Mike Hardcastle, Flying Snake`s Australian Sub-Editor found the following story on the excellent Trove Australian newspaper archive a few weeks ago. It is from the Townsville Daily Bulletin (Queensland) of August 21st 1935.
CHINA`S MONSTER
Loch Ness in the Shade
Gigantic Python
Kwangtung Province in China has now produced the “ Loch Ness” monster, for according to reports received here, says a Canton report, from Toy-Shan, a hilly district of the province, 42 villagers have been killed recently by a huge serpent which has terrorized the population of that district for some time past. The serpent was finally shot dead by a man more intrepid than the rest and this individual has now received a large reward from the local Magistrate. There are various conjectures afloat locally about the nature of the death-dealing monster, which some believe to have been a giant python of a type occasionally found in remoter districts. (!)
CHINA`S MONSTER
Loch Ness in the Shade
Gigantic Python
Kwangtung Province in China has now produced the “ Loch Ness” monster, for according to reports received here, says a Canton report, from Toy-Shan, a hilly district of the province, 42 villagers have been killed recently by a huge serpent which has terrorized the population of that district for some time past. The serpent was finally shot dead by a man more intrepid than the rest and this individual has now received a large reward from the local Magistrate. There are various conjectures afloat locally about the nature of the death-dealing monster, which some believe to have been a giant python of a type occasionally found in remoter districts. (!)
Well, there we are. I wonder how many other stories there were around the world in the first half of the decade of the 1930s prompted by the continuing saga of Loch Ness?
Richard
Richard
The legendary Chinese snake is the Pa snake, supposedly big enough to swallow elephants, and both the legend and the name seem to have come out of the west by way of India (Pa is shortened from Poa, which is the same as our Boa)
ReplyDeleteI would like to think there really were giant pythons there but I seriously doubt it, especially since the legend says they eat elephants. More than likely the legend is actually based on the same type of wave-effect as is usually reported as the Loch Ness Monster, and that has been my solution to this partricular mystery for many years. But in this case there is supposedly a real snake that was shot and made the news. If we get more and better evidence for that there really might be an outsized python at the base of it (One of Richard Freeman's Nagas perhaps) but on the whole of the evidence on the matter I have seen so far, I think this is a hoax. I'd happily change my mind if better evidence to the contrary is forthcoming.
Best Wishes, Dale D.