Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas,
Speaker 1: and monsters. In time among the First Nation's Naskapi people
Speaker 1: of what is now Labrador, an old tale resonated into
Speaker 1: modern times. There was a monstrous giant by the name
Speaker 1: of katschet Oshchu. In his most notorious act of rage,
Speaker 1: the monster trampled a man and woman to death with
Speaker 1: his strange round feet. He cast the woman's unborn child
Speaker 1: aside with his long nose, but the couple's daughter raised
Speaker 1: the child into a mighty warrior. His name was to
Speaker 1: jacob Ish. To Jacobish hunted the monster. He tracked his
Speaker 1: strange round foot prints across the wilderness. He fought the
Speaker 1: bears sent to kill him by the cowardly cot Chet. Finally,
Speaker 1: he confronted his parents killer and pelted him with arrows.
Speaker 1: In defeat, the monster said, kill me, cut me into pieces,
Speaker 1: eat my head, but keep my ears for your bed.
Speaker 1: To Jacobish and his sister did just this. Some of
Speaker 1: the discarded pieces of the monster's body became birds and
Speaker 1: other animals. The ears were saved for the jacobish's bed,
Speaker 1: and the head of the monster well. It emerged from
Speaker 1: the cooking pot and tried to follow our hero, but
Speaker 1: he heard its chattering teeth and shot it with an arrow.
Speaker 1: This tale is related by Mary Chandler Edmondston in a
Speaker 1: n paper published in the Journal of the Illinois State
Speaker 1: Archaeological Society. Contained several elements found in other folk tales,
Speaker 1: such as a flying head and the fragments of a
Speaker 1: monster's body becoming different animals. But perhaps you noticed three
Speaker 1: other attributes of the monster catchet or school, his round feet,
Speaker 1: his long nose, his ears like blankets. Edmonstone's paper was
Speaker 1: titled the Mammoth and the Mastodon in the Folklore of
Speaker 1: the Indians of North America, serving as a kind of
Speaker 1: meta analysis of the time concerning different tales and traditions
Speaker 1: among the native peoples of North America that could be
Speaker 1: interpreted as describing mastodons and mammoths. These North American relatives
Speaker 1: of elopments vanished during the late Pleistocene era, most likely
Speaker 1: due to a combination of climate change and human hunting.
Speaker 1: Is it possible that memories of human interactions with these
Speaker 1: creatures survived in the oral tradition. Edmonston and others have
Speaker 1: made the case that it is possible the stories she
Speaker 1: writes would have survived because they were simply good stories,
Speaker 1: while some of the elements would have evolved over time
Speaker 1: influenced by other tales and encounters with living animals ecs
Speaker 1: such as bears. Of course, we can never count out
Speaker 1: the importance of human creativity in such traditions, but perhaps
Speaker 1: the more outlandish physical attributes of the mammoths and mastodons
Speaker 1: of old survived as unique counterintuitive elements. Scholars such as
Speaker 1: Adrian Mayor, author of two thousand thirteen Fossil Legends of
Speaker 1: the First Americans, have also considered the role of skeletal
Speaker 1: and fossil remnants in the generation of these stories. Now,
Speaker 1: there is one interesting aspect of the Catchette myth and
Speaker 1: possibly other linked traditions. The monster we are told eats humans.
Speaker 1: Elephants are famously herbivores, and we have reason to believe
Speaker 1: mastodons and mammoths were as well. But as we've discussed
Speaker 1: on stuff to bow your mind in the past, herbivorous
Speaker 1: animals such as cows have been observed to eat meat
Speaker 1: on occasion, and as Edmondson pointed out, at least one
Speaker 1: account of an elephant killing and eating a human being
Speaker 1: was in the books, a ninety case at the Zurich Zoo. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: in twenty eleven, a rogue elephant was found to have
Speaker 1: human flesh in its stomach after killing seventeen people in India.
Speaker 1: In the latter case, however, the animal was allegedly under
Speaker 1: durest following the killing of its calf, and the former
Speaker 1: case involved a mid twentieth century zoo environment. Still, Edmondson
Speaker 1: argues that under just the right circumstances, it was conceivably
Speaker 1: possible for a mastodon or mammoth to have consumed human
Speaker 1: flesh at some point. A single incident, after all, could
Speaker 1: have been enough to enter the cycle of storytelling. But
Speaker 1: there's another wrinkle in our tale of man eating elephants,
Speaker 1: as reported by Brian Swytek for Wired in twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: during the eighteenth century, the specialized molars of the mastodon
Speaker 1: caused a certain amount of confusion. We know now that
Speaker 1: the pointed cones on these teeth were specially adapted for
Speaker 1: eating woody material. But at the time some thought these
Speaker 1: teeth found amid masted on bones were those of some
Speaker 1: unknown carnivore. British anatomist William Hunter, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: went as far as to suggest that the mastodon itself,
Speaker 1: dubbed American incognitum, was in fact a ravenous carnivore. Among
Speaker 1: his detractors Benjamin Franklin, who advised that these molers quote
Speaker 1: might be as useful to grind the small branches of
Speaker 1: trees as to chaw flesh. Tune into additional editions of
Speaker 1: the Monster Fact each week in September and October. As always,
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.