The Manticore

The martikhora(s) or manticore is a mythical animal described in the Indica of Ctesias of Cnidus and a few other classical sources. 

The creature is said to derive its name from the Persian words for “man-eater.” It lives in the forests of India, has a lion-like body and a human face, and a tail that shoots lethal, meter-long stingers. It is also said to be able to mimic human speech. 

Some believe the martikhora is an exaggerated description of a man-eating Bengal tiger, which was hunted in early India in the same manner as Ctesias attributes to martikhoras. 

The people of Spain integrated the manticore into their mythology and transformed the creature into a child-snatching werewolf. 

The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder describes the manticore as living in Ethiopia, but he also quotes Ctesias, who said the beast was found in India. Ethiopia and India were often confused in ancient accounts. Here is what Ctesias had to say about the creature:

[§15] The martikhora is an animal found in this country. It has a face like a man's, a skin red as cinnabar, and is as large as a lion. It has three rows of teeth, ears and light-blue eyes like those of a man; its tail is like that of a land scorpion, containing a sting more than a cubit long at the end. It has other stings on each side of its tail and one on the top of its head, like the scorpion, with which it inflicts a wound that is always fatal. If it is attacked from a distance, it sets up its tail in front and discharges its stings as if from a bow; if attacked from behind, it straightens it out and launches its stings in a direct line to the distance of a thirty meter. The wound inflicted is fatal to all animals except the elephant. The stings are about a foot long and about as thick as a small rush. The martikhora is called in Greek anthropophagos [man-eater], because, although it preys upon other animals, it kills and devours a greater number of human beings. It fights with both its claws and stings, which, according to Ctesias, grow again after they have been discharged. There is a great number of these animals in India, which are hunted and killed with spears or arrows by natives mounted on elephants.

Aelian, a Greek military writer who lived in second-century Rome, has a similar account of the manticore, based on Ctesias but with more details: 

There is in India a wild beast, powerful, daring, as big as the largest lion, of a red colour like cinnabar, shaggy like a dog, and in the language of India it is called Martikhoras (Manticore) [Persian mardkhora ‘man-slayer’]. Its face however is not that of a wild beast but of a man, and it has three rows of teeth set in its upper jaw and three in the lower; these are exceedingly sharp and larger than the fangs of a hound. Its ears also resemble a man's except that they are larger and shaggy; its eyes are blue-grey and they too are like a man's, but its feet and claws, you must know, are those of a lion. To the end of its tail is attached the sting of a scorpion, and this might be over a cubit in length; and the tail has stings at intervals on either side. But the tip of the tail gives a fatal sting to anyone who encounters it, and death is immediate. If one pursued the beast it lets fly its stings, like arrows, sideways, and it can shoot a great distance; and when it discharges its stings straight ahead it bends bends its tail back; if however it shoots in a backward direction, as the Sakai (Sacae) do, then it stretches its tail to its full extent. Any creature that the missile hits it kills; the elephant alone it does not kill. These stings which it shoots are a foot long and the thickness of a bulrush. Now Ktesias asserts (and he says that the Indians confirm his words) that in the places where those stings have been let fly others spring up, so that this evil produces a crop. And according to the same writer the Martikhoras for a choice devours human beings; indeed it will slaughter a great number; and it lies in wait not for a single man but would set upon two or even three men, and alone overcomes even that number. All other animals it defeats: the lion alone it can never bring down. That this creature takes special delight in gorging human flesh its very name testifies, for in the Greek language its means androphagos (man-eater), and its name is derived from its activities. Like the stag it is extremely swift. 

Now the Indians hunt the young of these animals while they are still without stings in their tails, which they then crush with a stone to prevent them from growing stings. The sound of their voice is as near as possible that of a trumpet.
Ktesias (Ctesias) declares that he has actually seen this animal in Persia (it had been brought from India as a present to the Persian King)--if Ktesias is to be regarded as a sufficient authority on such matters. At any rate after hearing of the peculiarities of this animal, one must pay heed to the historian of Knidos.

