Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Anyone with a younger sibling knows how hard
Speaker 1: it is to keep prying eyes from glimpsing their diary
Speaker 1: or rooting around in their closet. It's not always possible
Speaker 1: to lock something valuable away, because someone nosy enough will
Speaker 1: always find a way to get to it. Scribes in
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages had similar problems. They were typically monks
Speaker 1: who were experts in the art of handwriting and calligraphy.
Speaker 1: Churches at the time housed most books and would send
Speaker 1: their scribes to other churches to copy important manuscripts for
Speaker 1: their own libraries. A dedicated monk would spend morning till
Speaker 1: night hunched over a desk, fingers gripping their pen until
Speaker 1: the sun disappeared. Candles were too dangerous to use around
Speaker 1: the manuscripts for obvious reasons. Many books from that era
Speaker 1: had been lost due to fires, some accidentally, some set deliberately,
Speaker 1: so when darkness fell it was time to retire. The
Speaker 1: work would then begin with the sun the next day.
Speaker 1: When a scribe finished a book, he might write a
Speaker 1: little note at the end to let the reader know
Speaker 1: who copied it and what they had endured. Some messages
Speaker 1: were even amusing, like the one that read, please give
Speaker 1: me a drink. Elsewhere the comment let my right hand
Speaker 1: be free from pain conveyed in simple words a sad
Speaker 1: truth about the real cost of these volumes. Books of
Speaker 1: this time period were typically made of parchment, a kind
Speaker 1: of paper made from animal skin. This material was crafted
Speaker 1: by skilled tradesmen, which meant it cost quite a bit
Speaker 1: of money to procure. Ascribe would then copy an important
Speaker 1: manuscript onto it, such as the Bible. All of this
Speaker 1: specialized labor made books collectors items for the wealthy. However,
Speaker 1: since these objects were usually found only in monasteries and
Speaker 1: certain private collections, they also became prime targets for thieves,
Speaker 1: and it was easy picking too. These scribes didn't have
Speaker 1: a proper way to safeguard their works in progress, and
Speaker 1: their libraries didn't have the space or resources to keep
Speaker 1: every volume behind lock and key. Instead, they came up
Speaker 1: with a more inventive way to discourage people from stealing
Speaker 1: their books. They used their words. At the beginning of
Speaker 1: a volume, and sometimes even at the end, the scribe
Speaker 1: or the book's owner would write a curse for any
Speaker 1: would be thief. Punishments wished upon them ranged from excommunication
Speaker 1: from the church or anathema, a special formal curse issued
Speaker 1: by someone powerful like the pope, two more um creative
Speaker 1: methods of retribution. For example, one third teenth century text
Speaker 1: kept at the Vatican cursed anyone who stole it with
Speaker 1: having their eyes torn out. Others warn of being hanged
Speaker 1: or eaten by pigs, or drowned, sometimes all three together.
Speaker 1: And book curses weren't bestowed only upon thieves. If a
Speaker 1: book was borrowed and not returned, or if it was damaged,
Speaker 1: then that person might invite all kinds of torture upon themselves.
Speaker 1: They could be sentenced to the pits of hell, where
Speaker 1: they would be poked with forks by demons. Some books
Speaker 1: just flat out implied that the offending person would die immediately.
Speaker 1: Of course, scribes didn't spend much of their time coming
Speaker 1: up with a large variety of curses to put in
Speaker 1: their books. Most medieval text features similar warnings within their pages.
Speaker 1: The messages were just meant to be a simple deterrent.
Speaker 1: At the time, something as serious as anathema or excommunication
Speaker 1: was enough to ward off all but the greediest defenders.
Speaker 1: For them to lose a connection to the church was
Speaker 1: punishment worse than death. Still, it's clear by of the
Speaker 1: more detailed curses that scribes and book owners took at
Speaker 1: least a little pleasure in explaining exactly how a thief
Speaker 1: was supposed to die. In one copy of the Christian Bible,
Speaker 1: written during the late eleven hundred, ascribe wrote the following,
Speaker 1: if anyone take away this book, let him die the death,
Speaker 1: let him be fried in a pan. Let the falling
Speaker 1: sickness and fever sees him. Let him be broken on
Speaker 1: the wheel and hanged effective. Well, it's hard to say
Speaker 1: for sure, but curious you better believe it. There's a
Speaker 1: reason people are afraid of the dark. It's our fear
Speaker 1: of the unknown, what might be lurking in the shadows,
Speaker 1: waiting to strike. Sure, our parents tell us, as they
Speaker 1: tuck us into bed, that there's nothing to worry about,
Speaker 1: that the dark can't hurt us, But oh how wrong
Speaker 1: they are. In Kenya, in the British began construction of
Speaker 1: a railway bridge over the Tsavo River. The project was
Speaker 1: part of a massive undertaking to connect Uganda with the
Speaker 1: Indian Ocean. Miles of camps were set up and thousands
Speaker 1: of Indian laborers moved in to start work on the bridge.
