Were the Dark Ages Triggered by Volcano

Were the Dark Ages Triggered by Volcano-Related Climate Changes in the 6th Century?

(If so, was Krakatau volcano the culprit?)
by Ken Wohletz
Los Alamos National Laboratory
LA-UR 00-4608
Copyright  2000 UC

Modern history has its origins in the tumultuous 6th and 7th centuries. During this period agricultural failures and the emergence of the plague contributed to: (1) the demise of ancient super cities, old Persia, Indonesian civilizations, the Nasca culture of South America, and southern Arabian civilizations; (2) the schism of the Roman Empire with the conception of many nation states and the re-birth of a united China; and (3) the origin and spread of Islam while Arian Christianity disappeared. In his book, Catastrophe An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World, author David Keys explores history and archaeology to link all of these human upheavals to climate destabilization brought on by a natural catastrophe, with strong evidence from tree-ring and ice-core data that it occurred in 535 AD.

via Were the Dark Ages Triggered by Volcano.

SILVAN SPIRITS

 

The Russians call a silvan spirit Lešiy, Lesovik (cf. Russian lesu, "forest, wood"), and such a being shows himself either in human or in animal guise. When he appears in the former shape, he is an old man with long hair and beard, with flashing green eyes, and with his body covered by a thick coat of hair. His stature depends on the height of the tree, etc., which he inhabits: in the forests he may attain the size of high trees; in the fields he is no taller than grass. In the woods the Lešiye frequently appear to travelers as ordinary people or as their friends; but at other times they take the shapes of bears, wolves, hares, etc. They live in deep woods and in fields; forests, fields, and meadows are the realm over which they rule. Usually there is only one Lešiy in each wood; but if there are several, a "silvan czar" is their lord. Some Lešiye remain alone by themselves in forest solitudes and in caves, while others are fond of society and build in the woods spacious dwellings where they live with their wives and children.

The principal business of the silvan spirits is to guard the forest. They do not allow people to whistle or to shout there; they drive away thieves, frightening them by their cries and playing pranks upon them. The deer and the birds enjoy their protection; but their favorite is the bear, with whom they feast and revel.

When the Lešiy walks through the forest to look after his property, a rustling of the trees accompanies him; he roams through the woods, rocks upon the boughs, whistles, laughs, claps his hands, cracks his whip, neighs like a horse, lows like a cow, barks like a dog, and mews like a cat. The echo is his work; and since a strong wind constantly blows around him, no man has ever seen his footsteps either in sand or in snow.

He is of a mocking and teasing disposition, and is fond of misleading those who have lost their way, removing boundary stones and signposts, or taking the shape of a wanderer's friend to confuse him and lure him into thickets and morasses. He also entices girls and children into his copses, where he keeps them until, long afterward, they escape with their honor lost; and he likewise substitutes his own offspring for human children, such a changeling being ugly, stupid, and voracious, but strong as a horse. If a man suddenly falls ill while in the forest, he believes that this affliction has been sent upon him by the Lešiy; to recover his health he wraps a slice of salted bread in linen and lays it in the woods as a present for the silvan spirit.

Shepherds and huntsmen gain the Lešiy's favor by presents. The former make him an offering in the shape of a cow and thus secure his protection for their flocks; while the latter place a piece of salted bread on the stump of a tree and leave for him the first game which they take. Moreover, the recitation of certain formulae secures his services, and there are many ways to obviate the danger of being led astray by him as by turning one's garments inside out, putting the right shoe on the left foot, bending down to look between one's legs, etc.

Nymphs and dryads likewise show themselves in the woods, and are pictured as beautiful girls, wearing a white or green gown, and with golden or green hair. In the evening, when stillness reigns in nature, they divert themselves by dancing and singing; and they also dance at noon, when it is dangerous to approach their circles, since they dance or tickle to death those who allow themselves to be attracted by their songs. They are most perilous to young lads, whereas they often feel pity for girls and richly reward them.

The dryads punish children who shout in the woods while gathering mushrooms; but, on the other hand, if they are courteously asked, they show where these fungi grow in abundance The forest where they live usually contains a magic well whose waters cure all diseases. Sometimes they marry country lads, but they will not permit themselves to be insulted or reminded of their descent.