A mythical creatures website offers a few more details:

Most commonly known as Manticore, this beast comes from the forests of India. It has the body of a lion, the face of a man with three rows of teeth and a notorious scorpion tail. Its tail is lined with poisonous stings that it throws at its victims immediately. It shoots by facing away from its enemy and flicking its tail backwards. The stings are one meter in length and are poisonous to all except the elephant. It creates newborn Manticores from the ground producing them quickly. Hunters kill the young of the Manticore before they grow their poisonous tail and crush its tails with a stone to prevent that from happening. The Manticore makes a sound like a trumpet and is vermilion red in colour. 

The Manticore was detailed by Pliny the Elder from ancient Greece in his book Historia Naturalis (77 AD) which derived from a description from King Artaxerxes Mnemon (404 – 359 BC). The Manticore also featured in medieval bestiaries and art. It has the Biblical connection as being the representative creature for the prophet Jeremiah. In Churches it is seen as a scaled covered woman. Later in Spanish folklore, the Manticore developed into a child-stealing Werewolf. 

 All in all, a wondrous creature....

The Barbary Apes of Gibraltar

For many years zoologists and others have commented on the mystery of Gibraltar’s Barbary Apes – the fact that members of the ape colony on the Rock appear and disappear unexpectedly, sometimes showing up in the company of new apes never seen before – despite the fact that there are no known hiding places on this landmark site.
The speculation is that an age-old subterranean tunnel exists, beneath the Straits, connecting Gibraltar with the North African coast, and that the apes have been using this tunnel for transit since time immemorial.
Author-iconoclast Charles Hoy Fort, a well-known collector of reports on strange phenomena, wrote about this theory in his book Lo! (1931):

...In the London Daily Mail, July 1, 1920, a correspondent expresses an idea... as to mysterious appearances and disappearances of the Barbary apes of Gibraltar, conceiving of a submarine tunnel from Gibraltar to Africa. “All these creatures were well-known to the staff of the signal station on the Rock, many of the apes being named. The numbers sometimes change in the most unaccountable way. Well-known monkeys are absent for months, and then reappear with new, strange, adult monkeys of a similar breed. Those who know Gibraltar will agree that there is not a square yard on the Rock where they could have hidden.”

A few pages later in the same book, Fort cites another press report on the same topic:

In the New York Sun, Feb. 6, 1929, Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars tells of an “old legend” of a tunnel, by which apes travel back and forth, between Africa and Spain. No special instances, or alleged instances, are told of. In Gilbard's History of Gibraltar, published in 1881, is mention of the “wild and impossible theory of communication, under sea, between Gibraltar and the Barbary coast.” Here it is said that the apes were kept track of, so that additions to families were announced in the Signal Station newspaper. The notion of apes in any way passing across the Mediterranean is ridiculous to Gilbard, but he notes that there are so many apes upon the mountain on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar that it is known as the hill of Apes.

Although commonly referred to as “Barbary Apes,” these primates are actually Barbary Macaques, part of a species of true monkeys (Macaca sylvanus), not apes. Apart from man, they are the only primates that live freely in Europe.

The Gibraltar macaques are in fact descended from North African – Moroccan and Algerian – populations of Barbary macaques that today can be found mostly in the Middle Atlas mountains. The macaques have been known on Gibraltar since the British first captured the Rock in 1704. DNA studies have shown that in addition to their Moroccan and Algerian origins, the Barbary apes of Gibraltar have a third DNA source, probably from an extinct Iberian population.
According to conventional wisdom, the Gibraltar apes were imported by the Arabs and Berbers who conquered Spain and ruled substantial parts of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 1492. The macaques were said to have been kept as pets by the wealthy.
The belief in a subterranean passage under the Straits of Gibraltar survives to this day. A Gibraltar tourism website discusses St. Michael’s Cave, a geological structure linked to the legend of the tunnel:

St Michaels Cave has interested visitors to Gibraltar ever since the days of the Romans. The cave was long believed to be bottomless. This probably gave birth to the story that the Rock of Gibraltar was linked to the Continent of Africa by a subterranean passage over 24 km long under the straits of Gibraltar.
Pomponious Mela, one of the earliest writers on geography who lived about the beginning of the Christian era named the cave after a similar cave in his home city in Italy.
It was at one time believed that when the Spaniards first tried to retake Gibraltar from Britain in 1704, a party of 500 of their troops spent a night in the cave after climbing the East face of the Rock. Next morning, however the alarm was given and troops of the garrison surprised and overpowered the raiding party. Many other small caves are linked to the main chamber.

