No one knows
	why this is so, but although the fierce weasel can slay the
	basilisk, it will itself be killed in the struggle.  Perhaps
	the weasel knows the basilisk's fatal weakness:  if it ever
	sees its own reflection in a mirror it will perish instantly.
	But even a dead basilisk is dangerous, for it is said that
	merely touching its lifeless body can cause a person to
	sicken and die.
	[ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)
	  and other sources ]
	This beastie is the recently-hatched broodling of a cockatrice, a
	creature feared by adventurers great and small for its petrifying
	peck.  [ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
	A single glance from this red-feathered cockatrice  can cause even
	the bravest adventurer to burst into flames, their flesh withering
	and blackening and curling beneath the creature's baleful gaze.
	[ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
	He was dressed in a flowing gown with fur tippets which had
	the signs of the zodiac embroidered over it, with various
	cabalistic signs, such as triangles with eyes in them, queer
	crosses, leaves of trees, bones of birds and animals, and a
	planetarium whose stars shone like bits of looking-glass with
	the sun on them.  He had a pointed hat like a dunce's cap, or
	like the headgear worn by ladies of that time, except that
	the ladies were accustomed to have a bit of veil floating
	from the top of it.
                        [ The Once and Future King, by T.H. White ]

		"A wizard!" Dooley exclaimed, astounded.
		"At your service, sirs," said the wizard.  "How
	perceptive of you to notice.  I suppose my hat rather gives me
	away.  Something of a beacon, I don't doubt."  His hat was
	pretty much that, tall and cone-shaped with stars and crescent
	moons all over it.  All in all, it couldn't have been more
	wizardish.
                        [ The Elfin Ship, James P. Blaylock ]
	A mythical feathered serpent.  The couatl are very rare.
	The couatl  are feathered serpents of myth and lore. It is believed
	that  they are  distant relatives  of dragons,  though this remains
	unproven.  So rare  as to be  considered legendary,  the couatl are
	some  of the  most beautiful creatures  in existence.  A couatl has
	the body of  a long serpent and  feathered wings the colour of  the
	rainbow. Occasionally  sent as  messengers from  the gods to  their
	erring servants,  a couatl  will always  seek to  punish those  who
	deserve it.
			     [ 2nd ed. Monstrous Compendium, by TSR, Inc. ]
	If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don't
	know the recipe; but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely,
	is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining,
	being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing
	exercise.  It was made by the Lake-men for long journeys.
		[The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien]
	A big animal with the appearance of a lizard, constituting
	an order of the reptiles (_Loricata_ or _Crocodylia_), the
	crocodile is a large, dangerous predator native to tropical
	and subtropical climes.  It spends most of its time in large
	bodies of water.
	Croesus (in Greek: Kroisos), the wealthy last king of Lydia;
	his empire was destroyed when he attacked Cyrus in 549, after
	the Oracle of Delphi (q.v.) had told him:  "if you attack the
	Persians, you will destroy a mighty empire".  Herodotus
	relates of his legendary conversation with Solon of Athens,
	who impressed upon him that being rich does not imply being
	happy and that no one should be considered fortunate before
	his death.
	Warily Conan scanned his surroundings, all of his senses alert
	for signs of possible danger.  Off in the distance, he could
	see the familiar shapes of the Camp of the Duali tribe.
	Suddenly, the hairs on his neck stand on end as he detects the
	aura of evil magic in the air.  Without thought, he readies
	his weapon, and mutters under his breath:
	"By Crom, there will be blood spilt today."

	[ Conan the Avenger by Robert E. Howard, Bjorn Nyberg, and
	  L. Sprague de Camp ]
	And after he had milked his cattle swiftly,
	he again took hold of two of my men
	and had them as his supper.
	Then I went, with a tub of red wine,
	to stand before the Cyclops, saying:
	"A drop of wine after all this human meat,
	so you can taste the delicious wine
	that is stored in our ship, Cyclops."
	He took the tub and emptied it.
	He appreciated the priceless wine that much
	that he promptly asked me for a second tub.
	"Give it", he said, "and give me your name as well".
			...
	Thrice I filled the tub,
	and after the wine had clouded his mind,
	I said to him, in a tone as sweet as honey:
	"You have asked my name, Cyclops?  Well,
	my name is very well known.  I'll give it to you,
	if you give me the gift you promised me as a guest.
	My name is Nobody.  All call me thus:
	my father and my mother and my friends."
	Ruthlessly he answered to this:
	"Nobody, I will eat you last of all;
	your host of friends will completely precede you.
	That will be my present to you, my friend."
	And after these words he fell down backwards,
	restrained by the all-restrainer Hupnos.
	His monstrous neck slid into the dust;
	the red wine squirted from his throat;
	the drunk vomited lumps of human flesh.
		[ The Odyssey, (chapter Epsilon), by Homer ]
	... But he ruled rather by force and fear, if they might
	avail; and those who perceived his shadow spreading over the
	world called him the Dark Lord and named him the Enemy; and
	he gathered again under his government all the evil things of
	the days of Morgoth that remained on earth or beneath it,
	and the Orcs were at his command and multiplied like flies.
	Thus the Black Years began ...
		[ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	Demogorgon, the prince of demons, wallows in filth and can
	spread a quickly fatal illness to his victims while rending
	them.  He is a mighty spellcaster, and he can drain the life
	of mortals with a touch of his tail.
	Dispater is an arch-devil who rules the city of Dis.  He is
	a powerful mage.
	The djinn are genies from the elemental plane of Air.  There,
	among their kind, they have their own societies.  They are
	sometimes encountered on earth and may even be summoned here
	to perform some service for powerful wizards.  The wizards
	often leave them about for later service, safely tucked away
	in a flask or lamp.  Once in a while, such a tool is found by
	a lucky rogue, and some djinn are known to be so grateful
	when released that they might grant their rescuer a wish.
	A domestic animal, the _tame dog_ (_Canis familiaris_), of
	which numerous breeds exist.  The male is called a dog,
	while the female is called a bitch.  Because of its known
	loyalty to man and gentleness with children, it is the
	world's most popular domestic animal.  It can easily be
	trained to perform various tasks.
	This evil creature (_canis tenebrous_)  lurks in the darker, more
	sinister corners of the world. Its bite is known for its chilling
	effect upon humanoid flesh, and it is not a tameable animal.
	[ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
	This hazy canine  (_canis precipitous_) is  thought to  have a good
	heart hiding somewhere within its green, silky hide. Unfortunately,
	the  beast is  usually ravenous,  as its diet  of mist is  not very
	filling, at least compared to human flesh.
	[ The New Bestiary, Wizard Endlebrook ]
	In the West the dragon was the natural enemy of man.  Although
	preferring to live in bleak and desolate regions, whenever it
	was seen among men it left in its wake a trail of destruction
	and disease.  Yet any attempt to slay this beast was a perilous
	undertaking.  For the dragon's assailant had to contend
	not only with clouds of sulphurous fumes pouring from its fire
	breathing nostrils, but also with the thrashings of its tail,
	the most deadly part of its serpent-like body.
	[Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)]
	Dwarfs have faces like men (ugly men, with wrinkled, leathery
	skins), but are generally either flat-footed, duck-footed, or
	have feet pointing backwards.  They are of the earth, earthy,
	living in the darkest of caverns and venturing forth only
	with the cloaks by which they can make themselves invisible,
	and others disguised as toads.  Miners often come across them,
	and sometimes establish reasonably close relations with them.
	... The miners of Cornwall were always delighted to hear a
	bucca busily mining away, for all dwarfs have an infallible
	nose for precious metals.
	Among other things, dwarfs are rightly valued for their skill
	as blacksmiths and jewellers: they made Odin his famous spear
	Gungnir, and Thor his hammer; for Freya they designed a
	magnificent necklace, and for Frey a golden boar.  And in their
	spare time they are excellent bakers.  Ironically, despite
	their odd feet, they are particularly fond of dancing.  They
	can also see into the future, and consequently are excellent
	meteorologists.  They can be free with presents to people
	they like, and a dwarvish gift is likely to turn to gold in
	the hand.  But on the whole they are a snappish lot.
	    [ The Immortals, by Derek and Julia Parker ]
	In after days, when because of the triumph of Morgoth Elves and
	Men became estranged, as he most wished, those of the Elven-race
	that lived still in Middle-earth waned and faded, and Men usurped
	the sunlight.  Then the Quendi wandered in the lonely places of the
	great lands and the isles, and took to the moonlight and the
	starlight, and to the woods and the caves, becoming as shadows
	and memories, save those who ever and anon set sail into the West
	and vanished from Middle-earth.  But in the dawn of years Elves
	and Men were allies and held themselves akin, and there were some
	among Men that learned the wisdom of the Eldar, and became great
	and valiant among the captains of the Noldor.  And in the glory
	and beauty of the Elves, and in their fate, full share had the
	offspring of elf and mortal, Earendil, and Elwing, and Elrond
	their child.
		[ The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	The behaviour of eels in fresh water extends the air of
	mystery surrounding them.  They move freely into muddy, silty
	bottoms of lakes, lying buried in the daylight hours in summer.
	[...]  Eels are voracious carnivores, feeding mainly at
	night and consuming a wide variety of fishes and invertebrate
	creatures.  Contrary to earlier thinking, eels seek living
	rather than dead creatures and are not habitual eaters of
	carrion.
	    [ Freshwater Fishes of Canada, by Scott and Crossman ]
	... Even as they stepped over the threshold a single clear
	voice rose in song.

		A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
		silivren penna miriel
		o menel aglar elenath!
		Na-chaered palen-diriel
		o galadhremmin ennorath,
		Fanuilos, le linnathon
		nef aear, si nef aearon!