Woods and mountains are the home of "Wild Women" (Bohemian Divoženky, Lusatian Džiwje Žony, Polish Dziwozony, Sluveoian Divje Devojke, Bulgarian Divi-te Leni), good-looking: beings with large square heads, long, thick hair (ruddy. or black in color), hairy bodies, and long fingers. They lived in underground burrows and had houseluo; is like mankind. They either gathered ears in the fields or picked them from the sheaves, and having ground the grain on a stone, they baked bread which spread its odor throughout the wood. Besides bread they ate the root of the liquorices and caught game and fish. They were fond of combing hemp, which they wove into frocks and shirts.

The "Wild Women" knew the secret forces of nature, and from plants and roots they prepared unguents with which they anointed themselves, thus becoming light and invisible. They were fond of music and singing; and storms were believed to be caused by their wild frolicking. Lads and lasses were invited to dance with them and afterward reaped rich rewards. They maintained a friendly intercourse with human beings, frequently entering their villages and borrowing kneading-troughs and other necessaries. Those who did not forget to reserve some dish for them were well repaid, for the "Wild Women" kept their houses in order, swept their rooms and courtyards, cleared their firesides of ashes, and took care of their children; in the fields they reaped the corn, and gathering up the grain, tied it Into sheaves; for the women they not only spun hemp, but also gave them crops that never diminished. Many stories are told about their marriages with country lads. They were model wives and housekeepers, but they vanished if any one called them "Wild Women," and untidy firesides or dirty kneading-troughs were also apt to drive them away.

They were dangerous to any person, whom they might meet alone in the forest, turning him round and round until he lost his way. They lay in wait especially for women who had just become mothers and substituted their own offspring for the human children, these changelings, called Divous ("Wild Brats") or Premien ("Changelings"), being ugly, squalling, and unshapely. The "Wild Women" did much harm to avaricious and greedy persons, dragging their corn along fields, bewitching their cows, acid afflicting their children with whooping-cough, or even killing them. It was during Midsummer Night that they were most powerful.

The Lusatian Serbs believe that the Džiwje Žony ("Wild Women") are white beings who reveal themselves at noon or at evening. They like to spin hemp; and if a girl spins or combs it for them, they reward her by leaves that become gold.

In Polish superstition the Dziwožony are superhuman females with cold and callous hearts and filled with passionate sensuality. They are tall in stature, their faces are thin, and their hair is long and disheveled. They fling their breasts over their shoulders, since otherwise they would be hindered in running; and their garments are always disarranged. Groups of them go about woods and fields, and if they chance upon human beings, they tickle the adults to death, but take the young folk with them to be their lovers and playmates. For this reason young people never go to the woods alone, but only in groups. In the belief of the Slovenians the Divje Devojke, or Dekle, dwell in the forests; at harvest-time they come down to the fields to reap the corn, and the "Wild Men" bind it into sheaves, the farmers' wives bringing them food in return. Where they came from no one can tell, and the cracking of whips has driven them away at last. The Divja Žena is a woman of tall figure, with an enormously large head and long black hair, but very short feet; site dwells in mountain caves. If a woman does not nurse her child properly, the "Wild Woman" comes and either substitutes a changeling for it or carries it away.

The Bulgarian Diva-ta Žena lives in the woods anti is covered with a thick coat of hair; she throws her long breasts over her shoulders and thus nurses her children. She is strong and savage, and her enunciation is defective.

More rarely mention is made of "Wild Men." They live in forests, and their entire bodies are covered with hair or moss, while a tuft of ferns adorns their heads. If they catch a young girl, they take her to wife; and if she runs away from them, they tear her child to pieces. They appear to lonely wanderers and, accompanied by terrible gusts of wind, they frighten them and lead them into morasses. The "Wild Men" like to tease gamekeepers and forest-rangers by imitating the hewing, sawing, and felling of trees; and they chase deer in the woods, hooting horribly all the while. In Slovenian tradition the Divji Mož ("Wild Man") lived in a deep forest cave and was possessed of terrible strength. The peasants of tie neighborhood who wished to avoid being harmed by him had to carry food to the cottage that was nearest his cave; but he was well disposed toward the peasants who cooked their meals in his hut and advised them how to set to work.

Besides these silvan spirits there are similar beings of various names. The ancient Czechs were familiar with Jeze and Jezenky ("Lamias"), who were said to have the faces of women, the bodies of sows, and the legs of horses, People still believe in Jezinky who, living in caves, put out the eyes of human beings after lulling them to sleep, and who kidnap small children, whom they feed on dainty morsels, in their caverns. The ancient Poles, too, knew of them and still tell stories of Jendzyna, who figures in popular fairy-tales as Jaga-baba, Ježibaba, Jendžibaba, etc.