In 2001, a Canadian traveler, James Smith, posted some interesting observations on the Gibraltar Barbary Apes on the Epinions website:

One of the most well known attractions of Gibraltar, second only to the famous rock itself, are the bands of semi wild apes that live there. The Barbary Apes of Gibraltar are the only wild primates in all of Europe. There are approximately 200 apes in several extended families or packs scattered among the higher reaches of the "rock" mainly near the Upper Siege tunnels and at the "Apes Den" near the cable car station. The later is a regular stop on all the tours.

Candy stealing aside, the apes are used to humans and tolerate the daily procession of tourists who come and watch them play. They will allow you to get close and feed them and even pose for pictures. Some of the older ones will even ham it up for the cameras as long as you treat them. Although they are wild animals, there are only two things to be careful of, as the tour guides point out.
First never try to get too close to the baby apes. Like most animals, the mothers are very protective. Secondly, as in the case of the candy lady, be careful of anything in your hands especially food and/or shiny objects. As far as the apes are concerned anything they can grab they will, and they'll keep it. Somewhere in the crevices on the side of the rock it is rumoured there is a cache of sunglasses, jewelry, cameras, and other items that used to belong to tourists who didn't heed their guides warnings.
No one is quite sure of how the apes came to Gibraltar in the first place. One theory is that they arrived with the British soldiers and sailors as pets. There is however no records to support this idea.
Another theory is that they may have migrated from Africa perhaps through a subterranean tunnel under the Mediterranean Sea. This theory may not be as far fetched as it seems. It is only fifteen miles across the straight to Morocco and the only other known colonies of Barbary Apes are found in the Middle Atlas Mountains of that country and neighboring Algeria.
Not only does no one seem to know where the apes come from, but no one is quite sure where they go when they die. No one has ever found the remains of any of the colony's deceased apes. It appears that they seem to know when it is their time and disappear into the wilds of the mountain to some undiscovered ape graveyard.

Needless to say, the existence of a subterranean tunnel beneath the Straits of Gibraltar has never been confirmed. The mystery of the Barbary apes of Gibraltar remains unsolved.

The Beasts of Ibn Wahshiya

[Ibn Wahshiya – his full name was Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn Wahshiya al-Nabati – was a scholar, translator and scientist who lived in Mesopotamia in the ninth century AD. He was an Aramaic- or Syriac-speaking Nabataean, and his translations from Syriac to Arabic were celebrated in their day. He studied the sciences extensively in Damascus, Baghdad and Egypt. Given the society in which he lived, his works are rich with discussions of natural magic and the supernatural. The Book on Poisons, according to its author, was compiled largely from the Syriac writings of two Nabataean elders from Kasadan [possibly near Samarkand] named Yarbuqa and Suhab Sat. The work contains recipes for toxic and lethal substances as well as their antidotes. Ibn Wahshiya’s most famous work was called Nabataean Agriculture. A general comment on Ibn Wahshiya’s mixing of science and magic by translator Martin Levey: “This famous Chaldean was a master of all that touched on miracles, charms, astrology, alchemy, and incantations. These were all considered at that time and place to have scientific value and to be no less objective than Ibn Wahshiya’s writing on poisons and agriculture.” These excerpts are the first step in compiling a collection of Ibn Wahshiya's descriptions of animals of the medieval Middle East. There will be more to come.... ]

Beaver:

The beaver is “an animal of a very ugly appearance.... It may come into existence from water. It is famous among people. In rivers and small waters, they are small; in oceans and large waters, they are large. Both large and small beavers are similar in shape but have various colors [including black, which is favored for poison].” Beaver is used in the recipe for the twenty-first poison. (p. 63)

Chameleon:

