"water horses" of Europe. River horse among the Greeks Enemies in the animal world and diseases

A river horse is a massive, thick-skinned herbivore that lives in rivers or other bodies of water. These unusual barrel-shaped creatures live in Africa and are called hippos. It is the third largest land animal, after the elephant and rhinoceros. Slightly smaller, but heavier than the white rhinoceros, the weight of this giant can reach 1800 kg.

Why is the hippopotamus called the “river horse”?

The hippopotamus has a short thick neck and small ears. Despite the fact that this amazing animal is translated as “river horse,” numerous genetic studies have shown that the hippopotamus is closer to whales and dolphins than to any artiodactyls. Their vegetarian diet usually includes fallen fruits, leaves, grass, corn, and so on.

Why is the hippopotamus called the “river horse”? In fact, its name is made up of two Greek words for “river” and “horse”. They are well adapted for long stays in water. Hippos prefer rivers with deep water and nearby some species live in salty waters near river mouths. On the top of the head there are ears and nostrils, which close automatically as soon as the animal enters the water.

Herbivorous giants

These animals prefer to stay in the water all day, coming onto land only at night in order to get food for themselves. Sometimes the search for food can take them a considerable distance (7-8 km) inland, so they mark their path generously so that later they can easily find their way home before dawn. In one night, these bulky mammals can consume up to 100 kilograms of vegetation.

Adults can consume huge quantities of grass, capturing it with their wide lips rather than with their teeth, like most other herbivores. The so-called river horse has almost smooth, hairless and very sensitive skin, from which the pores exude a red oily liquid that acts as a sunscreen, keeping the skin moisturized and protected when the animal is on land. Because of this interesting feature, it was erroneously assumed that hippos sweat blood.

Hippopotamuses have large tusks (incisors) and fangs, the growth of which does not stop throughout their lives. These tusks are considered more valuable than elephant tusks because they do not turn yellow with age. The river horse has the widest mouth of any living land mammal, and when this herbivorous giant opens its mouth to yawn, the distance between the jaws can be up to 60 cm!

herd animal

Despite its large size and volume, the hippopotamus is a fairly fast mammal that can easily overtake a person. Hippos can be quite grumpy animals, and two males can fight each other for long periods of time, sometimes causing serious injury.

A herd usually consists of ten to fifteen animals, including one dominant male, several subordinate males and females, as well as growing young animals. The female's pregnancy lasts, as a rule, about 230 days. Childbirth usually occurs in water, as does breeding itself, during months of heavy rainfall, but can also occur at other times of the year. Young hippos are very attached to their mothers and often spend time basking on their broad backs.

Habitat

The natural habitat of these large mammals is limited to Africa, mainly south of the Sahara Desert. In ancient times, hippos were also found in the north, in the Nile Delta, and their images were quite common in ancient Egyptian art. Currently, the habitat of hippopotamuses is the lakes, rivers and swamps of East and Central Africa.

Hippos see underwater

An interesting feature of hippos is the presence of special biological glasses - a transparent membrane covering their eyes for protection, and at the same time allowing them to see under water. During a dive, their nostrils close and they can hold their breath for five minutes or more. Hippos can even sleep underwater, using a reflex that allows them to shake their heads in such a way that they can inhale and sink down without ever waking up.

However, despite all these adaptations for life in water, this animal (“river horse”) cannot swim. Their bodies are too dense for swimming, hippos move in circles, pushing off from the river bottom or simply walking along the riverbed at a leisurely gallop, lightly touching the bottom with their slightly webbed toes.

Hippos live on average 40-50 years; there is a known case when one representative of their family lived 61 years, albeit in captivity. Surprisingly, this massive herbivore uses its enormous size only for defense and fighting with its own kind.

Agishki or water horse belongs to the category of supernatural creatures of the middle order. Agishki lives in sea bays with a rocky bottom. It is similar in size and appearance to ordinary land horses, differing in a more luxuriant mane and lighter color. It feeds on algae and fish. The type of breathing is unknown. It comes ashore in November to give birth to its young. The underwater part of life is poorly understood. Presumably able to survive without seawater for up to several days.

