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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to stuff to bow your mind. My name

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Speaker 1: is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And it's Saturday.

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Speaker 1: Time you go into the Old Vault. This time you

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Speaker 1: better armor up your your butt because there is a

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Speaker 1: spear coming for your anus. That's right, we're not talking

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Speaker 1: about space here. We're talking about Irish mythology. We're getting

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Speaker 1: into the tales of Mighty Colanko Holland. We ran into

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Speaker 1: some difficulties pronouncing the title the name of the hero

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Speaker 1: in this episode, but it is a pretty fun one

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Speaker 1: that we originally published What To nineteen and it's we

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Speaker 1: figured it's a perfect one to unleash once more, right

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Speaker 1: before St. Patty's Day. Let's jump right in. By this time,

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Speaker 1: the two combatants were at the edge feet of swords.

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Speaker 1: Then ford It caught Koo Holland unguarded and dealt him

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Speaker 1: a blow with his ivory hilted blade, which he plunged

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Speaker 1: into co Holand's rest, and Kohland's blood had dripped into

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Speaker 1: his belt, and the ford was red with the blood

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Speaker 1: from the warrior's body. Kohlan brooke not this wounding, for

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Speaker 1: for thea had attacked him with a succession of deadly

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Speaker 1: stout blows, and he asked lug for guy bolga. Such

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Speaker 1: was the nature of the guy bolga. It used to

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Speaker 1: be set down stream and cast from between the toes.

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Speaker 1: It made a one wound as it entered a man's body,

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Speaker 1: but it had thirty barbs when one tried to remove it,

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Speaker 1: and it was not taken from a man's body until

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Speaker 1: the flesh was cut away about it. And when for

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Speaker 1: Dea had heard mention of the guy bolga, he thrust

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Speaker 1: down the shield to shelter the lower part of his body.

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Speaker 1: Kou Holland cast the fine spear from off the palm

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Speaker 1: of his hand, over the rim of the shield, and

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Speaker 1: over the breast piece of the horn skin, so that

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Speaker 1: its farther half was visible. After it had pierced for

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Speaker 1: Dead's heart in his breath. For Dead thrust up the

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Speaker 1: shield to protect the upper part of his body, but

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Speaker 1: that was helped that came too late. The charioteer sent

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Speaker 1: the guy bulga downstream. Kuholland caught it between his toes

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Speaker 1: and made a cast of it at for Dead, and

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Speaker 1: the guy bulga went through the strong, thick apron of

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Speaker 1: smelted iron and broke in three the great stone, as

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Speaker 1: big as a millstone, and entered for Dead's body through

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Speaker 1: the anus, and filled every joint and limb of him

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Speaker 1: with its barbs. That service is now said for dead.

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Speaker 1: I have fallen by that cast. But indeed strongly do

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Speaker 1: you cast from your right foot? And it was not

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Speaker 1: fitting that I should fall by you. And as he spoke,

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Speaker 1: he uttered these words, oh hound of the fair feats,

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Speaker 1: it was not fitting that you should slay me. Yours

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Speaker 1: is the guilt which clung to me. On you, My

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Speaker 1: blood was shed Doomed men who reached the gap of

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Speaker 1: betrayal do not flourish. That is my voice. Alas heroes

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Speaker 1: have been destroyed. My ribs, like spoils, are broken. My

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Speaker 1: heart is gore. Would that I had not fought, I

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Speaker 1: have fallen, Oh hound. Welcome to Stuff to Blow your

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Speaker 1: mind from How Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your mind. My name is Robert Lamb,

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Speaker 1: and I'm Joe McCormick. And that opening reading was from

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Speaker 1: the cecil a Rahai translation of and I'm going to

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Speaker 1: do my best the tying bow colonge. Um, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: be obviously talking about Irish mythology today, and unfortunately that

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Speaker 1: means we're gonna be trying to pronounce a lot of

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Speaker 1: words and probably sometimes failing. Please bear with us, but

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Speaker 1: it's done out of love and we do our best.

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Speaker 1: That's right. And it feels good to come back around

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Speaker 1: some Irish mythology here because Irish Irish smith is rich

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Speaker 1: with fantastic stick ideas, uh, magic, magical beings, monsters, and

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Speaker 1: in this case, a very interesting magical weapon that is

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Speaker 1: the unreally unlike anything else I've read about. Robert, you

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Speaker 1: have been on such a kick of magical weapons these days.