	Frodo halted for a moment, looking back.  Elrond was in his
	chair and the fire was on his face like summer-light upon the
	trees.  Near him sat the Lady Arwen.  [...]
	He stood still enchanted, while the sweet syllables of the
	elvish song fell like clear jewels of blended word and melody.
	"It is a song to Elbereth," said Bilbo.  "They will sing that,
	and other songs of the Blessed Realm, many times tonight.
	Come on!"
	   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	South-American fish (_Gymnotus electricus_), living in fresh
	water.  Shaped like a serpent, it can grow up to 2 metres.
	This eel is known for its electrical organ which enables it
	to paralyse creatures up to the size of a horse.
	   [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
	Elementals are manifestations of the basic nature of the
	universe.  There are four known forms of elementals:  air, fire,
	water, and earth.  Some mystics have postulated the necessity
	for a fifth type, the spirit elemental, but none have ever
	been encountered, at least on this plane of existence.
	The Elves sat round the fire upon the grass or upon the sawn
	rings of old trunks.  Some went to and fro bearing cups and
	pouring drinks; others brought food on heaped plates and
	dishes.
	"This is poor fare," they said to the hobbits; "for we are
	lodging in the greenwood far from our halls.  If ever you are
	our guests at home, we will treat you better."
	"It seems to me good enough for a birthday-party," said Frodo.
	Pippin afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for
	his mind was filled with the light upon the elf-faces, and the
	sound of voices so various and so beautiful that he felt in a
	waking dream.  [...]
	Sam could never describe in words, nor picture clearly to
	himself, what he felt or thought that night, though it remained
	in his memory as one of the chief events of his life.  The
	nearest he ever got was to say: "Well, sir, if I could grow
	apples like that, I would call myself a gardener.  But it was
	the singing that went to my heart, if you know what I mean."
	   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	These female-seeming devils named after the Furies of mythology
	attack hand to hand and poison their unwary victims as well.
	The two-headed giant, or ettin, is a vicious and unpredictable
	hunter that stalks by night and eats any meat it can catch.
	At first only its tip was visible, but then it rose, straight,
	proud, all that was noble and great and wondrous.  The tip of
	the blade pointed toward the moon, as if it would cleave it
	in two.  The blade itself gleamed like a beacon in the night.
	There was no light source for the sword to be reflecting
	from, for the moon had darted behind a cloud in fear.  The
	sword was glowing from the intensity of its strength and
	power and knowledge that it was justice incarnate, and that
	after a slumber of uncounted years its time had again come.
	After the blade broke the surface, the hilt was visible, and
	holding the sword was a single strong, yet feminine hand,
	wearing several rings that bore jewels sparkling with the
	blue-green color of the ocean.
		[ Knight Life, by Peter David ]
	This is a powerful amulet of ESP.  In addition to its standard
	powers, it regenerates the energy of anyone who carries
	it, allowing them to cast spells more often.  It also reduces
	any spell damage to the person who carries it by half, and
	protects from magic missiles.  Finally, when invoked it has
	the power to instantly open a portal to any other area of the
	dungeon, allowing its invoker to travel quickly between
	areas.
	Floating eyes, not surprisingly, are large, floating eyeballs
	which drift about the dungeon.  Though not dangerous in and
	of themselves, their power to paralyse those who gaze at
	their large eye in combat is widely feared.  Many are the
	tales of those who struck a floating eye, were paralysed by
	its mystic powers, and then nibbled to death by some other
	creature that lurked around nearby.
	With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected
	the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark
	of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.  It was
	already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against
	the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the
	glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow
	eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive
	motion agitated its limbs.

	How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how
	delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I
	had endeavoured to form?  His limbs were in proportion, and I
	had selected his features as beautiful.  Beautiful!--Great God! 
	His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
	arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and
	flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances
	only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that
	seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in
	which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight
	black lips.
		[ Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ]
	The fog comes
	on little cat feet.

	It sits looking
	over harbor and city
	on silent haunches
	and then moves on.
	     [ Fog, by Carl Sandburg ]
	Fungi, division of simple plants that lack chlorophyll, true
	stems, roots, and leaves.  Unlike algae, fungi cannot
	photosynthesize, and live as parasites or saprophytes.  The
	division comprises the slime molds and true fungi.  True
	fungi are multicellular (with the exception of yeasts); the
	body of most true fungi consists of slender cottony
	filaments, or hyphae.  All fungi are capable of asexual
	reproduction by cell division, budding, fragmentation, or
	spores.  Those that reproduce sexually alternate a sexual
	generation (gametophyte) with a spore-producing one.  The
	four classes of true fungi are the algaelike fungi (e.g.,
	black bread mold and downy mildew), sac fungi (e.g., yeasts,
	powdery mildews, truffles, and blue and green molds such as
	Penicillium), basidium fungi (e.g., mushrooms and puffballs)
	and imperfect fungi (e.g., species that cause athlete's foot
	and ringworm).  Fungi help decompose organic matter (important
	in soil renewal); are valuable as a source of antibiotics,
	vitamins, and various chemicals; and for their role in
	fermentation, e.g., in bread and alcoholic beverage
	production.
		[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
	And so it came to pass that while Man ruled on Earth, the
	gargoyles waited, lurking, hidden from the light.  Reborn
	every 600 years in Man's reckoning of time, the gargoyles
	joined battle against Man to gain dominion over the Earth.

	In each coming, the gargoyles were nearly destroyed by Men
	who flourished in greater numbers.  Now it has been so many
	hundreds of years that it seems the ancient statues and
	paintings of gargoyles are just products of Man's
	imagination.  In this year, with Man's thoughts turned toward
	the many ills he has brought among himself, Man has forgotten
	his most ancient adversary, the gargoyles.
	[ Excerpt from the opening narration to the movie
		_Gargoyles_, written by Stephen and Elinor Karpf ]
	Geryon is an arch-devil sometimes called the Wild Beast,
	attacking with his claws and poison sting.  His ranking in
	Hell is rumored to be quite low.
	And now the souls of the dead who had gone below came swarming
	up from Erebus -- fresh brides, unmarried youths, old men
	with life's long suffering behind them, tender young girls
	still nursing this first anguish in their hearts, and a great
	throng of warriors killed in battle, their spear-wounds gaping
	yet and all their armour stained with blood.  From this
	multitude of souls, as they fluttered to and fro by the
	trench, there came a moaning that was horrible to hear.
	Panic drained the blood from my cheeks.
	     [ The Odyssey, (chapter Lambda), by Homer ]
	Giants have always walked the earth, though they are rare in
	these times.  They range in size from little over nine feet
	to a towering twenty feet or more.  The larger ones use huge
	boulders as weapons, hurling them over large distances.  All
	types of giants share a love for men - roasted, boiled, or
	fried.  Their table manners are legendary.
	...  And then a gnome came by, carrying a bundle, an old
	fellow three times as large as an imp and wearing clothes of
	a sort, especially a hat.  And he was clearly just as frightened
	as the imps though he could not go so fast.  Ramon Alonzo
	saw that there must be some great trouble that was vexing
	magical things; and, since gnomes speak the language of men, and
	will answer if spoken to gently, he raised his hat, and asked
	of the gnome his name.  The gnome did not stop his hasty
	shuffle a moment as he answered 'Alaraba' and grabbed the rim
	of his hat but forgot to doff it.
	'What is the trouble, Alaraba?'  said Ramon Alonzo.
	'White magic.  Run!'  said the gnome ..
	     [ The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany ]
	Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted.  They make
	no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.  They
	can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled
	dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually
	untidy and dirty.  Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes,
	tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well,
	or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and
	slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and
	light.
	     [ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	A metal of characteristic yellow colour, the most precious
	metal used as a common commercial medium of exchange.  Symbol,
	Au; at. no. 79; at. wt. 197.2.  It is the most malleable
	and ductile of all metals, and very heavy (sp. gr., 19.3).
	It is quite unalterable by heat, moisture, and most
	corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for its use in
	coin and jewelry.
	     [ Webster's New International Dictionary
		  of the English Language, Second Edition ]
	"The original story harks back, so they say, to the sixteenth
	century.  Using long-lost formulas from the Kabbala, a rabbi is
	said to have made an artificial man -- the so-called Golem -- to
	help ring the bells in the Synagogue and for all kinds of other
	menial work.
	"But he hadn't made a full man, and it was animated by some sort
	of vegetable half-life.  What life it had, too, so the story
	runs, was only derived from the magic charm placed behind its
	teeth each day, that drew down to itself what was known as the
	`free sidereal strength of the universe.'
	"One evening, before evening prayers, the rabbi forgot to take
	the charm out of the Golem's mouth, and it fell into a frenzy.
	It raged through the dark streets, smashing everything in its
	path, until the rabbi caught up with it, removed the charm, and
	destroyed it.  Then the Golem collapsed, lifeless.  All that was
	left of it was a small clay image, which you can still see in
	the Old Synagogue." ...
	    [ The Golem, by Gustav Meyrink ]
	The gremlin is a highly intelligent and completely evil
	creature.  It lives to torment other creatures and will go
	to great lengths to inflict pain or cause injury.
	These electronically based creatures are not native to this
	universe.  They appear to come from a world whose laws of
	motion are radically different from ours.

	Tron looked to his mate and pilot.  "I'm going to check on
	the beam connection, Yori.  You two can keep a watch out for
	grid bugs."  Tron paced forward along the slender catwalk
	that still seemed awfully insubstantial to Flynn, though he
	knew it to be amazingly sturdy.  He gazed after Tron, asking
	himself what in the world a grid bug was, and hoping that the
	beam connection -- to which he'd given no thought whatsoever
	until this moment -- was healthy and sound."
	    [ Tron, novel by Brian Daley, story by Steven Lisberger ]
	The samurai's last meal before battle.  It was usually made
	up of cooked chestnuts, dried seaweed, and sake.
	Hachi was a dog that went with his master, a professor, to
	the Shibuya train station every morning.  In the afternoon,
	when his master was to return from work Hachi would be there
	waiting.  One day his master died at the office, and did not
	return.  For over ten years Hachi returned to the station
	every afternoon to wait for his master.  When Hachi died a
	statue was erected on the station platform in his honor.  It
	is said to bring you luck if you touch his statue.
	The other three drew in their breath sharply, and the dark,
	powerful man who stood at the head of the sarcophagus whispered:
	"The Heart of Ahriman!"  The other lifted a quick hand
	for silence.  Somewhere a dog began howling dolefully, and a
	stealthy step padded outside the barred and bolted door. ...
	But none looked aside from the mummy case over which the man
	in the ermine-trimmed robe was now moving the great flaming
	jewel, while he muttered an incantation that was old when
	Atlantis sank.  The glare of the gem dazzled their eyes, so
	that they could not be sure what they saw; but with a
	splintering crash, the carven lid of the sarcophagus burst
	outward as if from some irresistible pressure applied from
	within and the four men, bending eagerly forward, saw the
	occupant -- a huddled, withered, wizened shape, with dried
	brown limbs like dead wood showing through moldering bandages.
	"Bring that thing back?" muttered the small dark man who
	stood on the right, with a short, sardonic laugh.  "It is
	ready to crumble at a touch.  We are fools ---"
		[ Conan The Conqueror, by Robert E. Howard ]
	Hell hounds are fire-breathing canines from another plane of
	existence brought here in the service of evil beings.  A hell
	hound resembles a large hound with rust-red or red-brown fur,
	and red, glowing eyes.  The markings, teeth, and tongue are
	soot black.  It stands two to three feet high at the shoulder
	and has a distinct odour of smoke and sulphur.  The baying
	sounds it makes have an eerie, hollow tone that sends a shiver
	through any who hear them.
	Messenger and herald of the Olympians.  Being required to do
	a great deal of travelling and speaking in public, he became
	the god of eloquence, travellers, merchants, and thieves.  He
	was one of the most energetic of the Greek gods, a
	Machiavellian character full of trickery and sexual vigour.
	Like other Greek gods, he is endowed with not-inconsiderable
	sexual prowess which he directs towards countryside nymphs.
	He is a god of boundaries, guardian of graves and patron deity
	of shepherds.  He is usually depicted as a handsome young
	man wearing winged golden sandals and holding a magical
	herald's staff consisting of intertwined serpents, the
	kerykeion.  He is reputedly the only being able to find his way
	to the underworld ferry of Charon and back again.  He is said
	to have invented, among other things, the lyre, Pan's Pipes,
	numbers, the alphabet, weights and measures, and sacrificing.
	"Hezrou" is the common name for the type II demon.  It is
	among the weaker of demons, but still quite formidable.
	Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more
	numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace
	and quiet and good tilled earth:  a well-ordered and well-
	farmed countryside was their favourite haunt.  They do not
	and did not understand or like machines more complicated
	than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a handloom, although
	they were skillful with tools.  Even in ancient days they
	were, as a rule, shy of "the Big Folk", as they call us, and
	now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	Hobgoblin.  Used by the Puritans and in later times for
	wicked goblin spirits, as in Bunyan's "Hobgoblin nor foul
	friend", but its more correct use is for the friendly spirits
	of the brownie type.  In "A midsummer night's dream" a
	fairy says to Shakespeare's Puck:
		Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
		You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
		Are you not he?
	and obviously Puck would not wish to be called a hobgoblin
	if that was an ill-omened word.
	Hobgoblins are on the whole, good-humoured and ready to be
	helpful, but fond of practical joking, and like most of the
	fairies rather nasty people to annoy.  Boggarts hover on the
	verge of hobgoblindom.  Bogles are just over the edge.
	One Hob mentioned by Henderson, was Hob Headless who haunted
	the road between Hurworth and Neasham, but could not cross
	the little river Kent, which flowed into the Tess.  He was
	exorcised and laid under a large stone by the roadside for
	ninety-nine years and a day.  If anyone was so unwary as to
	sit on that stone, he would be unable to quit it for ever.
	The ninety-nine years is nearly up, so trouble may soon be
	heard of on the road between Hurworth and Neasham.
		[ A Dictionary of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs ]
	A homunculus is a creature summoned by a mage to perform some
	particular task.  They are particularly good at spying.  They
	are smallish creatures, but very agile.  They can put their
	victims to sleep with a venomous bite, but due to their size,
	the effect does not last long on humans.