Agishkas are most often found in calm waters of lakes, although they are also found on sea shores prancing along the edge of the surf at the threshold time of Samhain. Outwardly, he is almost indistinguishable from an ordinary horse: a magnificent, strong stallion of motley or black color with a flowing mane and a beautiful long tail, sometimes a shaggy pony, but also dark in color. The only thing that betrays his supernatural nature is his excessive friendliness and affability towards the stranger. With his whole appearance, he definitely invites a person to ride on his powerful horse’s back. But if the unlucky rider succumbs to temptation, he will instantly be captured by the bloodthirsty werewolf. The rider’s legs and arms will surely grow to the shiny velvety skin of the horse, and it will rush headlong into its native element of water and tear the rider into pieces, greedily devouring human flesh.

However, if his natural form of a horse turns out to be not seductive and suitable enough, there are many other forms in the agishka’s arsenal, and not even necessarily living and spiritual ones. So, it can take the form of a lonely ship moored to the shore or a boat under sail, a piece of woolen yarn or a wedding ring. In human form, he prefers the image of a beautiful and seductive youth, in which he seduces young girls, also luring them to death. And, sometimes, the only thing that reveals that he has turned into an agishka is the tufts of sea grass tangled in his hair.

However, it is possible to tame the wayward water horse Agishka. If the brave man
it will be possible to throw a special bridle on the face of the magic horse, which will restrain
her indomitable temperament and magical power - agishki will become a faithful tame animal and no one in the entire area will have a riding stallion as hardy and graceful. But only until the bridled werewolf gets close enough to his native pond that he can smell it. If this happens, no force will be able to hold the agishka, like an arrow it will rush into the abyss of water, dragging its former owner with it to its inexorable fate. And only the heart and liver of the one who once owned this wonderful horse will float on the waves, reminding people of the formidable nature of the water horse.

An agishka can also feed in a more harmless way: it happens that he simply steals livestock from peasants or tears up graves in a cemetery, devouring freshly buried corpses. However, this behavior of the carnivorous underwater resident also does not please the inhabitants of Irish villages, and therefore from time to time there are brave men who undertake to put an end to the annoying neighborhood. The body of the murdered agishka remains lying on the shore only until sunrise, after which it turns into a gelatinous mass, which local residents consider to be the light of a fallen star.

Eh-Ushge

Each Uisge is a variant spelling of the name Ekh-Ushge in Latin, literally “water horse”

Ech-Ooshkya - variant spelling of the name Ekh-Ushge in Latin

Ekh-Uishge - a variant of the Russian spelling of the name Ekh-Ushge

“This water horse of the Scottish Highlands is probably the most ferocious and dangerous of all water horses, although it is not far behind it. It differs from it in that it is found in the sea and in lochs, while it is found only in running water. Eh-ushge also, apparently, transforms more readily. His most common appearance is that of a slender and beautiful horse, which seems to be asking to give a ride to a person, but if that person is smart enough to saddle him, eh-ushge rushes him headlong into the water, where he devours him. All that is left of the person is the liver, which floats to the surface. They say that his skin is sticky, and a person cannot detach himself from it. Sometimes eh-ushge appears in the form of a giant bird, and sometimes in the form of a handsome young man. (see ".) J.F. Campbell dedicates eh-ushge several pages in Popular Tales of West Scotland (vol. IV, pp. 304-7). If we talk about eh-ushge in the guise of a horse, it is difficult to choose one of the many stories about him. Everywhere they tell a tale about him, originally, perhaps, serving as a warning about how eh-ushge takes away several little girls. One of the options tells about a small basin near Aberfeldy. Seven girls and a boy went for a walk on Sunday morning, and suddenly they saw a cute little pony grazing near a lake. One of the girls climbed onto his back, then another, and all seven girls ended up on the pony. The boy turned out to have a better eye, and he noticed that the pony’s back was getting longer with each new rider. The boy hid between high stones on the shore of the lake. Suddenly the pony turned his head and noticed him. “Come on, you little bastard,” he growled, “get on my back!” The boy did not come out of his hiding place, and the pony rushed after him, and the girls on his back squealed in fear, but could not take their hands off the pony's skin. The pony chased the boy between the rocks for a long time, but finally got tired and rushed into the water along with his prey. The next morning, the livers of seven children were washed ashore by a wave.