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Speaker 1: You you're you're big into Cupid's leaden arrows. We did

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Speaker 1: the triedent. No, I'm down with it. This is funny.

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Speaker 1: We also have the older episode about the about various

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Speaker 1: spinning weapons of death that I did with the Christian

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Speaker 1: But even after all those, the episode today about Guy

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Speaker 1: Bolga the spear of the hero Ku Holland I think

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Speaker 1: this is this takes the cake. This is the weirdest

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Speaker 1: best magical weapon with with biological connections that we have

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Speaker 1: discussed yet I am pretty certain of it. Yeah. In fact,

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Speaker 1: it's gonna be maybe a fun exercise for listeners to

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Speaker 1: try and predict where we're gonna land biologically. Okay, at

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Speaker 1: the end of this episode, to to get into the

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Speaker 1: science of the of the guy Bolga. Now, Robert, I

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Speaker 1: admit befo four we did this episode. I had no

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Speaker 1: idea who ko Holland was, and I probably would have

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Speaker 1: pronounced it like ku kuk Lane or whatever this is.

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Speaker 1: So this is a hero of Irish mythology who I

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Speaker 1: had never even heard of before. Yeah, you know, I

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Speaker 1: think I'd run across the mention of him in passing,

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Speaker 1: but I don't think i'd ever actually read any of

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Speaker 1: the tales about him, or even the poems about him.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's a there's a Yates poem co Holand Comforted.

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Speaker 1: So he's not an obscure character in Irish myth by

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Speaker 1: any stretch of the imagination. But co Holand is so cool.

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Speaker 1: How could I have not heard about this? I feel

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Speaker 1: like the people who study Irish mythology have got to

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Speaker 1: get in touch with Hollywood or something, get some movies

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Speaker 1: going so people know these myths better. Well, yeah, he's

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Speaker 1: quite a figure. So co Holand is uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: mythological hero that has been described as the Irish Achilles.

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Speaker 1: Or even the Irish Incredible Hulk custom maybe a little closer. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and if you can, but probably already get a sense

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Speaker 1: here we're talking about yet another mythological killing machine, an

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Speaker 1: ancient soldier, you know, streaked in gore and honor. So

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Speaker 1: in many respects, he is what you expect from from

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Speaker 1: a mythological hero. You know, he's mighty warrior, he has

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Speaker 1: a sense of nobility, and he's sort of pushed into

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Speaker 1: tragic circumstances. Yeah, he's tough, he's brave, he's brutal, he

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Speaker 1: meets a tragic end right now, He's the He's a

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Speaker 1: central character in the Ulster cycle, one of the four

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Speaker 1: great cycles of medieval Irish myth and the This cycle

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Speaker 1: takes place in the first century Sea and was written

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Speaker 1: in Old and Middle Irish um. He also appears to

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Speaker 1: factor into a certain Scottish traditions as well, so but

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Speaker 1: largely Irish. So well, let's do the life story of

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Speaker 1: ko Holand. So he wasn't born ko Holand he was

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Speaker 1: born Satanta satantas his given name co Holand is more

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Speaker 1: like like kylel becomes Superman. Right, So he's the nephew

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Speaker 1: of the Irish king King Connor, and is the offspring

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Speaker 1: of the union between Connor's sister and the god lug

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Speaker 1: we we Lug was mentioned in that dramatic reading earlier.

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Speaker 1: Lug is a member of the Chuatha di don and

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Speaker 1: the sort of spiritual god elf beings of of Irish

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Speaker 1: myth so like, So as with the likes to say

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Speaker 1: Achilles and Hercules, we have a hybrid on our hands here,

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Speaker 1: part human, part divine. And and he certainly looked like

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Speaker 1: a like a half divine creature. He has uh, he

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Speaker 1: has some some unnatural aspects to his appearance to definitely

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Speaker 1: line up with what you might expect from a demigod,

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Speaker 1: what like maybe a few too many of certain body parts. Yes,

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Speaker 1: for starters, he's just just unnaturally beautiful. He's a paragon

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Speaker 1: of masculine beauty and strength. And then he has seven

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Speaker 1: fingers on each hand, seven toes on each foot, and

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Speaker 1: then seven pupils in each eye, seven pupils in each other. Well,

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Speaker 1: that sounds like a aragon of beauty now, even as

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Speaker 1: a child, his exploits made him famous. And then King