	"Tothapis cut him off.  'Be still and hearken.  You will travel
	aboard the sacred wingboat.  Of it you may not have heard; but
	it will bear you thither in a night and a day and a night.
	With you will go a homunculus that can relay your words to me,
	and mine to you, across the leagues between at the speed of
	thought.'"
		[ Conan the Rebel, by Poul Anderson]
	Horned devils lack any real special abilities, though they
	are quite difficult to kill.
	[Pestilence:] And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as
	it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.  And
	I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown
	was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

	[War:] And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say,
	Come and see.  And there went out another horse that was red: and power was
	given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they
	should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

	[Famine:] And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say,
	Come and see.  And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had
	a pair of balances in his hand.  And I heard a voice in the midst of the four
	beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a
	penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

	[Death:] And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the
	fourth beast say, Come and see.  And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his
	name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.  And power was
	given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with
	hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
	     [ Revelations of John, 6:1-8 ]
	The first of five mythical Chinese emperors, Huan Ti is known
	as the yellow emperor.  He rules the _moving_ heavens, as
	opposed to the _dark_ heavens.  He is an inventor, said to
	have given mankind among other things, the wheel, armour, and
	the compass.  He is the god of fortune telling and war.
	Huehuetotl, or Huhetotl, which means Old God, was the Aztec
	(classical Mesoamerican) god of fire.  He is generally
	associated with paternalism and one of the group classed
	as the Xiuhtecuhtli complex.  He is known to send his
	minions to reek havoc upon ordinary humans.
	     [ after the Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
	Humanoids are all approximately the size of a human, and may
	be mistaken for one at a distance.  They are usually of a
	tribal nature, and will fiercely defend their lairs.  Usually
	hostile, they may even band together to raid and pillage
	human settlements.
	These strange creatures live mostly on the surface of the
	earth, gathering together in societies of various forms, but
	occasionally a stray will descend into the depths and commit
	mayhem among the dungeon residents who, naturally, often
	resent the intrusion of such beasts.  They are capable of
	using weapons and magic, and it is even rumored that the
	Wizard of Yendor is a member of this species.
	Ice devils are large semi-insectoid creatures, who are
	equally at home in the fires of Hell and the cold of Limbo,
	and who can cause the traveller to feel the latter with just
	a touch of their tail.
	 ... imps ... little creatures of two feet high that could
	gambol and jump prodigiously; ...
		[ The Charwoman's Shadow, by Lord Dunsany ]

	An 'imp' is an off-shoot or cutting.  Thus an 'ymp tree' was
	a grafted tree, or one grown from a cutting, not from seed.
	'Imp' properly means a small devil, an off-shoot of Satan,
	but the distinction between goblins or bogles and imps from
	hell is hard to make, and many in the Celtic countries as
	well as the English Puritans regarded all fairies as devils.
	The fairies of tradition often hover uneasily between the
	ghostly and the diabolic state.
		[ A Dictionary of Fairies, by Katharine Briggs ]
	The incubus and succubus are male and female versions of the
	same demon, one who lies with a human for its own purposes,
	usually to the detriment of the mortals who are unwise in
	their dealings with them.
	Ishtar (the star of heaven) is the Mesopotamian goddess of
	fertility and war.  She is usually depicted with wings and
	weapon cases at her shoulders, carrying a ceremonial double-
	headed mace-scimitar embellished with lion heads, frequently
	being accompanied by a lion.  She is symbolized by an eight-
	pointed star.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan]
	Now Issek of the Jug, whom Fafhrd chose to serve, was once
	of the most lowly and unsuccessful of the gods, godlets
	rather, in Lankhmar.  He had dwelt there for about thirteen
	years, during which time he had traveled only two squares up
	the Street of the Gods and was now back again, ready for
	oblivion.  He is not to be confused with Issek the Armless,
	Issek of the Burnt Legs, Flayed Issek, or any other of the
	numerous and colorfully mutilated divinities of that name.
	Indeed, his unpopularity may have been due in part to the
	fact that the manner of his death -- racking -- was not
	deemed particularly spectacular. ... However, after Fafhrd
	became his acolyte, things somehow began to change.
		[ Swords In The Mist, by Fritz Leiber ]
	The shopkeeper of the lighting shop in the town level of the
	gnomish mines is a tribute to Izchak Miller, a founding member
	of the NetHack development team and a personal friend of a large
	number of us.  Izchak contributed greatly to the game, coding a
	large amount of the shopkeep logic (hence the nature of the tribute)
	as well as a good part of the alignment system, the prayer code and
	the rewrite of "hell" in the 3.1 release.  Izchak was a professor
	of Philosophy, who taught at many respected institutions, including
	MIT and Stanford, and who also worked, for a period of time, at
	Xerox PARC.  Izchak was the first "librarian" of the NetHack project,
	and was a founding member of the DevTeam, joining in 1986 while he
	was working at the University of Pennsylvania (hence our mailing
	list address).  Until the 3.1.3 release, Izchak carefully kept all
	of the code synchronized and arbitrated disputes between members of
	the development teams.  Izchak Miller passed away at the age of 58,
	in the early morning hours of April 1, 1994 from complications due
	to cancer.  We dedicate NetHack 3.2 in his memory.
			[ Mike Stephenson, for the NetHack DevTeam ]
	"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
	  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
	Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
	  The frumious Bandersnatch!"

	He took his vorpal sword in hand;
	  Long time the manxome foe he sought --
	So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
	  And stood awhile in thought.

	And, as in uffish thought he stood,
	  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
	Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
	  And burbled as it came!

