WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Katcheet Ohuskw 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:05.640 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:10.520 My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:14.160 this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:18.759 Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas, 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:25.080 and monsters. In time among the First Nation's Naskapi people 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:28.880 of what is now Labrador, an old tale resonated into 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.400 modern times. There was a monstrous giant by the name 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.360 of katschet Oshchu. In his most notorious act of rage, 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.600 the monster trampled a man and woman to death with 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.839 his strange round feet. He cast the woman's unborn child 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:49.760 aside with his long nose, but the couple's daughter raised 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:53.519 the child into a mighty warrior. His name was to 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:58.600 jacob Ish. To Jacobish hunted the monster. He tracked his 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.280 strange round foot prints across the wilderness. He fought the 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:06.640 bears sent to kill him by the cowardly cot Chet. Finally, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.280 he confronted his parents killer and pelted him with arrows. 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.480 In defeat, the monster said, kill me, cut me into pieces, 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.559 eat my head, but keep my ears for your bed. 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.080 To Jacobish and his sister did just this. Some of 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:25.240 the discarded pieces of the monster's body became birds and 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.080 other animals. The ears were saved for the jacobish's bed, 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.039 and the head of the monster well. It emerged from 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.560 the cooking pot and tried to follow our hero, but 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.520 he heard its chattering teeth and shot it with an arrow. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.760 This tale is related by Mary Chandler Edmondston in a 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.080 n paper published in the Journal of the Illinois State 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:56.280 Archaeological Society. Contained several elements found in other folk tales, 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.120 such as a flying head and the fragments of a 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:03.280 monster's body becoming different animals. But perhaps you noticed three 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:08.519 other attributes of the monster catchet or school, his round feet, 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.760 his long nose, his ears like blankets. Edmonstone's paper was 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:16.880 titled the Mammoth and the Mastodon in the Folklore of 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.720 the Indians of North America, serving as a kind of 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.800 meta analysis of the time concerning different tales and traditions 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.680 among the native peoples of North America that could be 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:32.359 interpreted as describing mastodons and mammoths. These North American relatives 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.000 of elopments vanished during the late Pleistocene era, most likely 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.800 due to a combination of climate change and human hunting. 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.560 Is it possible that memories of human interactions with these 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.480 creatures survived in the oral tradition. Edmonston and others have 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:49.760 made the case that it is possible the stories she 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.959 writes would have survived because they were simply good stories, 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.959 while some of the elements would have evolved over time 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.400 influenced by other tales and encounters with living animals ecs 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:03.840 such as bears. Of course, we can never count out 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.720 the importance of human creativity in such traditions, but perhaps 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:12.040 the more outlandish physical attributes of the mammoths and mastodons 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:17.440 of old survived as unique counterintuitive elements. Scholars such as 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.400 Adrian Mayor, author of two thousand thirteen Fossil Legends of 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.640 the First Americans, have also considered the role of skeletal 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:29.440 and fossil remnants in the generation of these stories. Now, 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.480 there is one interesting aspect of the Catchette myth and 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:38.320 possibly other linked traditions. The monster we are told eats humans. 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.600 Elephants are famously herbivores, and we have reason to believe 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.280 mastodons and mammoths were as well. But as we've discussed 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.040 on stuff to bow your mind in the past, herbivorous 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.520 animals such as cows have been observed to eat meat 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:58.080 on occasion, and as Edmondson pointed out, at least one 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.840 account of an elephant killing and eating a human being 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:06.119 was in the books, a ninety case at the Zurich Zoo. Furthermore, 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.400 in twenty eleven, a rogue elephant was found to have 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.280 human flesh in its stomach after killing seventeen people in India. 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:16.880 In the latter case, however, the animal was allegedly under 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.240 durest following the killing of its calf, and the former 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.440 case involved a mid twentieth century zoo environment. Still, Edmondson 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.080 argues that under just the right circumstances, it was conceivably 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.760 possible for a mastodon or mammoth to have consumed human 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.400 flesh at some point. A single incident, after all, could 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.839 have been enough to enter the cycle of storytelling. But 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.839 there's another wrinkle in our tale of man eating elephants, 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:45.800 as reported by Brian Swytek for Wired in twenty twelve, 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:49.480 during the eighteenth century, the specialized molars of the mastodon 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.960 caused a certain amount of confusion. We know now that 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.520 the pointed cones on these teeth were specially adapted for 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.240 eating woody material. But at the time some thought these 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.640 teeth found amid masted on bones were those of some 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:07.960 unknown carnivore. British anatomist William Hunter, on the other hand, 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.480 went as far as to suggest that the mastodon itself, 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:17.120 dubbed American incognitum, was in fact a ravenous carnivore. Among 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.839 his detractors Benjamin Franklin, who advised that these molers quote 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:24.839 might be as useful to grind the small branches of 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:32.160 trees as to chaw flesh. Tune into additional editions of 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:37.359 the Monster Fact each week in September and October. As always, 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.800 you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:51.560 your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.200 a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.320 my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.160 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.