Speaker 1: Heading up the project was John Henry Patterson, a lieutenant
Speaker 1: colonel with the British Army, but just days after his arrival,
Speaker 1: the disappearances started. For nine months, workers were snatched from
Speaker 1: their tents each night. Sometimes there would be no trace
Speaker 1: of them, but occasionally the remains would be found just
Speaker 1: outside of camp. And nothing they did to keep their
Speaker 1: attackers at bay worked. The campfires they built couldn't protect them,
Speaker 1: neither could the barricades they made using the local whistling
Speaker 1: thorn trees. No matter how hard they tried to protect themselves,
Speaker 1: it just wasn't enough. Whatever was stocking them in the
Speaker 1: darkness was determined to get them. The disappearances did eventually stop, temporarily,
Speaker 1: at least, which relieve the laborers who thought the worst
Speaker 1: was finally behind them. Sadly, whatever had been taking them
Speaker 1: had moved on to a nearby encampment instead. Once they'd
Speaker 1: grown board, the attackers returned and the abductions increased. Every night,
Speaker 1: another worker disappeared into the African wilderness, never to be
Speaker 1: seen again. But Patterson eventually figured out what was going on.
Speaker 1: There had always been two assailants, he said, but in
Speaker 1: the beginning only one would enter the camp while the
Speaker 1: others stayed behind. Once they'd gotten comfortable, both of them
Speaker 1: entered together, picking people off too at a time. The
Speaker 1: laborers believed that they were plagued by a demonic force
Speaker 1: brought on by Patterson's arrival. After all, the disappearances had
Speaker 1: started shortly after he'd come to Tsavo. They were terrified,
Speaker 1: so much so that many started to leave the work camp,
Speaker 1: which put the project on hold, and of course, Patterson
Speaker 1: was also afraid he was at risk of both being
Speaker 1: mutinied by his workers and of being snatched by what
Speaker 1: lurked in the darkness. The British authorities stepped in to
Speaker 1: put a stop to the killings, but don't think of
Speaker 1: them as a night in shining armor coming to rescue
Speaker 1: the workers. They were more worried about the financial straits
Speaker 1: of the project. Caused by the shutdown, so they sent
Speaker 1: an officer named Mr. Whitehead along with his assistant to investigate,
Speaker 1: but just after arriving Methodsavo train station, Whitehead was attacked.
Speaker 1: He suffered multiple lacerations to his back while his assistant
Speaker 1: was carried off. Words soon got back to the main
Speaker 1: office and Indian soldiers were quickly dispatched to hunt down
Speaker 1: who or what was plucking these workers from their tents.
Speaker 1: But rather than weighed around and watched the infantrymen fall
Speaker 1: like toy soldiers one by one, Patterson decided to take
Speaker 1: matters into his own hands. He was a hunter and
Speaker 1: this would prove to be his most dangerous game. After
Speaker 1: setting a trap, he climbed up into a tree and
Speaker 1: took his position for the night. When the killers arrived
Speaker 1: as expected, Patterson named his rifle and fired the bullet
Speaker 1: hit one attacker in the leg, wounding it. Sometime later, though,
Speaker 1: it came back, and when it did Patterson was ready.
Speaker 1: He fired another round, as time through its shoulder and
Speaker 1: straight into its heart, instantly killing it. Its partner was
Speaker 1: more resilient, though it took almost two weeks, nine bullets
Speaker 1: and three rifles before it was finally put down for good.
Speaker 1: The workers soon returned to camp, and the bridge was
Speaker 1: completed in February, and Patterson became a hero, a kind
Speaker 1: of living legend. No one knew exactly how many laborers
Speaker 1: had been killed in the end, but Patterson estimated around
Speaker 1: a hundred and thirty five casualties. The actual numbers, though,
Speaker 1: are thought to be much smaller, perhaps around thirty victims
Speaker 1: in total. As for the attackers, well, they were skinned
Speaker 1: and used as rugs in Patterson's home. Today, they're reconstructed
Speaker 1: bodies as well as their actual skulls, are all on
Speaker 1: display at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. Visitors can
Speaker 1: find them in the Animal Hall. The camps hadn't been
Speaker 1: attacked by angry locals who didn't want a bridge built,
Speaker 1: nor a competing construction company. In fact, the laborers hadn't
Speaker 1: been killed by people at all. Lieutenant Colonel Patterson had
Speaker 1: faced down two killers that had discovered what an abundant
Speaker 1: hunting ground a work camp could really be lions. I
Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.