	One, two! One, two! And through and through
	  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
	He left it dead, and with its head
	  He went galumphing back.
				[ Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll ]
	In Asiatic folktale, jackal provides for the lion; he scares
	up game, which the lion kills and eats, and receives what is
	left as reward.  In stories from northern India he is
	sometimes termed "minister to the king," i.e. to the lion.
	From the legend that he does not kill his own food has arisen
	the legend of his cowardice.  Jackal's heart must never be
	eaten, for instance, in the belief of peoples indigenous to
	the regions where the jackal abounds. ... In Hausa Negro
	folktale Jackal plays the role of sagacious judge and is
	called "O Learned One of the Forest."  The Bushmen say that
	Jackal goes around behaving the way he does "because he is
	Jackal".
		[ Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore ]
	Large, flesh-eating animal of the cat family, of Central and
	South America.  This feline predator (_Panthera onca_) is
	sometimes incorrectly called a panther.
	 [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
	Little is known about the Faceless Lord, even the correct
	spelling of his name.  He does not have a physical form as
	we know it, and those who have peered into his realm claim
	he is a slime-like creature who swallows other creatures
	alive, spits acidic secretions, and causes disease in his
	victims which can be almost instantly fatal.
	The kabuto is the helmet worn by the samurai.  It was
	characterized by a prominent beaked front which jutted out over
	the brow to protect the wearer's face; a feature that gives
	rise to their modern Japanese name of 'shokaku tsuki kabuto'
	(battering-ram helmet).  Their main constructional element
	was an oval plate, the shokaku bo, slightly domed for the
	head with a narrow prolongation in front that curved forwards
	and downwards where it developed a pronounced central
	fold.  Two horizontal strips encircling the head were riveted
	to this frontal strip:  the lower one, the koshimaki (hip
	wrap), formed the lower edge of the helmet bowl; the other,
	the do maki (body wrap), was set at about the level of the
	temples.  Filling the gaps between these strips and the shokaku
	bo were small plates, sometimes triangular but more commonly
	rectangular in shape.  Because the front projected so
	far from the head, the triangular gap beneath was filled by
	a small plate, the shoshaku tei ita, whose rear edge bent
	downwards into a flange that rested against the forehead.
	   [ Arms & Armour of the Samurai, by Bottomley & Hopson ]
	The katana is a long, single-edged samurai sword with a
	slightly curved blade.  Its long handle is designed to allow
	it to be wielded with either one or two hands.
	The ki-rin is a strange-looking flying creature.  It has
	scales, a mane like a lion, a tail, hooves, and a horn.  It
	is brightly colored, and can usually be found flying in the
	sky looking for good deeds to reward.
	Ector took both his sons to the church before which the
	anvil had been placed.  There, standing before the anvil, he
	commanded Kay:  "Put the sword back into the steel if you
	really think the throne is yours!"  But the sword glanced
	off the steel.  "Now it is your turn", Ector said facing
	Arthur.
	The young man lifted the sword and thrust with both arms; the
	blade whizzed through the air with a flash and drilled the
	metal as if it were mere butter.  Ector and Kay dropped to
	their knees before Arthur.
	"Why, father and brother, do you bow before me?", Arthur asked
	with wonder in his voice.
	"Because now I know for sure that you are the king, not only
	by birth but also by law", Ector said.  "You are no son of
	mine nor are you Kay's brother.  Immediately after your birth,
	Merlin the Wise brought you to me to be raised safely.  And
	though it was me that named you Arthur when you were baptized,
	you are really the son of brave king Uther Pendragon and queen
	Igraine..."
	And after these words, the lord rose and went to see the arch-
	bishop to impart to him what had passed.
	   [ Van Gouden Tijden Zingen de Harpen, by Vladimir Hulpach,
		Emanuel Frynta, and Vackav Cibula ]
	Here lies the noble fearless knight,
	Whose valour rose to such a height;
	When Death at last had struck him down,
	His was the victory and renown.
	He reck'd the world of little prize,
	And was a bugbear in men's eyes;
	But had the fortune in his age
	To live a fool and die a sage.
		[ Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miquel de
		  Cervantes Saavedra ]
	The race of kobolds are reputed to be an artificial creation
	of a master wizard (demi-god?).  They are about 3' tall with
	a vaguely dog-like face.  They bear a violent dislike of the
	Elven race, and will go out of their way to cause trouble
	for Elves at any time.
	The typical policeman of 1920's movies, the Keystone Kop was
	modeled like the English "bobby", with a long brass-buttoned
	overcoat, carrying long nightsticks that he (more often than
	not) whapped himself with, rather than anyone else.  The
	Keystone Kops were very slapstick-like, relying on speed and
	numbers to achieve their comedy, rather than sophisticated
	wit.
	"I am not a coward!" he cried.  "I'll dare Thieves' House
	and fetch you Krovas' head and toss it with blood a-drip at
	Vlana's feet.  I swear that, witness me, Kos the god of
	dooms, by the brown bones of Nalgron my father and by his
	sword Graywand here at my side!"
	   [ Swords and Deviltry, by Fritz Leiber ]
	A Japanese harp.
	Out from the water a long sinuous tentacle had crawled; it
	was pale-green and luminous and wet.  Its fingered end had
	hold of Frodo's foot, and was dragging him into the water.
	Sam on his knees was now slashing at it with a knife.  The
	arm let go of Frodo, and Sam pulled him away, crying out
	for help.  Twenty other arms came rippling out.  The dark
	water boiled, and there was a hideous stench.
	   [ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	    Blind Io took up the dice-box, which was a skull whose various orifices had
	been stoppered with rubies, and with several of his eyes on the Lady he rolled
	three fives.  She smiled.  This was the nature of the Lady's eyes:  they were
	bright green, lacking iris or pupil, and they glowed from within.
	    The room was silent as she scrabbled in her box of pieces and, from the
	very bottom, produced a couple that she set down on the board with two de-
	cisive clicks.  The rest of the players, as one God, craned forward to peer at
	them.
	    "A wenegade wiffard and fome fort of clerk," said Offler the Crocodile
	God, hindered as usual by his tusks.  "Well, weally!"  With one claw he pushed
	a pile of bone-white tokens into the centre of the table.
	    The Lady nodded slightly.  She picked up the dice-cup and held it as
	steady as a rock, yet all the Gods could hear the three cubes rattling about
	inside.  And then she sent them bouncing across the table.
	    A six.  A three.  A five.
	    Something was happening to the five, however.  Battered by the chance col-
	lision of several billion molecules, the die flipped onto a point, spun gently
	and came down a seven.  Blind Io picked up the cube and counted the sides.
	    "Come _on_," he said wearily, "Play fair."
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett]
	The lowliest of the inhabitants of hell.
	... the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extraordinary swiftness,
	the size of the wild ass, with the legs of a Stag, the neck,
	tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, a cloven
	hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one continuous
	bone instead of teeth; it is said, too, that this animal can
	imitate the human voice.
		[ Curious Creatures in Zoology, by John Ashton ]
	The Irish Leprechaun is the Faeries' shoemaker and is known
	under various names in different parts of Ireland:
	Cluricaune in Cork, Lurican in Kerry, Lurikeen in Kildare
	and Lurigadaun in Tipperary.  Although he works for the
	Faeries, the Leprechaun is not of the same species.  He is
	small, has dark skin and wears strange clothes.  His nature
	has something of the manic-depressive about it:  first he
	is quite happy, whistling merrily as he nails a sole on to a
	shoe; a few minutes later, he is sullen and morose, drunk
	on his home-made heather ale.  The Leprechaun's two great
	loves are tobacco and whiskey, and he is a first-rate con-man,
	impossible to out-fox.  No one, no matter how clever, has ever
	managed to cheat him out of his hidden pot of gold or his
	magic shilling.  At the last minute he always thinks of some
	way to divert his captor's attention and vanishes in the
	twinkling of an eye.
		[ A Field Guide to the Little People
			       by Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse ]
	Once in a great while, an evil master wizard or priest will
	manage through use of great magics to extend his or her life
	far beyond the normal span of a human.  The usual effect of
	this is to transform the human, over time, into an undead of
	great magical power.  A Lich hates life in any form; even a
	touch from one of these creatures will cause a numbing cold
	in the victim.  They all possess the capability to use magic.
	Strange creatures formed from energy rather than matter,
	lights are given to self-destructive behavior when battling
	foes.
	Lizards, snakes and the burrowing amphisbaenids make up the
	order Squamata, meaning the scaly ones.  The elongate, slim,
	long-tailed bodies of lizards have become modified to enable
	them to live in a wide range of habitats.  Lizards can be
	expert burrowers, runners, swimmers and climbers, and a few
	can manage crude, short-distance gliding on rib-supported
	"wings".  Most are carnivores, feeding on invertebrate and
	small vertebrate prey, but others feed on vegetation.
		[ Macmillan Illustrated Animal Encyclopedia ]
	Loki, or Lopt, is described in Snorri's _Edda_ as being
	"pleasing and handsome in appearance, evil in character, and
	very capricious in behaviour".  He is the son of the giant
	Farbauti and of Laufey.
	Loki is the Norse god of cunning, evil, thieves, and fire.
	He hated the other gods and wanted to ruin them and overthrow
	the universe.  He committed many murders.  As a thief, he
	stole Freyja's necklace, Thor's belt and gauntlets of power,
	and the apples of youth.  Able to shapechange at will, he is
	said to have impersonated at various times a mare, flea, fly,
	falcon, seal, and an old crone.  As a mare he gave birth to
	Odin's horse Sleipnir.  He also allegedly sired the serpent
	Midgard, the mistress of the netherworld, Hel, and the wolf
	Fenrir, who will devour the sun at Ragnarok.
	Lord Carnarvon was a personality who could have been produced
	nowhere but in England, a mixture of sportsman and collector,
	gentleman and world traveler, a realist in action and a
	romantic in feeling.  ...  In 1903 he went for the first time
	to Egypt in search of a mild climate and while there visited
	the excavation sites of several archaeological expeditions.
	...  In 1906 he began his own excavations.
		[ Gods, Graves, and Scholars, by C. W. Ceram ]
	Lord Sato was the family head of the Taro Clan, and a mighty
	daimyo.  He is a loyal servant of the Emperor, and will do
	everything in his power to further the imperial cause.
	Yet first was the world in the southern region, which was
	named Muspell; it is light and hot; that region is glowing
	and burning, and impassable to such as are outlanders and
	have not their holdings there.  He who sits there at the
	land's-end, to defend the land, is called Surtr; he brandishes
	a flaming sword, and at the end of the world he shall go forth
	and harry, and overcome all the gods, and burn all the
	world with fire.
			[ The Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturluson ]
	Lugh, or Lug, was the sun god of the Irish Celts.  One of his
	weapons was a rod-sling which worshippers sometimes saw in
	the sky as a rainbow.  As a tribal god, he was particularly
	skilled in the use of his massive, invincible spear, which
	fought on its own accord.  One of his epithets is _lamfhada_
	(of the long arm).  He was a young and apparently more
	attractive deity than Dagda, the father of the gods.  Being
	able to shapeshift, his name translates as lynx.
	These dungeon scavengers are very adept at blending into the
	surrounding walls and ceilings of the dungeon due to the
	stone-like coloring of their skin.
	In 1573, the Parliament of Dole published a decree, permitting
	the inhabitants of the Franche-Comte to pursue and kill a
	were-wolf or loup-garou, which infested that province,
	"notwithstanding the existing laws concerning the chase."
	The people were empowered to "assemble with javelins,
	halberds, pikes, arquebuses and clubs, to hunt and pursue the
	said were-wolf in all places where they could find it, and to
	take, burn, and kill it, without incurring any fine or other
	penalty."  The hunt seems to have been successful, if we may
	judge from the fact that the same tribunal in the following
	year condemned to be burned a man named Giles Garnier, who
	ran on all fours in the forest and fields and devoured little
	children, "even on Friday."  The poor lycanthrope, it appears,
	had as slight respect for ecclesiastical feasts as the French
	pig, which was not restrained by any feeling of piety from
	eating infants on a fast day.
		[ The History of Vampires, by Dudley Wright ]
	This powerful mirror was created by Merlin, the druid, in ages
	past, when trees sang and rocks danced.  It protects all who
	carry it from magic missiles, and gives them ESP.
	It is rumoured that these strange creatures can be harmed by
	domesticated canines only.
	Normally called Manannan, Ler's son was the patron of
	merchants and sailors.  Manannan had a sword which never
	failed to slay, a boat which propelled itself wherever its
	owner wished, a horse which was swifter than the wind, and
	magic armour which no sword could pierce.  He later became
	god of the sea, beneath which he lived in Tir na nOc, the
	underworld.
	The gnats of the dungeon, these swarming monsters are rarely
	seen alone.
	First insisting on recognition as supreme commander, Marduk
	defeated the Dragon, cut her body in two, and from it created
	heaven and earth, peopling the world with human beings who not
	unnaturally showed intense gratitude for their lives.  The
	gods were also properly grateful, invested him with many
	titles, and eventually permitted themselves to be embodied in
	him, so that he became supreme god, plotting the whole course
	of known life from the paths of the planets to the daily
	events in the lives of men.
		[ The Immortals, by Derek and Julia Parker ]
	The marilith has a torso shaped like that of a human female,
	and the lower body of a great snake.  It has multiple arms,
	and can freely attack with all of them.  Since it is
	intelligent enough to use weapons, this means it can cause
	great damage.
	He strolled down the stairs, followed by a number of assassins.
	When he was directly in front of Ymor he said: "I've come for
	the tourist." ...
	"One step more and you'll leave here with fewer eyeballs than
	you came with," said the thiefmaster.  "So sit down and have
	a drink, Zlorf, and let's talk about this sensibly.  _I_
	thought we had an agreement.  You don't rob -- I don't kill.
	Not for payment, that is," he added after a pause.
	Zlorf took the proffered beer.
	"So?" he said.  "I'll kill him.  Then you rob him.  Is he that
	funny looking one over there?"
	"Yes."
	Zlorf stared at Twoflower, who grinned at him.  He shrugged.
	He seldom wasted time wondering why people wanted other people
	dead.  It was just a living.
	"Who is your client, may I ask?" said Ymor.
	Zlorf held up a hand.  "Please!" he protested.  "Professional
	etiquette."
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
	This skeleton key was fashioned in ages past and imbued with
	a powerful magic which allows it to open any lock.  When
	carried, it grants its owner warning, teleport control, and
	reduces all physical damage by half.  Finally, when invoked,
	it has the ability to disarm any trap.
	There was a flutter of wings at the window.  Ymor shifted his
	bulk out of the chair and crossed the room, coming back with
	a large raven.  After he'd unfastened the message capsule from
	its leg it flew up to join its fellows lurking among the
	rafters.  Withel regarded it without love.  Ymor's ravens were
	notoriously loyal to their master, to the extent that Withel's
	one attempt to promote himself to the rank of greatest thief
	in Ankh-Morpork had cost their master's right hand man his
	left eye.  But not his life, however.  Ymor never grudged a
	man his ambitions.
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
	Medusa, one of the three Gorgons or Graeae, is the only one
	of her sisters to have assumed mortal form and inhabited the
	dungeon world.

