Hi everyone,
I found this on the Web, from the The Times-Despatch: Ricmond Virginia May 14th 1905. About a strange fish caught in Fauquier near Morrisville, Virginia.
'The shape of the body and tail somewehat resembled a German carp, although the scales are as large as a quarter and very coarse and under these scales and over the entire body is a coating of fine soft hair about one half an inch long: but the most remarkable feature of the fish is the head, the face of which is strikingly like the face of a human being to the most minute detail, save that the nose and mouth protrude further forward, and the head comes in more sharply on the sides. The teeth are set in sockets and while similar in shape they are somewhat larger than those of an adult human being. The top of its head and the sides and under portion is covered with a very heavy growth of hair almost 6 inches long. The white meat (?) of chicken is about the only food this strange fish will eat, but it is doing fairly well in captivity.It is a very ferocious fish for its size and manifests the greatest dislike for strangers.
'From this pont on the story descends into the farcical. A Professor Ernst von Simprecht arives on the scene of the University of Leipsic (?) and offers $15,000 for a female of the species. He says the male is the only one of such a fish known to ever exist. It is mentioned in the literature of ancient Greece and Japan. Lastly, the fish is recorded as being able to imitate the human voice and was trained to say "Fishy wants a worm" and "Fishy wants a piece of fried chicken".'
No, I am not making this up!
Love Richard
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1 comment:
I seem to remember another case of this sort of tone, again published on the bloggo here somewhere, where a most peculiar humanoid water monster had been seen in the waterways of Accrington and surrounding areas.
This was in actual fact a spoof, whereby the author was giving enough clues whereby the object of this ridicule could be identified by the local people but not enough that the highly litigious personage could put the article before a court of law; the giveaway being that the "water monster" was described as a notorious drunkard (and where does a humanoid water monster get strong drink from?).
I suspect that this could be more of the same; a poking of fun at someone contemporary to that local area and time in an oblique manner that will take much research to uncover.
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