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Speaker 1: Connor himself ends up bestowing the new name on him

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Speaker 1: Holland after he kills the great guard dog, the Hound

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Speaker 1: of Holland, Holland being a smith here with his bare

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Speaker 1: hands at a banquet, and so he has to take

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Speaker 1: on this new name as a penance. Yeah, Like after

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Speaker 1: he kills the smith's hound, he I think, offers to

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Speaker 1: serve himself as the guard of the smith's forge. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and so now he is co Holand. And then you know,

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Speaker 1: at the end of that dramatic reading, he's referred to

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Speaker 1: as the Hound. So I'm thinking, because he's this paragon

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Speaker 1: of masculine beauty and strength, there's got to be like

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Speaker 1: a trend setting kind of thing that people just can't match. Right.

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Speaker 1: So it's the same way that after you have a

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Speaker 1: famous movie star he starts wearing a certain kind of

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Speaker 1: hairstyle or something. Now that's what's cool, and everybody wants

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Speaker 1: to do it. In this case, in first century Ireland,

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Speaker 1: everybody would want to have seven pupils in each eye.

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Speaker 1: And so that's what everybody's going to the local witches about.

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Speaker 1: It's not like, you know, make me live forever, give

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Speaker 1: me huge strength, has give me seven pupils in each eye. Now.

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Speaker 1: Of course, as always when we're talking about mythology, it's

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Speaker 1: it's worth noting that, Um, you know, they're varying sources,

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Speaker 1: they're varying tellings, and some of the details are going

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Speaker 1: to change with the telling at the time. Yeah, they're

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Speaker 1: definitely very radically different accounts of Kohlan now. But so

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Speaker 1: we've arrived at this version of cohol and already he

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Speaker 1: is a beautiful, powerful warrior with some unnatural characteristics. But then,

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Speaker 1: but then he also has an additional superpower. But wait,

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Speaker 1: there's more. Yes, so he can essentially hulk out. It

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Speaker 1: is the thing he can. He can enter into a

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Speaker 1: berserker state during battle. But it's not just like a

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Speaker 1: mental state like it actually said, to twist and deform

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Speaker 1: his body as he becomes this just unreasonable killing machine.

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Speaker 1: The reastrade does this process. Yeah, and apparently apparently one

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Speaker 1: Thomas Kinsella translated this state as the quote war spasm.

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Speaker 1: That sounds like something straight out of the X Men. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it sounds it sounds rather chaotic. I definitely don't want

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Speaker 1: to be around a warrior when they were entering the

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Speaker 1: warp spasm. It sounds rather dangerous. All right, Well, we've

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Speaker 1: got another quote from the Cecil Rahalli translation of the

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Speaker 1: Timebo clung from the book of Leinster, and this is

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Speaker 1: about what happens in the warp spasm quote then occurred

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Speaker 1: to Holland's first distortion. He swelled and grew big as

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Speaker 1: a bladder does when inflated, and became a fearsome, terrible,

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Speaker 1: mini colored, strange arch and the valiant hero towered above

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Speaker 1: for dead, as big as a famore or a pirate.

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Speaker 1: And I think the famar you're you were saying, Robert

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Speaker 1: that that's like a giant of Irish mythology. It's like

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Speaker 1: a giant ogre type good type being from Irish myth

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Speaker 1: So like the Irish version of Yettenheim might be full

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Speaker 1: of these. Yeah, yeah, So so clearly Coo Holand is

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Speaker 1: nobody to mess with, Like this is a this is

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Speaker 1: a terrifying force on the battlefield. Why why does the

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Speaker 1: author of this work they'll believe that pirates are gigantic? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm less sure on that one. So

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Speaker 1: co Holand fights bravely throughout his his military career. Um

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Speaker 1: he fights off the forces of Queen maybe at the

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Speaker 1: age of seventeen, uh believe virtually, like single handedly, like

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Speaker 1: he's that powerful warrior. But he's eventually tricked by warriors

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Speaker 1: in the employee of Mayve and slain at the age

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Speaker 1: of twenty seven. So not a long life. But then again,

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Speaker 1: you know you're an Irish warrior um during the first century. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's not a long life expectancy there now. And they

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Speaker 1: kind of have to employ some trickery in order to

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Speaker 1: overcome his strength, which I think is a common feature

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Speaker 1: in like mythic hero cycles. You see that with like

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Speaker 1: Samson in uh in Jewish legend, and you sort of

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Speaker 1: see a version of it with Achilles, with like them

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Speaker 1: finding out his one weakness. And indeed there's basically like

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Speaker 1: a three part plan that has to be employed here.