	When Perseus was grown up Polydectes sent him to attempt the
	conquest of Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid waste the
	country.  She was once a beautiful maiden whose hair was her
	chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva,
	the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her
	beautiful ringlets into hissing serpents.  She became a cruel
	monster of so frightful an aspect that no living thing could
	behold her without being turned into stone.  All around the
	cavern where she dwelt might be seen the stony figures of men
	and animals which had chanced to catch a glimpse of her and
	had been petrified with the sight.  Perseus, favoured by
	Minerva and Mercury, the former of whom lent him her shield
	and the latter his winged shoes, approached Medusa while she
	slept and taking care not to look directly at her, but guided
	by her image reflected in the bright shield which he bore, he
	cut off her head and gave it to Minerva, who fixed it in the
	middle of her Aegis.
		[ Bulfinch's Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch ]
	The ancestors of the modern day chameleon, these creatures can
	assume the form of anything in their surroundings.  They may
	assume the shape of objects or dungeon features.  Unlike the
	chameleon though, which assumes the shape of another creature
	and goes in hunt of food, the mimic waits patiently for its
	meals to come in search of it.
	This creature has a humanoid body, tentacles around its
	covered mouth, and three long fingers on each hand.  Mind
	flayers are telepathic, and love to devour intelligent beings,
	especially humans.  If they hit their victim with a tentacle,
	the mind flayer will slowly drain it of all intelligence,
	eventually killing its victim.
	The Minotaur was a monster, half bull, half human, the
	offspring of Minos' wife Pasiphae and a wonderfully beautiful
	bull. ...  When the Minotaur was born Minos did not kill him.
	He had Daedalus, a great architect and inventor, construct a
	place of confinement for him from which escape was impossible.
	Daedalus built the Labyrinth, famous throughout the world.
	Once inside, one would go endlessly along its twisting paths
	without ever finding the exit.
		[ Mythology, by Edith Hamilton ]
	Originating in India (Mitra), Mithra is a god of light who
	was translated into the attendant of the god Ahura Mazda in
	the light religion of Persia; from this he was adopted as
	the Roman deity Mithras.  He is not generally regarded as a
	sky god but a personification of the fertilizing power of
	warm, light air.  According to the _Avesta_, he possesses
	10,000 eyes and ears and rides in a chariot drawn by white
	horses.  Mithra, according to Zarathustra, is concerned with
	the endless battle between light and dark forces:  he
	represents truth.  He is responsible for the keeping of oaths
	and contracts.  He is attributed with the creation of both
	plants and animals.  His chief adversary is Ahriman, the
	power of darkness.
		[ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All
			Nations, by Herbert Spencer Robinson and
			Knox Wilson ]
	_Mithril_!  All folk desired it.  It could be beaten like
	copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make
	of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel.
	Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty
	of _mithril_ did not tarnish or grow dim.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	This helm of brilliance performs all of the normal functions
	of a helm of brilliance, but also has the ability to protect
	anyone who carries it from fire.  When invoked, it boosts
	the energy of the invoker, allowing them to cast more spells.
	Forged by the dwarves Eitri and Brokk, in response to Loki's
	challenge, Mjollnir is an indestructible war hammer.  It has
	two magical properties:  when thrown it always returned to
	Thor's hand; and it could be made to shrink in size until it
	could fit inside Thor's shirt.  Its only flaw is that it has
	a short handle.  The other gods judged Mjollnir the winner of
	the contest because, of all the treasures created, it alone had
	the power to protect them from the giants.  As the legends
	surrounding Mjollnir grew, it began to take on the quality of
	"vigja", or consecration.  Thor used it to consecrate births,
	weddings, and even to raise his goats from the dead.  In the
	Norse mythologies Mjollnir is considered to represent Thor's
	governance over the entire cycle of life - fertility, birth,
	destruction, and resurrection.
	Mold, multicellular organism of the division Fungi, typified
	by plant bodies composed of a network of cottony filaments.
	The colors of molds are due to spores borne on the filaments.
	Most molds are saprophytes.  Some species (e.g., penicillium)
	are used in making cheese and antibiotics.
		[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
	And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
	Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever
	he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that
	sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech;
	he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall
	stone him with stones.
	And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off
	from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto
	Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
	And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes
	from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill
	him not:
	Then I will set my face against that man, and against his
	family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after
	him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
		[ Leviticus 20:1-5 ]
	... the Mumak of Harad was indeed a beast of vast bulk, and
	the like of him does not walk now in Middle-Earth; his kin
	that live still in latter days are but memories of his girth
	and majesty.  On he came, ... his great legs like trees,
	enormous sail-like ears spread out, long snout upraised like
	a huge serpent about to strike, his small red eyes raging.
	His upturned hornlike tusks ... dripped with blood.
		[ The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	But for an account of the manner in which the body was
	bandaged, and a list of the unguents and other materials
	employed in the process, and the words of power which were
	spoken as each bandage was laid in its place, we must have
	recourse to a very interesting papyrus which has been edited
	and translated by M. Maspero under the title of Le Rituel de
	l'Embaumement. ...
	Everything that could be done to preserve the body was now
	done, and every member of it was, by means of the words of
	power which changed perishable substances into imperishable,
	protected to all eternity; when the final covering of purple
	or white linen had been fastened upon it, the body was ready
	for the tomb.
		[ Egyptian Magic, by E.A. Wallis Budge ]
	He held a white cloth -- it was a serviette he had brought
	with him -- over the lower part of his face, so that his
	mouth and jaws were completely hidden, and that was the
	reason for his muffled voice.  But it was not that which
	startled Mrs. Hall.  It was the fact that all his forehead
	above his blue glasses was covered by a white bandage, and
	that another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap of his
	face exposed excepting only his pink, peaked nose.  It was
	bright, pink, and shiny just as it had been at first.  He
	wore a dark-brown velvet jacket with a high, black, linen-
	lined collar turned up about his neck.  The thick black
	hair, escaping as it could below and between the cross
	bandages, project in curious tails and horns, giving him
	the strangest appearance conceivable.
		[ The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells ]
	The naga is a mystical creature with the body of a snake and
	the head of a man or woman.  They will fiercely protect the
	territory they consider their own.  Some nagas can be forced
	to serve as guardians by a spellcaster of great power.
	A Japanese pole-arm, fitted with a curved single-edged blade.
	The blades ranged in length from two to four feet, mounted on
	shafts about four to five feet long.  The naginata were cut
	with a series of short grooves near to the tang, above which
	the back edge was thinned, but not sharpened, so that the
	greater part of the blade was a flattened diamond shape in
	section.  Seen in profile, the curve is slight or non-
	existent near the tang, becoming more pronounced towards the
	point.

	"With his naginata he killed five, but with the sixth it
	snapped asunder in the midst and, flinging it away, he drew
	his sword, wielding it in the zigzag style, the interlacing,
	cross, reversed dragonfly, waterwheel, and eight-sides-at-
	once styles of fencing and cutting down eight men; but as he
	brought down the ninth with a mighty blow on the helmet, the
	blade snapped at the hilt."
		[Story of Tsutsui no Jomio Meishu from Tales of Heike]
	Not only do these demons do physical damage with their claws
	and bite, but they are capable of using magic as well.
	Nalzok is Moloch's cunning and unfailingly loyal battle
	lieutenant, to whom he trusts the command of warfare when he
	does not wish to exercise it himself.  Nalzok is a major
	demon, known to command the undead.  He is hungry for power,
	and secretly covets Moloch's position.  Moloch doesn't trust
	him, but, trusting his own power enough, chooses to allow
	Nalzok his position because he is useful.
	1.  Valley between Duesseldorf and Elberfeld in Germany,
	where an ancient skull of a prehistoric ancestor to modern
	man was found.  2.  Human(oid) of the race mentioned above.
	(kinds of) small animal, like a lizard, which spends most of
	its time in the water.
		[ Oxford's Student's Dictionary of Current English ]

	"Fillet of a fenny snake,
	In the cauldron boil and bake;
	Eye of newt and toe of frog,
	Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
	Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
	Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
	For a charm of powerful trouble,
	Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."
		[ Macbeth, by William Shakespeare ]
	A Japanese broadsword.
	The Norns were the three Norse Fates, or the goddesses of fate.
	Female giants, they brought the wonderful Golden Age to an end.
	They cast lots over the cradle of every child that was born,
	and placed gifts in the cradle.  Their names were Urda,
	Verdandi, and Skuld, representing the past, the present, and
	the future.  Urda and Verdandi were kindly disposed, but Skuld
	was cruel and savage.  Their tasks were to sew the web of
	fate, to water the sacred ash, Yggdrasil, and to keep it in
	good condition by placing fresh earth around it daily.  In her
	fury, Skuld often spoiled the work of her sisters by tearing
	the web to shreds.
		[ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All
			Nations by Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox
			Wilson ]
	A Japanese flail.
	A female creature from Roman and Greek mythology, the nymph
	occupied rivers, forests, ponds, etc.  A nymph's beauty is
	beyond words:  an ever-young woman with sleek figure and
	long, thick hair, radiant skin and perfect teeth, full lips
	and gentle eyes.  A nymph's scent is delightful, and her
	long robe glows, hemmed with golden threads and embroidered
	with rainbow hues of unearthly magnificence.  A nymph's
	demeanour is graceful and charming, her mind quick and witty.