In Moravia the "Wild Beings" are small and ungainly, live in fields, and may transform themselves into all sorts of animals. Since their own children are ugly, they steal those of mankind and treat them very well; but the changelings whom they foist on human beings are hideous and bald, with huge heads and stomachs; they neither grow nor talk, but eat a great deal, whining and whimpering constantly. The Slovaks have their Zruty, or Ozruti, who are wild and gigantic beings, living in the wildernesses of the Tatra Mountains.

African Desert Rift Confirmed as New Ocean in the Making

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The rift in Afar, Ethiopia (credit University of Rochester)

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'The rift in Afar, Ethiopia (credit University of Rochester)'

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Geologists Show that Seafloor Dynamics Are at Work in Splitting African Continent

In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial.
Now, scientists from several countries have confirmed that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world's oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea.
The new study, published in the latest issue of Geophysical Research Letters, suggests that the highly active volcanic boundaries along the edges of tectonic ocean plates may suddenly break apart in large sections, instead of little by little as has been predominantly believed. In addition, such sudden large-scale events on land pose a much more serious hazard to populations living near the rift than would several smaller events, says Cindy Ebinger, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester and co-author of the study.
"This work is a breakthrough in our understanding of continental rifting leading to the creation of new ocean basins," says Ken Macdonald, professor emeritus in the Department of Earth Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and who is not affiliated with the research. "For the first time they demonstrate that activity on one rift segment can trigger a major episode of magma injection and associated deformation on a neighboring segment. Careful study of the 2005 mega-dike intrusion and its aftermath will continue to provide extraordinary opportunities for learning about continental rifts and mid-ocean ridges."
"The whole point of this study is to learn whether what is happening in Ethiopia is like what is happening at the bottom of the ocean where it's almost impossible for us to go," says Ebinger. "We knew that if we could establish that, then Ethiopia would essentially be a unique and superb ocean-ridge laboratory for us. Because of the unprecedented cross-border collaboration behind this research, we now know that the answer is yes, it is analogous."
Atalay Ayele, professor at the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, led the investigation, painstakingly gathering seismic data surrounding the 2005 event that led to the giant rift opening more than 20 feet in width in just days. Along with the seismic information from Ethiopia, Ayele combined data from neighboring Eritrea with the help of Ghebrebrhan Ogubazghi, professor at the Eritrea Institute of Technology, and from Yemen with the help of Jamal Sholan of the National Yemen Seismological Observatory Center. The map he drew of when and where earthquakes happened in the region fit tremendously well with the more detailed analyses Ebinger has conducted in more recent years.
Ayele's reconstruction of events showed that the rift did not open in a series of small earthquakes over an extended period of time, but tore open along its entire 35-mile length in just days. A volcano called Dabbahu at the northern end of the rift erupted first, then magma pushed up through the middle of the rift area and began "unzipping" the rift in both directions, says Ebinger.
Since the 2005 event, Ebinger and her colleagues have installed seismometers and measured 12 similar—though dramatically less intense—events.
"We know that seafloor ridges are created by a similar intrusion of magma into a rift, but we never knew that a huge length of the ridge could break open at once like this," says Ebinger. She explains that since the areas where the seafloor is spreading are almost always situated under miles of ocean, it's nearly impossible to monitor more than a small section of the ridge at once so there's no way for geologists to know how much of the ridge may break open and spread at any one time. "Seafloor ridges are made up of sections, each of which can be hundreds of miles long. Because of this study, we now know that each one of those segments can tear open in a just a few days."
Ebinger and her colleagues are continuing to monitor the area in Ethiopia to learn more about how the magma system beneath the rift evolves as the rift continues to grow.
Additional authors of the study include Derek Keir, Tim Wright, and Graham Stuart, professors of earth and environment at the University of Leeds, U.K.; Roger Buck, professor at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, N.Y.; and Eric Jacques, professor at the Institute de Physique du Globe de Paris, France.
About the University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu) is one of the nation’s leading private universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, and the Memorial Art Gallery.
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Ancient Civilization Cut Path to Demise (Nasca, S. America)

The figure of a spider is seen in a desert plain in this undated file photo of an aerial view of the Nazca lines south of Lima, Peru.