MacKay's Other Tales of West Scotland (Vol. II) tells how a water horse was killed. Once upon a time there lived a blacksmith in Raasay. He had a herd, and his family tended it themselves. One night his daughter did not return home, and the next morning her heart and lungs were found on the shore of a sucker, in which, as everyone knew, there was eh-ushge. The blacksmith grieved for a long time and finally decided to destroy the monster. He set up a forge on the bank of the loch, and he and his son began to forge large iron hooks on it, heating them red-hot in the fire. They roasted a sheep, and the smell of roasted meat floated over the water. The fog rose, and a water horse emerged from the lake, looking like a shaggy, ugly foal. He attacked the sheep, and then the blacksmith and his son attacked him with their hooks and killed him. But in the morning they found neither bones nor skin on the shore, but only a bunch of starlight (Starlight in those places is the mucus that sometimes comes across on the shore - most likely, the remains of jellyfish washed ashore; but the Scots believe that this is all , what remains of a fallen star.). Thus came the end of the Water Horse of Raasei. Walter Gill tells a similar story about "

finally the most famous

Kelpie

Glashtyn is the name of the Kelpie on the Isle of Man.

Kelpie - English spelling of the name Kelpie

Gleyshtn - Russian spelling of the name Kelpie on the Isle of Man

Kelpie - a variant of the Russian spelling of the name Kelpie

Kelpi - a variant of the Russian spelling of the name Kelpi

"In Scottish lower mythology, a water spirit that lives in many rivers and lakes. Kelpie mostly hostile to people. They appear in the form of a horse grazing by the water, presenting its back to the traveler and then dragging him into the water." This water demon, native to England and Ireland, can take many forms, although it most often appears as a horse with a mane of reeds.

The name Kelpie is most likely related to Irish. calpach, "bull", "foal", another variant etymology of the word: probably from "kelp" - seaweed, possibly from Gaelic cailpcach (cowhide, cowhide).

Other name kelpie on the Isle of Man - glashtyn. Gleyshtn described as often emerging from the water and similar to the Isle of Man. Like kelpie , glacier appears as a horse—more precisely, as a gray colt. It can often be seen on the shores of lakes, and only at night.

The gloomy and majestic figure of this river horse, however, is covered with less sad glory than the bloody image of its lake brother. Unlike the insatiable agishka, the kelpie does not always kill its prey: many manage to get away with only a slight fright with their clothes soaked to the skin, when, it would seem, such a tame and obedient horse, with a smooth, cold to the touch skin, more like the skin of a seal , affectionately inviting the person to climb onto his back, dives into the river waves and, cutting the surface of the water with his tail, with a sound like a clap of thunder, disappears in a flash of blinding light.

In addition, the kelpie can be easily distinguished from an ordinary horse by its wet mane, from which water constantly flows. Moreover, the kelpie retains this sign in human form. Unlike the agishka, the kelpie often takes the form of not only a man, but also a woman. Being a girl, the kelpie almost always wears a green dress, but either out of stupidity and ignorance, or due to some natural oddities of the hidden people, she puts it on inside out. In a female form, the kelpie is just as wonderfully beautiful and seductive as in its natural horse skin. Which she often uses to lure men into a trap. But the male appearance is more difficult for him. Or he simply uses it for other purposes: not to seduce and lure, but to scare him half to death or strangle him in the grip of his iron grip. This is exactly what the shaggy freak of a kelpie likes to do, jumping out from behind the coastal bushes right onto the back of a random passerby.

Sometimes they see kelpies in the guise of a terrible half-man, half-horse, with two horse legs, powerful three-fingered hands, an ugly horse head and a predatory grin of a fanged mouth. Some believe that this is precisely his true appearance, and that only the skillful mastery of the spell of illusion helps the kelpie make people see him as a beautiful horse or a gentle maiden.

