The gyascutus is loose!!!

[DannMcGrew]

Gotta be a story here.

merriam-webster.com/words-at-play
Gyascutus

Definition - an imaginary large four-legged beast with legs on one side longer than on the other for walking on hillsides
Described as a "near relative of the Whang-Doodle and a distant cousin of the Snipe," the gyascutus made its first appearance in American newspapers in the 1840s, and has played a minor role in American folklore since then. In one tale, a pair of the critters clung to each other for support as they wended their way to western territories; in other stories, the lopsided gyascutus would topple off hillsides and be unable to stand up again.
Many of the earliest appearance of the gyacutus (pluralized as gyascutuses, if you ever meet more than one) come in accounts of Yankee con men who go about the South, swindling people through charging admission to a showing of this fabled creature. One of the con men dresses as the beast, and at some point in the show (after having loudly commented on its ferocity) his confederate will burst into the room shouting “Ladies and gentlemen! Take care of yourselves!! The gyascutus is loose!!!”, prompting general mayhem, and an end to the viewing.

Agent—We have, madam, six elephants, but these constitute a comparitively unimportant part of the show.—We have living specimens of bipeds and quadrupeds who tramped over the earth not only in the antedeluvian, but also in the pliocene and post miocene period, embracing the megatherium with six legs and two tails; icthyosarus, with legs and three tails; the gyascutus, with no eyes, two noses, and four tails; the plesiosarus, resembling Satan in shape, which spits fire and breathes sulphurous fumes; the whangdoodle, with one eye and five tails, and many other species too dumerous for enumeration. We also have a pious lawyer.
Old Lady—Well I declare.
— Nebraska Advertiser (Auburn, NE), 6 Jul. 1865

Hapax Legomenon

Definition - a word or form occurring only once in a document or corpus
Although it may seem odd that this term has a plural (hapax legomena), it is not illogical. For there may be multiple hapax legomena in any single work. The word (from the Greek "something said only once") has proven quite useful to biblical scholars and those studying ancient writings. Each hapax legomenon is especially difficult to interpret because contextual clues are, by definition, limited.

Prof. Butler has taken the trouble to hunt out, in the concordances and by considerable personal investigation, the hapax legomena in Shakespeare, and estimates that they foot up to the the astonishing total of about 6500—showing that the great master discarded, after once using, more different words than would fill and enrich the English Bible.
— Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI), 31 Dec. 1879

 

[Venusian Broon]

Here in old Scotland we have long known that haggi - the animal we hunt for the exquisite ' o great chieftain o' the pudden race' the Haggis - has exactly this morphology for legs.

Of course they are a special breed, the Highland haggi, as it is well known that most Scottish hills and mountains are clockwise, and the creatures are therefore evolved to have limbs set in this tastier direction.

I have some haggi eggs for sale if any people here have a clockwise hill in their neighbourhood and wish to breed a population. (Haggi eggs are ingeniously disguised as pebbles and smooth stones.)

 

[DannMcGrew]

I have some haggi eggs for sale if any people here have a clockwise hill in their neighbourhood and wish to breed a population. (Haggi eggs are ingeniously disguised as pebbles and smooth stones.)

Delighted! But it must wait until the season turns and with it the hill.

 

[nixie]

A manager at work recently asked me if the haggis existed. She was deadly serious and now believes wild haggis roam The Highlands . I even showed her a picture

I wanted one with a trumpet nose but couldn't find one. How long do you think I can string her along and keep a straight face?

 

[Venusian Broon]

A manager at work recently asked me if the haggis existed. She was deadly serious and now believes wild haggis roam The Highlands . I even showed her a picture View attachment 60003View attachment 60003

I wanted one with a trumpet nose but couldn't find one. How long do you think I can string her along and keep a straight face?

Just show her a picture of a heather carpeted Scottish hill and insist that it's clear that there is a wild haggi on the left about 20 metres away. Say you can see it clearly.

EDIT: oh, if she is interested in haggi eggs, I have a few. A couple of hundred quid each, but I guarantee their pedigree....

 

[nixie]

I did try and sell her invisible ink but she couldn't see its worth. Told her it would be good for putting forward her argument on why France is the capital of Paris.

She does truly believe that.