The ancient South American Nasca civilization may have caused its own demise by clear-cutting huge swaths of forest, a new study has found.

The civilization disappeared mysteriously around 1,500 years ago, after apparently prospering during the first half of the first millennium A.D. in the valleys of south coastal Peru. Scientists have previously suggested a massive El Niño event disrupted the climate and caused the Nasca's demise, but new research suggests that deforestation may have also played an important role.

The Nasca are best known for leaving behind large geoglyphs called Nazca lines carved into the surface of the vast, empty desert plain that lies between the Peruvian towns of Nazca and Palpa. Though the lines have spawned many interpretations, including the suggestion that they were created by aliens, most scholars now think they were sacred pathways that Nasca people followed during their ancient rituals.

The enigmatic society that once flourished apparently collapsed around 500 A.D. after a bloody resource war. To investigate this event a team of archaeologists led by David Beresford-Jones from the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the U.K.'s Cambridge University gathered plant remains in the lower Ica Valley. Based on this evidence and pollen samples collected by co-researcher Alex Chepstow-Lusty of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, the scientists found that the Nasca cleared huge areas of forest to make way for agriculture. The native huarango tree, which once covered what is now a desert area, was gradually replaced by crops such as cotton and maize.

This vital tree was a crucial part of the desert's fragile ecosystem, serving to enhance soil fertility and moisture and help hold the Nasca's narrow, vulnerable irrigation channels in place.

Eventually, the people cut down so many trees that they reached a tipping point at which the arid ecosystem was irreversibly damaged, the researchers found. At this point a major El Niño event likely occurred, triggering floods made much worse by the lack of forests that used to protect the delicate desert ecology.

"These were very particular forests," Beresford-Jones said. "The huarango is a remarkable nitrogen-fixing tree and it was an important source of food, forage, timber and fuel for the local people. Furthermore, it is the ecological 'keystone' species in this desert zone, enhancing soil fertility and moisture, ameliorating desert extremes in the microclimate beneath its canopy and underpinning the floodplain with one of the deepest root systems of any tree known. In time, gradual woodland clearance crossed an ecological threshold - sharply defined in such desert environments - exposing the landscape to the region's extraordinary desert winds and the effects of El Niño floods."

Without the huarango cover, when El Niño did strike, the river down-cut into its floodplain, Nasca irrigation systems were damaged and the area became unworkable for agriculture. This finding fits with other evidence that shows that the generations that came afterwards did not fare as well as their predecessors: infant mortality rose, while average adult life expectancy fell. The crops cultivated by their ancestors disappeared in the lower Ica Valley and the area was probably afflicted by a severe drought.

The research also stresses the importance of huarango woodlands for sustaining livelihoods and creating fertile areas in these environments. There are now no undisturbed ecosystems in the region and what remains of the old-growth huarango forests is being destroyed in illegal charcoal-burning operations.

"The mistakes of prehistory offer us important lessons for our management of fragile, arid areas in the present," said co-author Oliver Whaley of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England.

