This peculiar creature, the offspring of a girl who had slept with the Devil, was purused by Pellinore and later by Palamedes.

It had the head of a snake, the body of a leopard, the hindquarters of a lion and the feet of a hart. From its stomach came the sound of forty hounds questing, that is, baying, thereby giving it its name.

The animal seems to have its origin in an allegorical creature, variously described with barking whelps inside her; this was seen by Percivale and mentioned by Gerbert and in Perlesvaus.