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Speaker 1: I mean that the first one being key. They trick

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Speaker 1: him into eating dog meat, which breaks a taboo and

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Speaker 1: weakens his spirit. Yeah. I read somewhere that this came

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Speaker 1: about by pitting two taboos against each other. Like there's

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Speaker 1: a taboo against refusing hospitality on one hand, but there's

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Speaker 1: also a taboo against eating dog meat. So what if

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Speaker 1: somebody shows you hospitality by offering you dog meat. You're caught. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're caught. You're there. That's a you know, as Scilla

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Speaker 1: and charyptus. Uh. So he had to pick, and he

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Speaker 1: picked not refusing hospitality, but he ate the dog meat,

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Speaker 1: and that that screwed him up. Now, the next thing

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Speaker 1: that helps if you're trying to take out a half

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Speaker 1: divine warrior is to have a divine weapon of your own,

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Speaker 1: a magical weapon of your own that will will help

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Speaker 1: you slay them. And so that's what the trio do here.

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Speaker 1: They hit him with a magical disemboweing spear that is

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Speaker 1: enchanted to kill kings. The apparently had three of these,

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Speaker 1: and they used too on his on his accomplices, including

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Speaker 1: the charioteer. It was like the King of Chariots, which

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Speaker 1: seems kind of like a a loop hole in the

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Speaker 1: whole king thing, Like you don't have to actually be

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Speaker 1: a king, you're just kind of quote unquote a king

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Speaker 1: of something. But ca Holan has like a really bad

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Speaker 1: dude moment here, Like he gets hit with the spear,

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Speaker 1: but he's like, I'm not going down that easy. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's not gonna die, uh like that, He's going to

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Speaker 1: die standing up fighting. So he like tucks his innerage

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Speaker 1: back into his body um and then like stumbles over

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Speaker 1: to a pillar lashes himself to the pillar so that

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Speaker 1: he can fight and die standing up, like they're gonna

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Speaker 1: have to come and take him on his feet. But okay,

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Speaker 1: so he's tied there, dying, and they got to be afraid,

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Speaker 1: right because co Holan is this this killing machine. Even

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Speaker 1: dying cut open with a with a kill spear tied

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Speaker 1: to a rock or a pillar, he's gonna be scary.

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Speaker 1: So they don't want to get too close. And I

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Speaker 1: think one source says that they had to wait until

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Speaker 1: a bird landed on him in order to know that

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Speaker 1: he had actually died. Yeah, and then they move in.

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Speaker 1: What do you do? You cut off his head to

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Speaker 1: be sure. But when they cut off his head, there's

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Speaker 1: is brilliant light that like cuts off one of the

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Speaker 1: attackers a sword hands, I believe. And then it's not

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Speaker 1: until they cut off k holand sword arm that the

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Speaker 1: light dies away and that he's definitely dead. So it's

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Speaker 1: like you don't have there's one thing to cut away

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Speaker 1: the seat of reason from this mighty war. You also

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Speaker 1: have to cut away like the physical sword hand of

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Speaker 1: the warrior. There's a wonderful, like full telling of this

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Speaker 1: final battle of one in particular that I light came

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Speaker 1: from Lady Augusta Gregory um Uk Helen of Murrath Fimney

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Speaker 1: from nineteen o two. Uh, that's all online. I recommend

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Speaker 1: checking that out if you want the full blow by

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Speaker 1: blow death of ko Holand. So, how do we not

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Speaker 1: have a full kooh Holan movie? Yeah, it seems like

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Speaker 1: we should. I mean, how many Hercules movies do we have? Right?

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Speaker 1: Way too many? We could easily peel off some of

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Speaker 1: that money into the cah Holand enterprise here. Now, we

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Speaker 1: were talking before the episode about who to cast as

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Speaker 1: Coo holand we could not come up with good idea

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Speaker 1: because all of the best Irish actors we were thinking

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Speaker 1: of to cast as this Irish hero are now old.

