bonacho) of Galatia, this onachus being a creature that retaliated against pursuers by flinging its dung () like an arrow, and causing burns. The people besought Saint Martha for help, and she found the creature in the act of devouring a man. Merely by sprinkling holy water and holding up the cross, she caused the creature to become submissive and obedient. She then tied her girdle (to its neck), leading the beast to the villagers who cast rocks and spears at it until it died. Other sources The account of St. Martha and the tarasque in the Golden Legend (LA) roughly correspond to the versions of the legend found in the pseudo-Marcella ("V"), and in Vincent de Beauvais's Speculum historiale ("SH"). are near contemporaneous works (late 12th and 13th century), with the pseudo-Marcella probably being the oldest, and dating "between 1187 and 1212 or 1221". The three texts LA, SH, and V are similar in content with only modest variations. There is also a fourth variant Latin account, a "Life of St. Mary Magdalene and her sister St. Martha" (Vita Beatae Mariae Magdalenae et sororis ejus Sanctae Marthae) with somewhat divergent content from the other three, whose authorship had formerly been credited to Raban Maur (d. 856 AD), but since rejected as a false attribution, being the work of an unknown author perhaps as early as the late 12th century, or as late as the second half of the 13th century. The work is referred to as the "pseudo-Raban" by Louis Dumont and others. There is also a brief notice on the tarasque which occurs in Gervase of Tilbury (Gervais de Tilbury). Gervase assigns the habitat of the tarasque () to be an abyss near the city-gates of Arles and the rock/cliff beneath the castle/fort at Tarascon. Description As for the description of the tarasque's physical appearance given in the Legenda aurea, it is given a somewhat dissimilar treatment in the corresponding passage in the c. 1200 pseudo-Marcella: This description is said to "correspond rather closely" to 17th and 18th century iconography in paintings and woodcuts and to the modern-day effigy. Even the turtle-like carapaces ( "shields") is attested in this c. 1200 piece of writing, even though some commentators ventured it to be a 15th-century addition, created out of expedience to conceal the men carrying the beast's effigy paraded through town for the Pentecostal festivities. The head has later