Hiya folks,
It`s Muirhead`s Mysteries time again.
Today we are on part three of Fortean shorts. I do a bit of bending the rules with item one because it concerns Homo sapiens not the usual 'animal' I have been covering, if you catch my meaning.
PEAK POPULATION: 'A remote mountain village where no-one has died since 1942 boasts 189 residents who are more than 130 years old - including one who is 142.' (1)
I love these tales of human longevity. Has anyone ever done a serious study of them? I plan to live to at least 200 myself.
OLD NEWS 'Workmen refurbishing a newsagent`s in Halesworth, Suffolk, found a mummified black cat, buried 400 years ago to ward off evil spirits, under the floorboards.' (2)
There is a pamphlet called Skulls, Cats and Witch Bottles, by Nigel Pennick, that I gave to Jon years ago, which is well worth reading if you can find a copy.
RADIOACTIVE BATS: 'Bats contaminated by radiation from a nuclear dumping ground have invaded a children`s holiday camp in Chelyabinsk, Siberia, the ITAR-TASS news agency said yesterday.' (3) I wonder how many more bats have been spreading radiation around other former Soviet nuclear dumps?
BODY OF BEHEMOTH: 'A journalist in northern Russia said yesterday he had discovered the remains of a huge “forest monster” which climbed trees and lived off bark, Itar-Tass news agency reported. Vyacheslav Oparin said people in the Kareila region had often seen footprints of the animal, which they called an abominable snowman.' (4) This is interesting because we seem to have 2 creatures here: one that acts like an animal and the other more human-like.
MOTOR MONSTER: 'Driver Chris Hernandez found a 6ft lizard curled round the engine of his car while checking the steering in Florida' (5) I love these inadvertantly mobile animal passenger stories
UNTITLED: 'Mr Philip Nichols, an ex-oil man from Leominster, has died after being knocked over by a sheep.' (6) I am a bit dubious about this one; note the title of the original newspaper. But I thought it was amusing.
And finally: one of my favourites, aberrant terrapins – SHELL SHOCK: 'Fisherman Roy Peacock hooked a 6 inch terrapin- in a canal. Now Ray, a fireman at Worksop, Notts is keeping his exotic catch in a sink at the fire station while he tries to find it a new home. He said yesterday: “ The owner may have set it free because it grew too big for life in a small aquarium.”' (7)
1 Daily Mirror. July 24th 1992.
2 The Independent October 2nd 1992
3 Daily Telegraph July 19th 1993
4 Guardian April 6th 1992
5 Daily Mirror July 8th 1992
6 Worcester Source (sic) January 22nd 1987 in Private Eye April 3rd 1987
7. Daily Mirror (?) May 2nd 1987
The Cure A Forest
Come closer and see
See into the trees
Find the girl
While you can
Come closer and see
See into the dark
Just follow your eyes
Just follow your eyes….
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