Ohio Wesleyan art professor uncovers celestial connection in desert Southwest

By Doug Caruso 

Jim Krehbiel was up past midnight making a piece of art by layering maps and field notes onto photos he had taken of an ancient ritual site high on a cliff ledge in the desert Southwest.
He looked at the image of the kiva and remembered how the ruins were nearly inaccessible. Krehbiel had to lower himself on a rope to reach them.
Why, he wondered that night in the fall of 2007, would anyone build something so important in such a remote spot among the canyons and mesas?
It was then that the chairman of Ohio Wesleyan University's art department found himself at the conjunction of archaeology and astronomy.
Perhaps, he thought, the site was an observatory; a place to help religious leaders keep track of the solstices, time rituals and plantings.
"Their world around them is absolute, total chaos," Krehbiel said. "They were really at the mercy of the elements.
"So where do they go for something that's predictable, that remains the same, that you can count on: The sky and the relationship of those things on the horizon."
A discussion with Barbara Andereck, a professor of astronomy and physics at Ohio Wesleyan, put Krehbiel on a path that would help him test his ideas about the remote kivas he visited each summer.
Krehbiel was stepping into archeo-astronomy, the study of the ways ancient cultures tracked the sky's movements. The science has been gaining acceptance as a branch of archaeology since the 1970s.
England's Stonehenge, for example, is well known for its alignments with astronomical phenomena. In Ohio, archaeologists agree that ancient mound builders lined up some works with the movements of the sun and the moon.
In the Southwest, the most famous site is the Chaco Sun Dagger. The sun and moon shine through the spaces between slabs of rock to make slashes of light on a spiral carving in conjunction with the solstices and the movements of the moon.
But no one had identified such alignments at hundreds of remote ruins that dot the canyons of southeastern Utah.
One of Andereck's students, Natalie Cunningham, was looking for a senior project in 2008 and agreed to help Krehbiel.
"I had to do a lot of math to go back into the past and see where the sun and moon were," said Cunningham, who was studying English and astrophysics.
In the summer of 2008, Krehbiel took Cunningham to Utah to take readings.
Back at the kiva he'd pondered on that fall night, Krehbiel set up his transit and sighted in on a gap in the opposite canyon rim where he thought the winter solstice sun might rise.
Instead, he found that the moon rises there during an event called the major lunar standstill, which occurs every 18.6 years.
The major standstill occurs when the moon rises and sets in its longest arc across the horizon -- the lunar version of the annual summer solstice when the sun makes its longest arc across the sky.
But they also found that the calculations Cunningham made in relatively flat Ohio only went so far in the canyons of Utah.
The cliff-top kiva is on a relatively flat plane with the features on the opposite canyon rim and with the horizon, so the calculations were close enough to work there. But they didn't work for kivas deep inside a canyon.Because the canyon rim is high above, the sun and moon don't appear to observers at those sites until they're far above the true horizon. Since they cross the sky in an arc, the sun and moon appeared in a different spot than Cunningham had calculated.
"I said 'Oh, crap, it's not nearly good enough,' " said Cunningham, who is now at the University of Arizona pursuing a graduate degree in nonfiction writing.
She found a better model that summer in a book published in 1942 by the U.S. Navy: Spherical Trigonometry with Naval and Military Applications.
Now she could derive an equation that took the arc of the sky into consideration.
"We went back out in October of 2008 and re-examined the sites," Krehbiel said. "We had the spherical trig charts in hand, and everything just fell into place."
They have found alignments for solstices, equinoxes and major and minor lunar standstills at 29 sites so far.
Krehbiel takes sightings only from spots where the cliff-dwellers left a sign, such as a spiral carving or a basin chipped out of the rock.
He doesn't always find alignments with distinct features on the horizon. About 30 percent of the sites he's checked showed none, he said.
Jeff Dean, a professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson, has spent decades using tree-ring data to fix when archaeological sites throughout the Southwest were built. He took a look at Krehbiel's work recently and said it makes sense to him.
"I don't know of anybody that actually measured these things to the extent that he and his colleagues are doing," Dean said.
"He picks plausible places to set up the equipment, they're making calculations based on certain techniques and they're also concerned about any variation put in place by the date."
Noreen Fritz, an archaeologist with the National Park Service, has asked Krehbiel to write reports on his findings on seven sites in the parks she oversees in southeastern Utah.
"He's looking at these sites with fresh eyes," she said. "One was a site we work at regularly. You always walk by these upright stones, but it turns out they're sighting stones."
In June, Cunningham hiked up to a kiva with Krehbiel to watch the sun set on the summer solstice. She calculated that they'd see it set through a rock window if they set up near a handprint marking.
They arrived about a half an hour early, but the position of the sun worried them.
"It was pretty far to the left," Cunningham said. "We kept saying 'It's not going to hit that window.' We were in a bit of a panic."
Still, they set up the camera and the tripod. Then, just at the right time, the sun blazed through the rock window, shining onto the shrine.

Book: Lost Histories: Missing Cities, Treasures, Artefacts and People

Product Description

"The Ark of the Covenant" and the "Holy Grail" are the most famous lost artefacts in history, but everything from armies and cities, to plays and poems, have been swallowed up by the sands and seas of history, leaving behind only legends to tantalise and inspire archaeologists and treaure hunters alike. Is there any evidence of El Dorado and Sodom and Gommorah? Have we really lost plays by Shakespeare and dialogue from Aristotle? Will divers ever find the Golden Hide or Columbus' fleet? And where are the resting places of a host of bodies, from Ghengis Khan to George Mallory?

