Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lammon. This is the Monster Fact,
Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
Speaker 2: focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. We've
Speaker 2: been talking about manta rays on Stuff to Blow Your
Speaker 2: Mind recently, so I thought it was high time to
Speaker 2: discuss a selection of creatures that captivated me many years
Speaker 2: ago when I first picked up a copy of Carol
Speaker 2: Rose's Giants, Monsters and Dragons and Encyclopedia of Folklore, legend
Speaker 2: in myth If you've listened to the show for any
Speaker 2: amount of time, you've heard me champion this book a lot.
Speaker 2: My copy is well worn. Rose compiles an exhaustive, if
Speaker 2: inevitably incomplete, encyclopedia of mythic, folkloric, legendary and literary creatures,
Speaker 2: and early on I was captivated by some of the
Speaker 2: Chilean creatures listed in its pages, several of which relate
Speaker 2: to hides and bladders. Not only are some of these
Speaker 2: possibly connected to observations of mantas and other rays, manta
Speaker 2: even has its own listing. She describes the manta as
Speaker 2: a giant sea going monster. From the folklore of ch Chile.
Speaker 2: Perhaps she means Chiloe island. It's just the creatures described
Speaker 2: as quote a flat, extended skin like a cow's hide,
Speaker 2: with eyes around the perimeter, four more on top where
Speaker 2: a head would have been, and tentacles and tail with cloths.
Speaker 2: So this creature is said to attack swimmers, folding around
Speaker 2: their bodies and pulling them into the depths to consume them.
Speaker 2: Rose shares that some have speculated that the tail might
Speaker 2: actually refer to some manner of cephalopod, like an octopus.
Speaker 2: The folkloric salt water manta, which as a reminder, means
Speaker 2: blanket in Spanish, would also connected to the freshwater quero
Speaker 2: Spanish for hide, which has the same mo in appearance
Speaker 2: and is said to be derived from the hide of
Speaker 2: a donkey that quote fell into the river, unfolded, came alive,
Speaker 2: and then engulfed every other living thing that came its way.
Speaker 2: Both are also said to cause storms when they return
Speaker 2: to the water after basking on the rocks. So once
Speaker 2: more we have a flattened or amorphous entity that could
Speaker 2: easily be compared to various octopi and certainly rays. There
Speaker 2: are no known freshwater cephalopods. However, there are freshwater rays
Speaker 2: native to South America, if not actually to Chile itself.
Speaker 2: She also mentions the trel Kawikov from the folklore of
Speaker 2: the Arocanian people of Chile, which also matches the description
Speaker 2: of the quiro and the folkloric manta, but with the
Speaker 2: added detail that it is the minion of the dreaded
Speaker 2: Imvunche or Imbunche, a great bladder like vampire creature that
Speaker 2: lives deep in an underground lake, and it depends on
Speaker 2: the trel quukure to deliver its human prey. Rose also
Speaker 2: profiles another Chilean monster said to be part of this
Speaker 2: horrific community of creatures, the Shivato, also part of Arocanian traditions,
Speaker 2: said to be a monstrous cannibal humanoid created by witches
Speaker 2: from the body of a kidnapped child, a horrifying process
Speaker 2: said to take many years, also known as enserados in Spanish,
Speaker 2: Rose describes how the witches were said to sow up
Speaker 2: the orifices of the abducted child and feed them only
Speaker 2: goat and human flesh, gradually transforming them into hairy, gray
Speaker 2: savages beings which might also eventually transform into an invunce
Speaker 2: or Embunche, or even a shivato. Other accounts list other
Speaker 2: horrifying mutilations that are part of the transformation process quite
Speaker 2: a horrific, monstrous life cycle. Rose's main source for these
Speaker 2: creatures would seem to be the nineteen eighty eight or
Speaker 2: eighty nine book Lake Monster Traditions by Mirger and Gagnon,
Speaker 2: which is rather hard to come by these days. The
Speaker 2: Invunce or Embunche in particular, has found its way into
Speaker 2: various popular works of modern fiction, including Chilean author Jose
Speaker 2: Donoso's magical realist novel The Obscene Bird of Night from
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy, as well as Alan Moore's terrific run on
Speaker 2: DC comics Swamp Thing. I've had a hard time finding
Speaker 2: additional materials on these various creatures, at least in English,
Speaker 2: which is a shame, because I'd love to know more
Speaker 2: about where these accounts come from, how they're interconnected, and
Speaker 2: what they meant to the people who hold or held
Speaker 2: these traditions. Certainly, if you, the listener, know of any
Speaker 2: good resources on these creatures these topics, please send them
Speaker 2: my way and we can follow up in the future.
Speaker 2: But in the absence of such resources, we can only
Speaker 2: speculate to what extent some of these traditions may have
Speaker 2: been based on the observation of salt water or even
Speaker 2: freshwater rays, as well as octopi. Most such creatures are
Speaker 2: of little thread. Of course, even steamrays result in no
Speaker 2: more than I believe one or two human deaths per year.
Speaker 2: But just as many human traditions have identified something otherworldly
Speaker 2: and even divine in the movements of rays, others have
Speaker 2: cast them as potentially dangerous predators. Tune in for additional
Speaker 2: episodes of The Monster, Fact, the Artifact, or anomiliustipendium each week.
Speaker 2: As always, you can email us at contact at stuff
Speaker 2: to Blow your Mind dot com.
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