	"Theseus felt her voice pulling him down into fathoms of
	sleep.	The song was the skeleton of his dream, and the dream
	was full of terror.  Demon girls were after him, and a bull-
	man was goring him.  Everywhere there was blood.  There was
	pain.  There was fear.	But his head was in the nymph's lap
	and her musk was about him, her voice weaving the dream.  He
	knew then that she had been sent to tell him of something
	dreadful that was to happen to him later.  Her song was a
	warning.  But she had brought him a new kind of joy, one that
	made him see everything differently.  The boy, who was to
	become a hero, suddenly knew then what most heroes learn
	later -- and some too late -- that joy blots suffering and
	that the road to nymphs is beset by monsters."
	    [ The Minotaur by Bernard Evslin ]
	Also called Sigtyr (god of Victory), Val-father (father of
	the slain), One-Eyed, Hanga-god (god of the hanged), Farma-
	god (god of cargoes), Hapta-god (god of prisoners), and
	Othin.  He is the prime god of the Norsemen:  god of war and
	victory, wisdom and prophecy, poetry, the dead, air and wind,
	hospitality, and magic.
	As the god of war and victory, Odin is ruler of the Valkyries,
	warrior-maidens who lived in the halls of Valhalla in Asgard,
	the hall of dead heroes where he held his court.
	These chosen ones will defend the realm of the gods against
	the Frost Giants on the final day of reckoning, Ragnarok.
	As god of the wind, Odin rides through the air on his eight-
	footed horse, Sleipnir, wielding Gungner, his spear, normally
	accompanied by his ravens, Hugin and Munin, who he would also
	use as his spies.
	As a god of hospitality, he enjoys visiting the earth in
	disguise to see how people were behaving and to see how they
	would treat him, not knowing who he was.
	Odin is usually represented as a one-eyed wise old man with a
	long white beard and a wide-brimmed hat (he gave one of his
	eyes to Mimir, the guardian of the well of wisdom in Hel, in
	exchange for a draught of knowledge).
	Anyone who has met a gluttonous, nude, angry ogre, will not
	easily forget this encounter -- if he survives it at all.
	Both male and female ogres can easily grow as tall as three
	metres.  Build and facial expressions would remind one of a
	Neanderthal.  Its small, pointy, keen teeth are striking.
	Since ogres avoid direct sunlight, their ragged, unfurry
	skin is as white as a sheet.  They enjoy coating their body
	with lard and usually wear nothing but a loin-cloth.  An elf
	would smell its rancid stench at ten metres distance.
	Ogres are solitary creatures:  very rarely one may encounter
	a female with two or three young.  They are the only real
	carnivores among the humanoids, and its favourite meal is --
	not surprisingly -- human flesh.  They sometimes ally with
	orcs or goblins, but only when they anticipate a good meaty
	meal.
		[ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ]
	But at the end of the Third Age a troll-race not before seen
	appeared in southern Mirkwood and in the mountain borders of
	Mordor.  Olog-hai they were called in the Black Speech.  That
	Sauron bred them none doubted, though from what stock was not
	known.  Some held that they were not Trolls but giant Orcs;
	but the Olog-hai were in fashion of body and mind quite unlike
	even the largest of Orc-kind, whom they far surpassed in size
	and power.  Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will
	of their master:  a fell race, strong, agile, fierce and
	cunning, but harder than stone.  Unlike the older race of the
	Twilight they could endure the Sun....  They spoke little,
	and the only tongue they knew was the Black Speech of Barad-dur.
		[ The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	These giant amoeboid creatures look like nothing more than
	puddles of slime, but they both live and move, feeding on
	metal or wood as well as the occasional dungeon explorer to
	supplement their diet.
	Delphi under towering Parnassus, where Apollo's oracle was,
	plays an important part in mythology.  Castalia was its
	sacred spring; Cephissus its river.  It was held to be the
	center of the world, so many pilgrims came to it, from
	foreign countries as well as Greece.  No other shrine rivaled
	it.  The answers to the questions asked by the anxious
	seekers for Truth were delivered by a priestess who went into
	a trance before she spoke.
		[ Mythology, by Edith Hamilton ]
	This Orb is a crystal ball of exceptional powers.  When
	carried, it grants ESP, limits damage done by spells, and
	protects the carrier from magic missiles.  When invoked it
	allows the carrier to become invisible.
	Some say that Odin himself created this ancient crystal ball,
	although others argue that Loki created it and forged Odin's
	signature on the bottom.  In any case, it is a powerful
	artifact.  Anyone who carries it is granted the gift of
	warning, and damage, both spell and physical, is partially
	absorbed by the orb itself.  When invoked it has the power
	to teleport the invoker between levels.
	The Great Goblin gave a truly awful howl of rage when he
	looked at it, and all his soldiers gnashed their teeth,
	clashed their shields, and stamped.  They knew the sword at
	once.  It had killed hundreds of goblins in its time, when
	the fair elves of Gondolin hunted them in the hills or did
	battle before their walls.  They had called it Orcrist,
	Goblin-cleaver, but the goblins called it simply Biter.
	They hated it and hated worse any one that carried it.
		[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	Orcus, Prince of the Undead, has a ram's head and a poison
	stinger.  He is most feared, though, for his powerful magic
	abilities.  His wand causes death to those he chooses.
	Orcs, bipeds with a humanoid appearance, are related to the
	goblins, but much bigger and more dangerous.  The average orc
	is only moderately intelligent, has broad, muscled shoulders,
	a short neck, a sloping forehead and a thick, dark fur.
	Their lower eye-teeth are pointing forward, like a boar's.
	Female orcs are more lightly built and bare-chested.  Not
	needing any clothing, they do like to dress in variegated
	apparels.  Suspicious by nature, orcs live in tribes or
	hordes.  They tend to live underground as well as above
	ground (but they dislike sunlight).  Orcs can use all weapons,
	tools and armours that are used by men.  Since they don't have
	the talent to fashion these themselves, they are constantly
	hunting for them.  There is nothing a horde of orcs cannot
	use.
		[ het Boek van de Regels; Het Oog des Meesters ]
	The osaku is a small tool for picking locks.
	Owlbears are probably the crossbreed creation of a demented
	wizard; given the lethal nature of this creation, it is quite
	likely the wizard who created them is no longer alive.  As
	the name might already suggest, owlbears are a cross between
	a giant owl and a bear.  They are covered with fur and
	feathers.
	The elves of long ago created this powerful crystal ball.
	When carried, it grants ESP, regeneration, and reduces all
	damage caused by spells to one-half of what it would have
	normally been.  When invoked, it tames creatures in its
	vicinity.
	Ye Piercer doth look like unto a stalactyte, and hangeth
	from the roofs of caves and caverns.  Unto the height of a
	man, and thicker than a man's thigh do they grow, and in
	groups do they hang.  If a creature doth pass beneath them,
	they will by its heat and noise perceive it, and fall upon
	it to kill and devour it, though in any other way they move
	but exceeding slow.
		[ the Bestiary of Xygag ]
	Pit fiends are among the more powerful of devils, capable of
	attacking twice with weapons as well as grabbing and crushing
	the life out of those unwary enough to enter their
	domains.
	This is an ancient artifact made of an unknown material.  It
	is rectangular in shape, very thin, and inscribed with
	unreadable ancient runes.  When carried, it grants the one
	who carries it ESP, and reduces all physical damage done to
	the carrier by half.  It also protects from magic missile
	attacks.  Finally, its power is such that when invoked, it
	can charge other objects.
	Poseido(o)n, lord of the seas and father of rivers and
	fountains, was the son of Chronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus,
	Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter.  His rank of ruler of the
	waves he received by lot at the Council Meeting of the Gods,
	at which Zeus took the upper world for himself and gave
	dominion over the lower world to Hades.
	Poseidon is associated in many ways with horses and thus is
	the god of horses.  He taught men how to ride and manage the
	animal he invented and is looked upon as the originator and
	guardian deity of horse races.
	His symbol is the familiar trident or three-pronged spear
	with which he can split rocks, cause or quell storms, and
	shake the earth, a power which makes him the god of
	earthquakes as well.  Physically, he is shown as a strong and
	powerful ruler, every inch a king.
		[ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All
		  Nations, by Herbert Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
	Known under various names (Nu, Neph, Cenubis, Amen-Kneph,
	Khery-Bakef), Ptah is the creator god and god of craftsmen.
	He is usually depicted as wearing a closely fitting robe
	with only his hands free.  His most distinctive features are
	the invariable skull-cap exposing only his face and ears,
	and the _was_ or rod of domination which he holds,
	consisting of a staff surmounted by the _ankh_ symbol of
	life.  He is otherwise symbolized by his sacred animal, the
	bull.
	A gargantuan version of the harmless rain-worm, the purple
	worm poses a huge threat to the ordinary adventurer.  It is
	known to swallow whole and digest its victims within only a
	few minutes.  These worms are always on guard, sensitive
	to the most minute vibrations in the earth, but may also
	be awakened by a remote shriek.
	The woodlands and other regions are inhabited by multitudes
	of four-legged creatures which cannot be simply classified.
	They might not have fiery breath or deadly stings, but
	adventurers have nevertheless met their end numerous times
	due to the claws, hooves, or bites of such animals.
	These creatures are not native to this universe; they seem
	to have strangely derived powers, and unknown motives.
	Quasits are small, evil creatures, related to imps.  Their
	talons release a very toxic poison when used in an attack.
	One of the principal Aztec-Toltec gods was the great and wise
	Quetzalcoatl, who was called Kukumatz in Guatemala, and
	Kukulcan in Yucatan.  His image, the plumed serpent, is found
	on both the oldest and the most recent Indian edifices. ...
	The legend tells how the Indian deity Quetzalcoatl came from
	the "Land of the Rising Sun".  He wore a long white robe and
	had a beard; he taught the people crafts and customs and laid
	down wise laws.  He created an empire in which the ears of
	corn were as long as men are tall, and caused bolls of colored
	cotton to grow on cotton plants.  But for some reason or other
	he had to leave his empire. ...  But all the legends of
	Quetzalcoatl unanimously agree that he promised to come again.
		[ Gods, Graves, and Scholars, by C. W. Ceram ]
	The god of thunder.
	Rats are long-tailed rodents.  They are aggressive,
	omnivorous, and adaptable, often carrying diseases.
	A rock mole is a member of the rodent family.  They get their
	name from their ability to tunnel through rock in the same
	fashion that a mole tunnels through earth.  They are known to
	eat anything they come across in their diggings, although it
	is still unknown how they convert some of these things into
	something of nutritional value.
	I understand the business, I hear it: to have an open ear, a
	quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a
	good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for the other
	senses.  I see this is the time that the unjust man doth
	thrive. <...> The prince himself is about a piece of iniquity,
	stealing away from his father with his clog at his heels:  if
	I thought it were a piece of honesty to acquaint the king
	withal, I would not do't:  I hold it the more knavery to
	conceal it; and therein am I constant to my profession.
		[ Autolycus the Rogue, from The Winter's Tale by
                          William Shakespeare ]
	The rothe (pronounced roth-AY) is a musk ox-like creature with
	an aversion to light.  It prefers to live underground near
	lichen and moss.
	These strange creatures live on a diet of metals.  They can
	turn a suit of armour into so much useless rusted scrap in no
	time at all.
	Japanese rice wine.
	For hundreds of years, many people believed that salamanders
	were magical.  In England in the Middle Ages, people thought
	that fire created salamanders.  When they set fire to damp
	logs, dozens of the slimy creatures scurried out.  The word
	salamander, in fact, comes from a Greek word meaning "fire
	animal".
		[ Salamanders, by Cherie Winner ]
	An ape-like humanoid native to densely forested mountains,
	the sasquatch is also known as "bigfoot".  Normally benign
	and rarely seen, this creature is reputed to be a relative
	of the ferocious yeti.
	This mace was created aeons ago in some unknown cave,
	and has been passed down from generation to generation of
	cave dwellers.  It is a very mighty mace indeed, and in
	addition will protect anyone who carries it from magic
	missile attacks.  When invoked, it causes conflict in the
	area around it.
	A sub-species of the spider (_Scorpionidae_), the scorpion
	distinguishes itself from them by having a lower body that
	ends in a long, jointed tail tapering to a poisonous stinger.
	They have eight legs and pincers.
		[ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
	Shades are undead creatures.  They differ from zombies in
	that a zombie is an undead animation of a corpse, while a
	shade is an undead creature magically created by the use
	of black magic.
	Making his quarters in the Caves of the Ancestors, Shaman
	Karnov unceasingly tries to shield his neanderthal people
	from Tiamat's minions' harassments.
	The Chinese god of Mountains and Seas, also the name of an
	old book (also Shan Hai Tjing), the book of mountains and
	seas - which deals with the monster Kung Kung trying to
	seize power from Yao, the fourth emperor.
		[ Spectrum Atlas van de Mythologie ]
	A Japanese stabbing knife.
	A skeleton is a magically animated undead creature.  Unlike
	shades, only a humanoid creature can be used to create a
	skeleton.  No one knows why this is true, but it has become
	an accepted fact amongst the practitioners of the black arts.
	"That dog belonged to a settler who tried to build his cabin
	on the bank of the river a few miles south of the fort,"
	grunted Conan. ...  "We took him to the fort and dressed his
	wounds, but after he recovered he took to the woods and turned
	wild.  -- What now, Slasher, are you hunting the men who
	killed your master?" ...  "Let him come," muttered Conan.
	"He can smell the devils before we can see them." ...
	Slasher cleared the timbers with a bound and leaped into the
	bushes.  They were violently shaken and then the dog slunk
	back to Balthus' side, his jaws crimson. ...  "He was a man,"
	said Conan.  "I drink to his shade, and to the shade of the
	dog, who knew no fear."  He quaffed part of the wine, then
	emptied the rest upon the floor, with a curious heathen
	gesture, and smashed the goblet.  "The heads of ten Picts
	shall pay for this, and seven heads for the dog, who was a
	better warrior than many a man."
		[ Conan The Warrior, by Robert E Howard ]
	Slime mold or slime fungus, organism usually classified with
	the fungi, but showing equal affinity to the protozoa.  Slime
	molds have complex life cycles with an animal-like motile
	phase, in which feeding and growth occur, and a plant-like
	immotile reproductive phase.  The motile phase, commonly
	found under rotting logs and damp leaves, consists of either
	solitary amoebalike cells or a brightly colored multinucleate
	mass of protoplasm called a plasmodium, which creeps about
	and feeds by amoeboid movement.
		[ The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia ]
	Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God
	had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of
	every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of
	the fruit of the trees of the garden:  but of the fruit of the tree which is
	in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
	shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
	not surely die:  for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
	eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And
	when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
	to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
	thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