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Speaker 1: But like Pierce Brosnan, Yeah, Pierce is right there in

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Speaker 1: his name. Yeah, but but sadly, like we said, he

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Speaker 1: died at twenty seven. You need you need a young, like,

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Speaker 1: powerful and imposing irishman who is also a really good actor. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I think some of my favorite Irish actors. Let's see,

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Speaker 1: there's Uh, there's Brendan Gleeson. I guess he's older. Now

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Speaker 1: there's uh, I love Liam Cunningham, the guy who plays

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Speaker 1: Sir Davos on Game of Thrones. But I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I don't know who the young guy is. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: don't know. Everybody can think of as too old, like

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Speaker 1: even you know, there's a thinking, well, maybe a professional wrestler.

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Speaker 1: I get a big muscle bound dude to play ko

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Speaker 1: Holand okay, there's there's a guy named Samus who's like

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Speaker 1: a big, pale Irish wrestler, but he's too old for

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Speaker 1: the part. Maybe he could play the hulked out version

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Speaker 1: of ko holand you could do kind of u you know,

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Speaker 1: like the Incredible Hulk TV show. We had to loof

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Speaker 1: Rigno playing the the actual Hulk. Oh no, wait, this

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Speaker 1: has given me a great idea. Actually, like the main

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Speaker 1: normal ko holand before he hulks out, he should be

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Speaker 1: like super wafy, like a very very wafy, boyish, like

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Speaker 1: teen heartthrob kind of Irish actor. And then when he

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Speaker 1: hulks out, he gets replaced by the bodybuilder. Okay, I

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Speaker 1: like this so well. But maybe our Irish listeners especially,

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Speaker 1: we'll have some ideas about who who could be cast

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Speaker 1: in such a film. Are Irish listeners also, I'm sure

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Speaker 1: we're going to get in touch with us to let

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Speaker 1: us know how badly we're saying all these words. I'm sorry.

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, we're gonna take a break, but when

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Speaker 1: we come back, we're gonna get into the real meat

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Speaker 1: of this episode. We're going to talk about the the

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Speaker 1: unnatural death weapon of Ko holand we're gonna talk about, uh,

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Speaker 1: the guy Bolga. Thank alright, we're back. So every hero

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Speaker 1: needs a mighty weapon, and co Holand certainly had one

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Speaker 1: in the guy Bolga like a weapon so mighty that

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Speaker 1: it is the It is the death weapon of last resort.

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Speaker 1: He only even turns to it if he's basically fighting

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Speaker 1: an opponent that is on his own level. Now, it

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Speaker 1: is not known exactly how to translate the term guy bulga. Right,

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Speaker 1: It's translated many different ways. I think we know that

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Speaker 1: guy basically means spear, right, But the bulga, there's questions

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Speaker 1: about what that means. Yeah, that's correct. Guy certainly means

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Speaker 1: spear or dart, But the bolga part is open to

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Speaker 1: some discussion. There's a particular text that we turn to

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Speaker 1: by by a writer by the name of Edward Pettit.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to give you the full name of

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Speaker 1: that article because it will give away what we're gonna

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Speaker 1: get to in the later later portions of this episode.

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Speaker 1: We will say the name of the article. We will

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Speaker 1: say it and say it later. But he points out

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Speaker 1: that that the guy bolga has been translated as just

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Speaker 1: here's a sampling, the belly dart, the dart of belly,

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Speaker 1: barbed spear, spear of bella body spear, bagged spear, spear

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Speaker 1: of swelling uh, the spear of the sack, forked spear,

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Speaker 1: gapped spear, solar spear, the spear of mortal pain, the

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Speaker 1: evil spear, spear of the lightning god, spear of the thunderbolt.

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Speaker 1: And he also adds that the bolga part has also

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Speaker 1: been interpreted to perhaps refer to an inflated bladder that one.

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Speaker 1: So essentially this would be a fishing spear, like one

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Speaker 1: would have tethered to something that floats. Oh, that's interesting.

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Speaker 1: And then likewise it's also been potentially connected to the

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Speaker 1: fair bolg Uh. These, according to to Carol Rose, the

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Speaker 1: folklores that often refer to when we're talking about mythological

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Speaker 1: creatures and monsters. She says that these were the mythic

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Speaker 1: first inhabitants of Ireland, defeated by the Tuatha deadon and

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Speaker 1: then driven into mountain caves and forests where they became

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Speaker 1: loathsome monsters. So possible connection there as well. But okay,

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Speaker 1: whatever bul a means, they're bellows bulge whatever. We know

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Speaker 1: that there's some kind of special magic spear. So how

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Speaker 1: does it work? What does it do? Well? One of

