#shug monkey

It’s Sunday morning and I’m blogging again, this is becoming a habit, quite a relaxing one with a cup of Sunday morning coffee. Today I’m chasing cryptids, online only… follow the link:

Cryptids & Creatures of Folklore Drawtober Day 6 — Shug Monkey

Image © Traci Shepherd, accessed at Arcane Beasts and Creatures here

[The third leg of our World Tour takes us to Europe, the smallest continent by landmass but probably the largest in terms of recorded folkloric monsters. That has as much with or more to do with the global prominence of various European peoples and languages on a political and academic scale than it does with any real propensity. Take for example black dogs. If we were dealing with outside anthropologists looking into Britain, all of the various black dogs would likely be lumped together, the same way that lots of indigenous American beliefs are all collected under the English language “thunderbirds”. But since British people were the ones writing it down, all of the different black dogs have been distinguished. And basically every county in Britain has its own version. The Shug Monkey, for example, is Cambridgeshire’s resident black dog.]

Shug Monkey CR 2 CN Magical Beast This creature resembles a hybrid of a dog and monkey, with a canine body and simian face. Its fingers are long and nimble, and its eyes glow.

Shug monkeys are widespread and adaptable semi-intelligent creatures, combining features of dogs and monkeys. They are gregarious, often combining forces into troops, or finding a larger, more powerful monster to be a sycophant for. They may surround other canine horrors such as galleytrots or barghests like pilot fish, both sniffing out prey for them and scavenging on whatever scraps are left over.

Shug monkeys are omnivorous, and are not necessarily out to hurt or kill humanoids, particularly if outnumbered. Their eerie gaze causes mild fear and renders its victims more likely to succumb to other fear effects. While people are so distracted, a shug monkey may attempt to rob them of food or shiny objects, lure them into an ambush, or simply run away. They can go invisible, but only for brief periods of time.

Shug monkeys like to have caves or hollow trees to hide in during the day, but can be found in a wide variety of habitats. They are found in the largest numbers underground, where they may gather in dark folk colonies. The caligni regard shug monkeys as freelance pets, garbage disposals and occasional dietary supplements during lean times, the way that feral dogs or pigs may be treated in aboveground settlements.

A shug monkey is about three feet long. They are most comfortable on all fours, but rise to their hind legs in order to scratch at enemies or rifle through trash.

My interpretation of a Shug Monkey.

The Shug Monkey is a mythical creature, in the folklore of Cambridgeshire, sharing the features of a dog and monkey, which reportedly haunted Slough Hill Lane which leads from the village of West Wratting to nearby Balsham. The creature, said to have the body of a jet-black shaggy sheepdog and the face of a monkey with staring eyes,was not believed to be an escaped primate nor a cryptid hominoid (like bigfoot or the yeti) but rather a supernatural ghost or demon.  Local writer and broadcaster James Wentworth Day, who first related stories of the Shug Monkey in Here Are Ghosts and Witches (1954), described it as a curious variation of Black Shuck, while local folklorist Polly Howat suggests that both share common origins in Norse mythology. Local Police Constable A. Taylor, who heard the stories of the creature in his youth, described it to Wentworth Day as, "a cross between a big rough-coated dog and a monkey with big shining eyes. Sometimes it would shuffle along on its hind legs and at other times it would whiz past on all fours."