About the Author

Joel Levy is a writer on science, psychology, history and the paranormal, and the author of several books, including: - Really Useful - the history and science of everyday things. - Secret History - hidden forces that shaped the past - Boost Your Brain Power - a guide to testing and improving your mental abilities, from memory and problem solving to creativity and emotional intelligence. - How 'Perfect' is Your Partner? - co-author of a comprehensive guide to testing whether you and your partner are compatible. - KISS Guide to the Unexplained - a beginner's guide to historical secrets and mysteries, the paranormal and supernatural. - Fabulous Creatures - about creatures of myth and folklore. - The Universe in Your Pocket - a pocket compendium of essential facts. - Technocreatures - a guide to the exciting new science of biomorphic and biomimetic robots - robots modelled on animals.

REVIEW

The Vanishings, 13 Oct 2007

By	William Holmes "semloh2287" (Portland, OR USA)

Joel Levy's "Lost Histories" is an interesting survey of a whole range of ancient and historical mysteries. The mysteries involve people or treasures or cities that went missing, but Levy is pretty skeptical in his approach. If you buy the book expecting that the mysteries will be solved by appeals to supernatural or extraterrestrial forces, you'll be disappointed. On the other hand, if you are looking for a book that nicely recaps the mysteries and summarizes modern thinking about them (as I was), you'll really enjoy "Lost Histories".

Levy covers many topics in fairly short chapters--some of the stories will be familiar to those who enjoy tales of historical mysteries, but others (like the lost army of Cambyses, the lost Persian Fleet, the fate of King John's crown jewels and the tragic loss of the White Ship) seem fresh, at least to me. The book is divided into several sections, each of which includes several chapters. The section on "Lost Places" discusses Atlantis, The Temple of Solomon, The Library at Alexandria, Camelot and El Dorado; the section on "Lost Artefacts, Works and Relics" covers the Ark of the Covenant, the lost dialogues of Artistole, the Holy Grail (whatever it was), and Shakepeare's "lost" plays; "Lost Treasures" deals with the Dead Sea scrolls, King John's jewels, treasures of the Knights Templar, Montezuma's treasure, the buried pirate treasure of Captain Kidd, and the Oak Island Money Pit; "Lost People" explores the lost Persian army of Cambyses (swallowed up by the Egyptian desert), the location of Boudicca's grave, The Lost Colony of Roanoke, and, of course, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart; finally, the section on "Lost Wrecks" seeks the location of the Persian invasion fleets lost during the wars with Greece, the White Ship, Spanish treasure galleons and Lord Franklin's ill fated expedition to find the Northwest Passage.

I found Levy's book to be quite readable, although the number of topics covered means that he doesn't get into any of them in great detail. Each chapter comes with a list of references, which will help the reader who wants to dive more deeply into the topics that Levy surveys.

All in all, this is a fun, entertaining little book, and one of the better expositions of historical mysteries that I've encountered. Based on my experience with this volume, I ordered up Levy's "Secret History" and "The Doomsday Book" and look forward to some more enjoyable reading.

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Gef the Talking Mongoose

Your Fabulous Singing Mongoose - Cobras beware, who a mongoose dare.

WHEN IS A GHOST not a ghost? When it is a talking mongoose! In 1931 the Irving family started hearing strange sounds coming from the attic and walls of their farm in Dalby on the Isle of Man. James Irving, his wife Margaret and their daughter Voirrey were sure a large animal was scampering around the house out of sight. The noises it made were so loud, plates fall and hanging pictures moved. Over time, it began making bizarre hissing and crying sounds. James Irving decided to make animal noises at it, and, to his astonishment, the creature started doing these impressions back at him.

He decided to teach the beast a few words, and within weeks the creature could speak perfectly. It said its name was Gef, and it was a mongoose born on 7th June 1852 in Delhi, India. Gef refused to appear in front of the Irvings, and was known to be quite rude. When the Irvings threatened to leave him, he calmed down. The family and the mongoose grew close, and he even let them stroke him through a hole in the wall.

Eventually, the story of Gef spread, although when reporters came from the mainland, many were unimpressed with the phenomenon. They believed it was actually Voirrey who was creating the voice. In 1937 the Irvings sold the farm and were believed to have taken Gef with them. However, in 1947, the new owner claimed to have shot a strange, mongoose-like animal outside the house.

The idea of a mongoose in the Isle of Man is not quite as bizarre as it first appears. In 1912 a local farmer did import a group of the animals to kill rabbits on his land. However, most present-day researchers believe if Gef was anything, then he was probably a poltergeist. But there is one last interesting fact; in India they have a strange old legend. They say that over time, and with the right teacher, the mongoose can learn to speak.