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Speaker 1: one of the things is that co Holand alone knows

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Speaker 1: how to really wield the weapon, you know, I mean

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Speaker 1: he he is taught depends it depends on which version

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Speaker 1: you're reading. He's either taught by a god or by

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Speaker 1: you know, a skilled master, and he alone has mastery

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Speaker 1: of the guy Bolga. But it is again, it is

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Speaker 1: a spear, a weapon that you only turn to as

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Speaker 1: like basically just a last resort. And also if you're

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Speaker 1: just really willing to absolutely murder your opponent. I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: I'm just suddenly reminded of one of those newspaper articles

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Speaker 1: from the nineteen twenties that we quoted in our death

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Speaker 1: Ray episode of Invention, where the guy was like, the

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Speaker 1: death ray is mine and only I can have it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this was his death ray in a sense. Now, in

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Speaker 1: that fantastic reading at the top of the episode, that

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Speaker 1: story of from the cattle raid of Kolong. Uh. That

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Speaker 1: really gives you some of the key attributes of the

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Speaker 1: weapon here. So it is brought to coholand via a stream.

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Speaker 1: His charity here puts it in a stream and it

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Speaker 1: like floats down to him, and then it is cast

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Speaker 1: by the foot, so he picks it up with his

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Speaker 1: seven toed foot and casts it. Thus Lee aims it

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Speaker 1: with his seven people die right and uh. And then

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Speaker 1: also in that telling we see that it pierces his

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Speaker 1: opponent through the anus, which is not a detail that

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Speaker 1: is present in every telling of this story, but it

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Speaker 1: is there. Uh. And part of it has to do

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Speaker 1: with the fact that his like, you know, these are

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Speaker 1: two you know, former friends, you know that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: they're still friends, but they're they're battling each other, and

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Speaker 1: and they each have sort of magical abilities, you know. Uh.

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Speaker 1: So coholand alone has the mastery of this u fabulous

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Speaker 1: barbed weapon. And then his opponent has his horn skin

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Speaker 1: that protects most to his body but not the the anus.

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Speaker 1: So you might say that Ford it has an achilles heel,

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Speaker 1: and it is his anus. It's his achilles anus. So

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Speaker 1: maybe instead of saying achilles heel, from now on, we

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Speaker 1: should substitute for dead Zanies. It's going to be challenging

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Speaker 1: to drop that into just casual conversation. I'm gonna I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna dart Well dry Robert for the rest of my

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Speaker 1: life for dead zanis. Alright. So that that that Edward

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Speaker 1: pettit Um article that we mentioned earlier, and I believe

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Speaker 1: this is Edward G. Pettit from the Sale University, who

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Speaker 1: is apparently something of an Edgar Allan Poe expert and

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Speaker 1: a monster expert I'm reading, uh teaches classes on vampire

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Speaker 1: literature and so forth. But he drives home that there

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Speaker 1: are several key attributes that are that are generally consistent

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Speaker 1: in the various tellings here. So first of all, only

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Speaker 1: Helen can wield the guy bowl Gay here he alone

386
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Speaker 1: was taught it's it's martial art, and the teacher varies

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Speaker 1: from immortal to a see god. Okay. Another thing he

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Speaker 1: mentions is that it's sort of a single use weapon,

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Speaker 1: right right, you get one shot. Now that being said,

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Speaker 1: I don't think he ever misses with the thing, or

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Speaker 1: at least I have not read the story where he

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Speaker 1: busted out and misses like accidentally hits I don't know

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Speaker 1: nearby bird in the an s instead right. Um. Also,

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Speaker 1: it's sometimes sent to him by water, such as in

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Speaker 1: our opening story there it's it is like it traveled

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Speaker 1: down a stream to him, but it doesn't just appear

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Speaker 1: in the context of water. He also it's like thrown

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Speaker 1: from below the water. So it's also it is a

399
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Speaker 1: fearsome weapon, so for deed or special armor in an

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Speaker 1: attempt to protect himself from it. And you know, it's

401
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Speaker 1: clearly you know when he sees that that this weapon

402
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,159
Speaker 1: is is coming out, uh, you know, he takes notice

403
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Speaker 1: like it's gotten dire. It's not just a normal spirit

404
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 1: is something that is known to be very dangerous just mechanically.

