#orabou

[dancflorhardkor]

Creatuanary 2026 Day 27: Orabou

[unknown-art-room1]

Orabou!

[charliescreatures]

An aquatic feline from Librum Prodigiosum! The Orabou, a legendary fish described in French cosmographers André Thevet’s Cosmographie Universelle in 1575- a work made to describe every part of the known world. This unusual beastie was said to live in the ocean by Mount Marzouan, they were 9 feet long and apparently had foul-tasting flesh which caused kidney stones if ingested!

[cryptids-of-the-world]

The Orabou is a semi-aquatic creature described in Old World Bestiaries by Thevet and is said to live in the waters surrounding Mount Marzouan. The Orabou  is described as a fish-like creature that is 9-10 feet in length with webbed feet with claws, a flipper-like tail, extremely tough scales, a humped back, and feline features such as whiskers and cat-like ears. The Orabou is said to be very violent towards other fish and if the Orabou was eaten by people their meat was said to taste awful and leave people with kidney stones.

[lpbestiary]

Orabou is a legendary fish described by André Thevet in his Cosmographie Universelle. Said to be somewhat feline in appearance, it has a humped back and tough, plate-like scales. It is describes as roughly nine feet in length.

Orabou lived in the sea by Mount Marzouan, once known as Mount Orabou, after the fish. Its flesh is said to be very foul-tasting, and will cause kidney stones if ingested.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Suggest a spook.

[valdram]

[littleghostie]

Cryptimber 6/30

249/365

[gotojobin]

Orabou #Orabou #Orobon #erroneously #Orobonerroneously Mount Marzouan, once known as Mount Orabou, was described by Thevet in his Cosmographie. It is home to a small population of Arabs, and the waters of the sea there house a fish known as Orabou, for which the mountain was once named. Not much is known of the orabou’s appearance. Thevet only states that it is nine to ten feet long, and is plated with armor like a brigandine, although its scales are not as tough as a crocodile’s hide. The depiction of the orabou provided gives it a humpbacked, rather feline appearance. Orabou flesh is particularly foul-tasting, and Thevet believed that old camel meat and Livonian mastiff were preferable to the execrable orabou. Eating it also results in kidney and bladder stones. Despite that, the inahabitants of Mount Marzouan eat it anyway, treating their stones with a diuretic concoction of orabou fat, two handfuls of false gold dust, and cyclamen. Paré takes the orabou from Thevet, but misspells its name as the phonetically-similar “orobon” and its locality as “Mount Mazouan”. Ever the embellisher, he also adds that it is extremely ferocious towards other fish. The orabou may have been inspired by crocodiles, although Thevet makes a distinction between the two. Another possibility is a monitor lizard, like a similar creature encountered by Sir Andrew de Toulongeon and Pierre de Vaudrei in the desert of Palestine. It was a three-foot-long green lizardlike animal covered with sturgeon-like scales, having feet like the hands of a child, a head like a hare’s, and a long lizard’s tail. It made sounds like a cat, and was feared by the Arabs accompanying the knights. Naturally this affront to the natural order was promptly slain.