The Orabou, or Orobon, is a strange fish-like creature that lived in the waters of Mount Marzouan, once known as Mount Orabou. The Orabou was described by French priest, explorer, cosmographer and writer André Thevet in his cosmographies.
Description[]
The Orabou is a large reptilian creature often depicted as a hunchbacked cat-like creature. It was covered in sturgeon scales with webbed feet. It was said that it made sounds like a cat and was nearly 3 metres long.
History[]
André Thevet described the Orabou in a chapter about North Africa and other lands of the Mediterranean in his book Cosmographie universelle (1575). Thevet described it as very ferocious towards other fish and it had foul tasting meat that was said to cause kidney stones. Thevet initially spelt it as "Orabou" with "Orobon" thought to be a misspelling.
In Popular Media[]
- The Orabou is featured in The Secret Saturdays video game Beast of the Fifth Sun.
Sources[]
- Mythical hybrid creature, 16th century (https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/469338/view)