The chameleon, says Ibn Wahshiya, has “a small body, a hideous eye, a strange color, and always stays in the sun raising its head towards the sun itself.” He adds: “It is well known to the Kasadānians, Persians, Indians, and Arabs. The Arabs call it al-'iwān.” He uses chameleon in the recipe for the twentieth poison. (pp. 62-63)

Mice and Snakes:

Abu Bakr b. Wahshiya said, Some who are of Kasadan invented a bell which, upon ringing, brings out the mice from their holes, out of fear. They manufactured another bell which brings out snakes and vipers when they hear its sound. They made these to be saved from snakes, mice, and others like them which cause harm to man. (p. 36)

MYSTERIOUS ANIMALS

Yārīshtahīwayā

Abu Bakr said that this is the wild faţāya (?), as I think, or is like it. When it bites a man, he develops an intense thirst, the eyes become red, he is confused mentally, the body burns strongly, and the feet become black. [An antidote follows.] (p. 70)

Karqūqathī Būratā

Abu Bakr said of this beast that it is the hedgehog [cf. al-Jahiz 5:283; 6:22]. It seems to me, however, that qunfudh is a word of which we are doubtful. When this beast bites, there is a sharp pain in the place of the bite, intense colic in the belly, difficulty of breathing, suppression of urine and bowel movement. [An antidote follows.] (p. 70)

Shabbāmaghshā

Abu Bakr said that he knew that the Nabateans called it qarād shabbā and this man called it shabbāmaghshā. I cannot identify this animal. It is an animal which bites man. The bite does not give great grief at first but after one-half day goes by, the place of the bite becomes black. A strong anxiety befalls the victim, both cheeks become red, his belly is swollen, and his penis becomes tumescent. [An antidote follows.] (p. 70)

Shammakā nahri

Abu Bakr said that the author of the book said that this beast resembles the weasel but is a little thinner than it. When it sees a man, it pursues him until it bites him. It rushes on all animals to bite them. When vipers, all kinds of snakes, and most animals see it, they try to escape from it. It is unlike the weasel in the rear but resembles it in the face and head.

When one is bitten by it, there occurs a drying of the throat and cartilage of the nose [ i.e., the mucous membranes], a sharp pain at the place of the bite, excessive perspiration having a bad odor, incontinence of urine to such an extent that it is uninterrupted, and poor blood circulation. [An antidote follows.] (p. 70)

Qīmārāsā

This is an animal similar to the frog. It is found in barren wastelands and deserts where there is no water or moisture. He who is bitten has his flesh fall off little by little in less than an hour in the daytime. With this, there occurs a violent itch in his muscles and in all of his body. He feels colic in his belly together with a strong burning and sharp pricking. The blood is languid. When his flesh falls off and the blood flows, then he perishes. [An antidote follows.] (pp. 70-71)

Qīmārāsā, Treatment of Bite of

This is an animal in the shape of a frog but it creeps. It does not leap as the frog leaps. The worst of them are those in the sand in winter since it comes into existence in winter and, perhaps, remains in the sand until the summer. It has properties giving such strange effects that the explanation is lengthy. One of its properties is that when man grasps it with his hand, the flesh wastes away little by little on his arms, forearms and more of these limbs if the grasp is prolonged with his hand. [An antidote follows.] (p. 78-79)

Nabţūqimūhā, Treatment for Consuming

This is a small, red animal. Often its redness verges toward blue. It has numerous legs and two wings by which it flies not too far. It is often to be found on the cucumber (qiththā‘) and on [another species of] cucumber [khiyar – this is smaller than qiththā‘]. People sometimes confine them until they die and dry. Then they make them into a drink or food. Whoever drinks or eats it, has swelling on his tongue, pain in his stomach, blocking at the mouth of his stomach, a little colic in his bowels which is unbearable, an itch on his entire body, and a violent inflammation. [An antidote follows.] (p. 79)

– Martin Levey, “Medieval Arabic Toxicology: The Book on Poisons of Ibn Wahshiya and Its Relation to Early Indian and Greek Texts,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 56, Part 7, 1966.