	And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?  And
	the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.  And the Lord God said
	unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cat-
	tle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and
	dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:  And I will put enmity between
	thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy
	head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
		[ Genesis 3:1-6,13-15 ]
	Ah, never shall I forget the cry,
	    or the shriek that shrieked he,
	As I gnashed my teeth, and from my sheath
	    I drew my Snickersnee!
	--Koko, Lord high executioner of Titipu
		[ The Mikado, by Sir W.S. Gilbert ]
	The soldiers of Yendor are well-trained in the art of war,
	many trained by the Wizard himself.  Some say the soldiers
	are explorers who were unfortunate enough to be captured,
	and put under the Wizard's spell.  Those who have survived
	encounters with soldiers say they travel together in platoons,
	and are fierce fighters.  Because of the load of their combat
	gear, however, one can usually run away from them, and doing
	so is considered a wise thing.
	The elven god of hunting and wilderness skills.  His
	followers honor him by excelling at archery.
	Eight legged creature capable of spinning webs to trap pray.
	This staff is considered sacred to all healers, as it truly
	holds the powers of life and death.  When wielded, it
	protects its user from all life draining attacks, and
	additionally gives the wielder the power of regeneration.
	When invoked it performs healing magic.
	Then it appeared in Paris at just about the time that Paris
	was full of Carlists who had to get out of Spain.  One of
	them must have brought it with him, but, whoever he was, it's
	likely he knew nothing about its real value.  It had been --
	no doubt as a precaution during the Carlist trouble in Spain
	-- painted or enameled over to look like nothing more than a
	fairly interesting black statuette.  And in that disguise,
	sir, it was, you might say, kicked around Paris for seventy
	years by private owners and dealers too stupid to see what
	it was under the skin.
		[ The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett ]
	There was the usual dim grey light of the forest-day about
	him when he came to his senses.  The spider lay dead beside
	him, and his sword-blade was stained black.  Somehow the
	killing of the giant spider, all alone and by himself in the
	dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of
	anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins.  He felt
	a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of
	an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put
	it back into its sheath.
	"I will give you a name," he said to it, "and I shall call
	you Sting."
		[ The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	The Shinto chthonic and weather god and brother of the sun
	goddess Amaterasu, he was born from the nose of the
	primordial creator god Izanagi and represents the physical,
	material world.  He has been expelled from heaven and taken
	up residence on earth.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
	Samurai plate armor of the Yamato period (AD 300 - 710).
	The tengu was the most troublesome creature of Japanese
	legend.  Part bird and part man, with red beak for a nose
	and flashing eyes, the tengu was notorious for stirring up
	feuds and prolonging enmity between families.  Indeed, the
	belligerent tengus were supposed to have been man's first
	instructors in the use of arms.
	[Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)]
	The Egyptian god of the moon and wisdom, Thoth is the patron
	deity of scribes and of knowledge, including scientific,
	medical and mathematical writing, and is said to have given
	mankind the art of hieroglyphic writing.  He is important as
	a mediator and counsellor amongst the gods and is the scribe
	of the Heliopolis Ennead pantheon.  According to mythology,
	he was born from the head of the god Seth.  He may be
	depicted in human form with the head of an ibis, wholly as an
	ibis, or as a seated baboon sometimes with its torso covered
	in feathers.  His attributes include a crown which consists
	of a crescent moon surmounted by a moon disc.
	Thoth is generally regarded as a benign deity.  He is also
	scrupulously fair and is responsible not only for entering
	in the record the souls who pass to afterlife, but of
	adjudicating in the Hall of the Two Truths.  The Pyramid
	Texts reveal a violent side of his nature by which he
	decapitates the adversaries of truth and wrenches out their
	hearts.
		[ Encyclopedia of Gods, by Michael Jordan ]
	Men say that he [Thutothmes] has opposed Thoth-Amon, who is
	master of all priests of Set, and dwells in Luxor, and that
	Thutothmes seeks hidden power [The Heart of Ahriman] to
	overthrow the Great One.
		[ Conan the Conqueror, by Robert E. Howard ]
	1.  A well-known tropical predator (_Felis tigris_): a
	feline.  It has a yellowish skin with darker spots or
	stripes.  2.  Figurative: _a paper tiger_, something that is
	meant to scare, but has no really scaring effect whatsoever,
	(after a statement by Mao Ze Dong, August 1946).
		[ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
	Gaea, mother earth, arose from the Chaos and gave birth to
	Uranus, heaven, who became her consort.  Uranus hated all
	their children, because he feared they might challenge his
	own authority.  Those children, the Titans, the Gigantes,
	and the Cyclops, were banished to the nether world.  Their
	enraged mother eventually released the youngest titan,
	Chronos (time), and encouraged him to castrate his father and
	rule in his place.  Later, he too was challenged by his own
	son, Zeus, and he and his fellow titans were ousted from
	Mount Olympus.
		[ Greek Mythology, by Richard Patrick ]
	The road from Ankh-Morpork to Chrim is high, white and
	winding, a thirty-league stretch of potholes and half-buried
	rocks that spirals around mountains and dips into cool green
	valleys of citrus trees, crosses liana-webbed gorges on
	creaking rope bridges and is generally more picturesque than
	useful.
	Picturesque.  That was a new word to Rincewind the wizard
	(BMgc, Unseen University [failed]).  It was one of a number
	he had picked up since leaving the charred ruins of
	Ankh-Morpork.  Quaint was another one.  Picturesque meant --
	he decided after careful observation of the scenery that
	inspired Twoflower to use the word -- that the landscape was
	horribly precipitous.  Quaint, when used to describe the
	occasional village through which they passed, meant fever-
	ridden and tumbledown.
	Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the discworld.
	Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant "idiot".
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
	The trapper is a creature which has evolved a chameleon-like
	ability to blend into the dungeon surroundings.  It captures
	its prey by remaining very still and blending into the
	surrounding dungeon features, until an unsuspecting creature
	passes by.  It wraps itself around its prey and digests it.
	If you start from scratch, cooking tripe is a long-drawn-out
	affair.  Fresh whole tripe calls for a minimum of 12 hours of
	cooking, some time-honored recipes demanding as much as 24.
	To prepare fresh tripe, trim if necessary.  Wash it thoroughly,
	soaking overnight, and blanch, for 1/2 hour in salted water.
	Wash well again, drain and cut for cooking.  When cooked, the
	texture of tripe should be like that of soft gristle.  More
	often, alas, because the heat has not been kept low enough,
	it has the consistency of wet shoe leather.
		[ Joy of Cooking, by I Rombauer and M Becker ]
	The troll shambled closer.  He was perhaps eight feet tall,
	perhaps more.  His forward stoop, with arms dangling past
	thick claw-footed legs to the ground, made it hard to tell.
	The hairless green skin moved upon his body.  His head was a
	gash of a mouth, a yard-long nose, and two eyes which drank
	the feeble torchlight and never gave back a gleam.
	[...]
	Like a huge green spider, the troll's severed hand ran on its
	fingers.  Across the mounded floor, up onto a log with one
	taloned forefinger to hook it over the bark, down again it
	scrambled, until it found the cut wrist.  And there it grew
	fast.  The troll's smashed head seethed and knit together.
	He clambered back on his feet and grinned at them.  The
	waning faggot cast red light over his fangs.
		[ Three Hearts and Three Lions, by Poul Anderson ]
	This most ancient of swords has been passed down through the
	leadership of the Samurai legions for hundreds of years.  It
	is said to grant luck to its wielder, but its main power is
	terrible to behold.  It has the capability to cut in half any
	creature it is wielded against, instantly killing them.
	The tsurugi, also known as the long samurai sword, is an
	extremely sharp, two-handed blade favored by the samurai.
	It is made of hardened steel, and is manufactured using a
	special process, causing it to never rust.  The tsurugi is
	rumored to be so sharp that it can occasionally cut
	opponents in half!
	"Rincewind!"
	Twoflower sprang off the bed.  The wizard jumped back,
	wrenching his features into a smile.
	"My dear chap, right on time!  We'll just have lunch, and
	then I'm sure you've got a wonderful programme lined up for
	this afternoon!"
	"Er --"
	"That's great!"
	Rincewind took a deep breath.  "Look," he said desperately,
	"let's eat somewhere else.  There's been a bit of a fight
	down below."
	"A tavern brawl?  Why didn't you wake me up?"
	"Well, you see, I - _what_?"
	"I thought I made myself clear this morning, Rincewind.  I
	want to see genuine Morporkian life - the slave market, the
	Whore Pits, the Temple of Small Gods, the Beggar's Guild...
	and a genuine tavern brawl."  A faint note of suspicion
	entered Twoflower's voice.  "You _do_ have them, don't you?
	You know, people swinging on chandeliers, swordfights over
	the table, the sort of thing Hrun the Barbarian and the
	Weasel are always getting involved in.  You know --
	_excitement_."
		[ The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett ]
	An evil goddess, she is able to command all forms of birds
	to do her bidding.
	Yet remains that one of the Aesir who is called Tyr:
	he is most daring, and best in stoutness of heart, and he
	has much authority over victory in battle; it is good for
	men of valor to invoke him.  It is a proverb, that he is
	Tyr-valiant, who surpasses other men and does not waver.
	He is wise, so that it is also said, that he that is wisest
	is Tyr-prudent.  This is one token of his daring:  when the
	Aesir enticed Fenris-Wolf to take upon him the fetter Gleipnir,
	the wolf did not believe them, that they would loose him,
	until they laid Tyr's hand into his mouth as a pledge.  But
	when the Aesir would not loose him, then he bit off the hand
	at the place now called 'the wolf's joint;' and Tyr is one-
	handed, and is not called a reconciler of men.
			[ The Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturluson ]
	Umber hulks are powerful subterranean predators whose
	iron-like claws allow them to burrow through solid stone in
	search of prey.  They are tremendously strong; muscles bulge
	beneath their thick, scaly hides and their powerful arms and
	legs all end in great claws.
	Men have always sought the elusive unicorn, for the single twisted horn which
	projected from its forehead was thought to be a powerful talisman.  It was
	said that the unicorn had simply to dip the tip of its horn in a muddy pool
	for the water to become pure.  Men also believed that to drink from this horn
	was a protection against all sickness, and that if the horn was ground to a
	powder it would act as an antidote to all poisons.  Less than 200 years ago in
	France, the horn of a unicorn was used in a ceremony to test the royal food
	for poison.

