Features: Dog and monkey cross with five hands
Source: Aztec Mythology
Habitat: Near water
Ahuizotl resembled a small dog with black, shiny and smooth rubberlike skin.
Its limbs were outfitted with hands that were very agile and capable of manipulation like those of a monkey. Its long tail was also equipped with an additional fifth hand.
This little creature was feared for its vicious appetite for human parts. It is said to have a particular liking for the nails, eyes and teeth.
Leftover corpses were often found completely unscathed but always left toothless, with empty eye sockets and mutilated digits.
Hiding in watery caverns and sometimes even weeping like an abandoned infant, it would lay in wait for a meal.
Passersby or curious hikers that would venture a little too close to the waters edge would be snatched by its long powerful tail equipped with that additional creepy hand.
It would then carry the poor victim under water to its home deep in the caves. There it would feed, happily indulging on its favorites tidbits- the nails, eyes and teeth. An Aztec King even named himself after the beast and chose it as his mascot.
He is believed to have ordered the sacrifice of over 20,000 people in the name of the construction of the Great Pyramid in Tenochtitlan.
After the death of this evil king, the Aztecs continued to believe in the stories of this horrible mythical beast.