Buopoth

As children we listen and dream [and] we think but half-formed thoughts, and when as men we try to remember, we are dulled and prosaic with the poison of life. But some of us awake in the night with strange phantasms of enchanted hills and gardens . . .

— H. P. Lovecraft

This lumbering herbivorous mammal is reminiscent of the Proboscidea. The Buopoth’s felt-like hide is delicately-colored. The ears are complex and curiously humanoid. The back is adorned with two rows of skin-covered protuberances which seem defensive in purpose. Its eyes are large and disconcertingly intelligent, and its call is a soft trumpeting.

The characteristic Buopoth feature is the proboscis, found among no other living mammal. The musculature and nervation of this unique organ recently have been described (Mustoll, 1988). It is now clear that Buopoths, far from being near-kin of elephants and sirenians, are most closely related to the Rhinogradentia. The ancestor of the Buopoth would appear to have been the so-called Primitive Snouter, a tiny shrew-like mammal (Stümpke, 1964).

Habitat : warm tropical forests, avoiding humans and human dwellings.

Distribution : across the central Dreamlands.

Comparative height chart

Life and Habits : the shy and solitary Buopoth is normally difficult to study, but the musical vigor of its courtship and mating is often reproduced in Dreamlands song and dance. Normally a single calf is born, occasionally twins or triplets are seen. A calf reaches fertile adulthood in three to four years.

A cornered Buopoth may make a single charge to knock down the threat and to escape. (Since an adult weighs a ton or more and can bolt at speeds of twenty miles an hour, we advise caution.) The fugitive Buopoth may then hide in a jungle thicket for hours. Given a choice, the creature prefers to defend itself by submerging beneath the surface of a stream or lake, taking air through its proboscis, and placidly feeding on underwater plants as it waits for danger to depart.

The tofflebol, a white waxy root sweet and crunchy to the taste, is a favorite delicacy of the Buopoth. The tofflebol bush has sheaves of long, yellow- and green-speckled leaves: a freshly-uprooted bush is good evidence that a Buopoth is in the area (Mario, 1987).

Distinguishing Buopoths :

• The distinctive Buopoth renders identification trivial.

A Primitive Snouter New evidence suggests that colonies of this ancient creature, the forerunner of the Buopoth, still exist along the road to Mhor.