It is interesting that this cruel and treacherous fairy has an irrepressible passion for both earthly women and ordinary mares. Kelpies often steal young girls and make them their underwater wives and mothers of their children, and also cross with tame horses, producing incredibly strong and fleet-footed offspring. Very rarely, but it still happens that a kelpie in love renounces his magical essence for the right to be the husband of a mortal woman.

The Irish also hear the howling and moaning of kelpies on the eve of storms, but no one knows for sure whether his voice foreshadows an approaching storm or calls for it in rage, having been abandoned by his earthly beloved.

They say that kelpies are able to jump on the surface of the water as if on land. A similar horse was described by Andre Norton in her book Three Against the Witch World. The only difference was that the horse she described did not strive for water, but, on the contrary, carried its rider further into the mountains. But, like the kelpie, he did not let him get down, thereby dooming him to a multi-hour jump and the danger of dying in the first abyss.

Methods for catching kelpies
To deal with a Kelpie, you need to lure it with oats and throw a bridle over its head, while casting a Placement Spell that will make it submissive and helpless. The best time to catch kelpies is winter. In this case, there is a chance that after catching the demon overnight, the ice hole from which it emerged will freeze and the kelpie will not be able to leave its owner until spring. Until the ice on the river melts.

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Kabil-ushti
Cabyll-Ushtey
The Manx water horse, pale gray in color, sometimes piebald, is no less dangerous and bloodthirsty than the Scottish Ears, although not so much is said about him.
Walter Gill, in the Manx Notebook, gives the story of a Cabill-ushti who was found for a short time at Kerru Cloch on the Black River.

One day, a certain farmer's wife discovered one of her calves missing - and there were no traces except scraps of wool; the next day, the farmer saw a monster come out of the river, grab one of the calves and tear it to pieces. The owners drove the cattle away from the river, but they had to suffer an even more severe loss, because after a few days their only daughter disappeared and was never heard from again. Kabil-Ushti did not touch them anymore. Despite its cute appearance, it is a very evil and dangerous creature.

Shupilti
Shoopiltee
There are tiny water horses in the folklore of the Shetland Islanders. Like other water horses, their favorite prank is to jump into the water with their rider, disappearing, leaving the unlucky rider in the middle of the lake. It cannot be said that Shupilti are cruel and bloodthirsty, like their relatives Kelpie or Eh-ears, but they drink the blood of drowned people. In character, Shupilti are more similar to Noggle from the Orkney Islands.

One day people managed to catch Shupilti and chained him to a stone between two lakes. But the horse was madly eager for freedom and, in the end, he managed to free himself. Evidence of this incident can be found in scratches from a chain on the stone to which Shupilti was chained.

In Scottish folklore, water horses are treacherous and dangerous. Sometimes they turn into beautiful young men or giant birds. Eh-ear in the form of a person can be recognized by the algae in his hair. Introducing itself as a horse, the eh-ear seems to invite you to sit on itself, but whoever dares to do so will face a tragic end: the horse jumps into the water and devours its rider, and then the waves throw the victim’s liver ashore.

Unlike kelpies, which live in running water, ech-ears live in seas and lakes. A ride on an ech-ear is safe until the monster senses the proximity of water.

Noggle
Noggle, Nuggle or Nygel
In the folklore of the Shetland Islanders there is a water horse. As a rule, the noggle appears on land under the guise of a wonderful bay horse, saddled and bridled. Noggle is not as dangerous as the Kelpie, but he never refuses to pull one or the other of his two favorite jokes. If at night he sees work in full swing at the water mill, he grabs the wheel and stops it.

You can drive it away by showing a knife or sticking a burning branch out the window. He also likes to pester travelers. As soon as someone sits on it, the noggle rushes into the water. However, apart from swimming, nothing threatens the rider: once in the water, the noggle disappears with a flash of blue flame. To avoid confusing a noggle with a horse, you should look at the tail: the noggle's tail curls over its back.
According to later legends, only Finmen could ride Noggles - men from a tribe of sorcerers and shapeshifters, unsurpassed masters of boat rowing.