	Although only the size of a small horse, the unicorn is a very fierce beast,
	capable of killing an elephant with a single thrust from its horn.  Its fleet-
	ness of foot also makes this solitary creature difficult to capture.  However,
	it can be tamed and captured by a maiden.  Made gentle by the sight of a vir-
	gin, the unicorn can be lured to lay its head in her lap, and in this docile
	mood, the maiden may secure it with a golden rope.
		[Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)]

	Martin took a small sip of beer.  "Almost ready," he said.  "You hold your
	beer awfully well."
	Tlingel laughed.  "A unicorn's horn is a detoxicant.  Its possession is a
	universal remedy.  I wait until I reach the warm glow stage, then I use my
	horn to burn off any excess and keep me right there."
		[Unicorn Variations by Roger Zelazny]
	The Valkyries were the thirteen choosers of the slain, the
	beautiful warrior-maids of Odin who rode through the air and
	over the sea.  They watched the progress of the battle and
	selected the heroes who were to fall fighting.  After they
	were dead, the maidens rewarded the heroes by kissing them
	and then led their souls to Valhalla, where the warriors
	lived happily in an ideal existence, drinking and eating
	without restraint and fighting over again the battles in
	which they died and in which they had won their deathless
	fame.
		[ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All
			Nations, by Herbert Robinson and Knox
			Wilson ]
	The Oxford English Dictionary is quite unequivocal:
	_vampire_ - "a preternatural being of a malignant nature (in
	the original and usual form of the belief, a reanimated
	corpse), supposed to seek nourishment, or do harm, by sucking
	the blood of sleeping persons. ..."
	Vlad Dracula the Impaler was a 15th-Century monarch of the
	Birgau region of the Carpathian Mountains, in what is now
	Romania.  In Romanian history he is best known for two things.
	One was his skilled handling of the Ottoman Turks, which kept
	them from making further inroads into Christian Europe.  The
	other was the ruthless manner in which he ran his fiefdom.
	He dealt with perceived challengers to his rule by impaling
	them upright on wooden stakes.  Visiting dignitaries who
	failed to doff their hats had them nailed to their head.
	Swirling clouds of pure elemental energies, the vortices are
	thought to be related to the larger elementals.  Though the
	vortices do no damage when touched, they are noted for being
	able to envelop unwary travellers.  The hapless fool thus
	swallowed by a vortex will soon perish from exposure to the
	element the vortex is composed of.
	The vrock is one of the weaker forms of demon.  It resembles
	a cross between a human being and a vulture and does physical
	damage by biting and by using the claws on both its arms and
	feet.
	The samurai warrior traditionally wears two swords; the
	wakizashi is the shorter of the two.  See also katana.
	Suddenly Aragorn leapt to his feet.  "How the wind howls!"
	he cried.  "It is howling with wolf-voices.  The Wargs have
	come west of the Mountains!"
	"Need we wait until morning then?" said Gandalf.  "It is as I
	said.  The hunt is up!  Even if we live to see the dawn, who
	now will wish to journey south by night with the wild wolves
	on his trail?"
	"How far is Moria?" asked Boromir.
	"There was a door south-west of Caradhras, some fifteen miles
	as the crow flies, and maybe twenty as the wolf runs,"
	answered Gandalf grimly.
	"Then let us start as soon as it is light tomorrow, if we can,"
	said Boromir.  "The wolf that one hears is worse then the orc
	that one fears."
	"True!" said Aragorn, loosening his sword in its sheath.  "But
	where the warg howls, there also the orc prowls."
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	When he came to himself again, for a moment he could recall
	nothing except a sense of dread.  Then suddenly he knew that
	he was imprisoned, caught hopelessly; he was in a barrow.  A
	Barrow-wight had taken him, and he was probably already under
	the dreadful spells of the Barrow-wights about which whispered
	tales spoke.  He dared not move, but lay as he found himself:
	flat on his back upon a cold stone with his hands on his
	breast.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	The Wizard of Balance holds office in his hidden tower, only
	reachable by magical means, where he teaches his apprentices
	the enigmatic skills of occultism.  He considers himself a
	guardian of the equilibrium of the universe, and goes out of
	his way to promote stability.
	No one knows how old this mighty wizard is, or from whence he
	came.  It is known that, having lived a span far greater than
	any normal man's, he grew weary of lesser mortals; and so,
	spurning all human company, he forsook the dwellings of men
	and went to live in the depths of the Earth.  He took with
	him a dreadful artifact, the Book of the Dead, which is said
	to hold great power indeed.  Many have sought to find the
	wizard and his treasure, but none have found him and lived to
	tell the tale.  Woe be to the incautious adventurer who
	disturbs this mighty sorcerer!
	The ancestors of the modern day domestic dog, wolves are
	powerful muscular animals with bushy tails.  Intelligent,
	social animals, wolves live in family groups or packs made
	up of multiple family units.  These packs cooperate in hunting
	down prey.
	[The crysknife] is manufactured in two forms from teeth taken
	from dead sandworms.  The two forms are "fixed" and "unfixed".
	An unfixed knife requires proximity to a human body's
	electrical field to prevent disintegration.  Fixed knives
	are treated for storage.  All are about 20 centimeters long.
		[ Dune, by Frank Herbert ]
	Immediately, though everything else remained as before, dim
	and dark, the shapes became terribly clear.  He was able to
	see beneath their black wrappings.  There were five tall
	figures:  two standing on the lip of the dell, three advancing.
	In their white faces burned keen and merciless eyes; under
	their mantles were long grey robes; upon their grey hairs
	were helms of silver; in their haggard hands were swords of
	steel.  Their eyes fell on him and pierced him, as they
	rushed towards him.  Desperate, he drew his own sword, and
	it seemed to him that it flickered red, as if it was a
	firebrand.  Two of the figures halted.  The third was taller
	than the others:  his hair was long and gleaming and on his
	helm was a crown.  In one hand he held a long sword, and in
	the other a knife; both the knife and the hand that held it
	glowed with a pale light.  He sprang forward and bore down
	on Frodo.
		[ The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien ]
	The Wumpus, by the way, is not bothered by the hazards since
	he has sucker feet and is too big for a bat to lift.  If you
	try to shoot him and miss, there's also a chance that he'll
	up and move himself into another cave, though by nature the
	Wumpus is a sedentary creature.
		[ wump (6) -- "Hunt the Wumpus" ]
	They sent their friend the mosquito [xan] ahead of them to
	find out what lay ahead.  "Since you are the one who sucks
	the blood of men walking along paths," they told the mosquito,
	"go and sting the men of Xibalba."  The mosquito flew
	down the dark road to the Underworld.  Entering the house of
	the Lords of Death, he stung the first person that he saw...

	The mosquito stung this man as well, and when he yelled, the
	man next to him asked, "Gathered Blood, what's wrong?"  So
	he flew along the row stinging all the seated men until he
	knew the names of all twelve.
			[ Popul Vuh, as translated by Ralph Nelson ]
	A distant cousin of the earth elemental, the xorn has the
	ability to shift the cells of its body around in such a way
	that it becomes porous to inert material.  This gives it the
	ability to pass through any obstacle that might be between it
	and its next meal.
	The arrow of choice of the samurai, ya are made of very
	straight bamboo, and are tipped with hardened steel.
	Yeenoghu, the demon lord of gnolls, still exists although
	all his followers have been wiped off the face of the earth.
	He casts magic projectiles at those close to him, and a mere
	gaze into his piercing eyes may hopelessly confuse the
	battle-weary adventurer.
	An ape-like humanoid native to inaccessible mountain tops,
	the yeti is also known as "the abominable snowman".  Whether
	or not the title "man" is appropriate remains unknown.
	Japanese leather archery gloves.  Gloves made for use while
	practicing had thumbs reinforced with horn.  Those worn into
	battle had thumbs reinforced with a double layer of leather.
	The samurai is highly trained with a special type of bow,
	the yumi.  Like the ya, the yumi is made of bamboo.  With
	the yumi-ya, the bow and arrow, the samurai is an extremely
	accurate and deadly warrior.
	The zombi... is a soulless human corpse, still dead, but
	taken from the grave and endowed by sorcery with a
	mechanical semblance of life, -- it is a dead body which is
	made to walk and act and move as if it were alive.
		[ W. B. Seabrook ]
	The zruty are wild and gigantic beings, living in the
	wildernesses of the Tatra mountains.
