These Medieval illustrations perfectly capture the hilariously strange powers of the Bonnacon, a mythological being from European folklore that sprays explosive diarrhea onto its victims. When threatened, it expels a stream of caustic dung that can scorch anything it touches, allowing it to escape. Medieval bestiaries, such as the Aberdeen Bestiary, describe the bonnacon as having the head and body of a bull with the maned neck of a horse. Its horns are convoluted and curl back on themselves, making them useless as weapons.
The Bonnacon's poop, however, is anything but harmless. From the Public Domain Review: "According to Pliny the Elder, the excrement voided the animal's body with such explosive force that it could hit targets more than a football pitch away. Contact with its dung was said to burn like a kind of fire, scorching hunting dogs and anyone not equipped with protective gear. (There is some uncertainty whether the weapon was liquid or gaseous, super-heated or acidic.)"
Many of the superb illustrations in this collection from the Public Domain Review depict the Bonnacon using its special defense mechanism. The people near the creature are often covering their mouths and noses in horror or trying to fight the beast while being sprayed. These images made me laugh so much, and now the Bonnacon is my new favorite mythological being.
See also: Here's what happened when Mythbusters let bulls loose in a china shop