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Speaker 1: And its characteristics as a weapon. Pettit says that it

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Speaker 1: is quote accurate, sharp, strong, and highly penetrative. Yes, to

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Speaker 1: say the least. It's also inescapable and deadly, and in

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Speaker 1: later tellings it's also said to be venomous and cursed

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Speaker 1: with an incurable poison that fills the body. Now, one

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Speaker 1: really interesting feature about it is the idea that it

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Speaker 1: is many barbed, but at first it's cast as like

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Speaker 1: a single spear that is straight and thin, but that

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Speaker 1: once it pierces the body. It is said to spread

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Speaker 1: out its barbs so that it has to be cut

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Speaker 1: out in order to be removed. You can't just pull

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Speaker 1: it out, uh. And this would be kind of like

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Speaker 1: the barbs on some existing spheres, like fishing spears sometimes

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Speaker 1: would have barbs like this in order to make sure

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Speaker 1: that the thing stays on there once you stab it.

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Speaker 1: But it's not just that it's barbed, it's that there's

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Speaker 1: this idea that it's sort of spreads out within the body.

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Speaker 1: So like once you pierce somebody, the point and the

423
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:53,200
Speaker 1: barbs it is said spread to all of the veins

424
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:56,600
Speaker 1: or spread to all of the joints and limbs. I'm

425
00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:59,480
Speaker 1: not quite sure exactly what it means there, except I'm

426
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:03,720
Speaker 1: sort of uh considering when you remember in our episode

427
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:07,400
Speaker 1: about missiletoe, the plant, you know, the plant parasite, it's

428
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 1: a parasite on other plants where we talked about the

429
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:12,760
Speaker 1: idea of the house story. Um, it's this base sort

430
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:17,200
Speaker 1: of root structure for missiletoe that grows on the surface

431
00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 1: of a tree or another plant and then pierces its

432
00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,679
Speaker 1: stem and sometimes grows down and spreads out little filaments

433
00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:27,399
Speaker 1: and roots structures within the host plant. Uh. And we

434
00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:30,119
Speaker 1: talked about how so this is a parasite. It's not

435
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:32,439
Speaker 1: just like a vampire sticking its fangs into you, but

436
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:35,199
Speaker 1: as if it sticks its fangs in, and sometimes the

437
00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 1: fangs like continue to grow out inside the body and

438
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:40,920
Speaker 1: fill all your blood vessels. Yeah, I think this is

439
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,520
Speaker 1: a great reference because I definitely get that kind of

440
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:47,119
Speaker 1: like growing barbed root like, like just rapid growth of

441
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:50,919
Speaker 1: barbs through the entire body, like a real true body

442
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,920
Speaker 1: horror weapon to employ here. But another way to think

443
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 1: about that is that's just sort of like it could

444
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 1: be a mechanical metaphor for a chemical property, the idea

445
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 1: that you stab something and it's got venom or poison

446
00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:05,639
Speaker 1: or something on it, and even though you only stab

447
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 1: the body in one place, the poison spreads out to

448
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 1: all the blood, right. And yeah, so there's you can

449
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,640
Speaker 1: make various interpretations of it, for sure. Um. It's often

450
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:18,600
Speaker 1: described as being white or bright color. Uh. And of

451
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:21,800
Speaker 1: course it's often drenched in blood in these tellings because

452
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,200
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem to miss and when it hits, it's

453
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:27,639
Speaker 1: gonna be gory. Now, Pettit says. It's also often associated

454
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 1: with demons, or fire or hell. It's sort of an

455
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 1: infernal weapon, yeah, and even described as being used against

456
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 1: actual demons in hell and later traditions apparently. And along

457
00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:41,440
Speaker 1: those lines, it's also described as is sometimes is behaving

458
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:46,760
Speaker 1: in some ways like a bellows. So again, anytime we're

459
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:50,160
Speaker 1: talking about say it, say a magical weapon in mythology,

460
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 1: you know, we're not so much talking about a single thing,

461
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 1: but we're talking about a tradition of a thing, various

462
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:59,680
Speaker 1: tellings of a thing, and different influences who are going

463
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:04,359
Speaker 1: to become involved in sort of recolor. Uh, And you

464
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,879
Speaker 1: know exactly how it is described either way to shake it.

465
00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:10,920
Speaker 1: It is a it is a treacherous weapon, okay, even

466
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:14,119
Speaker 1: for a mighty hero to employ. But then there's one

467
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:16,960
Speaker 1: final detail, a key detail here, and it has to

468
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,400
Speaker 1: do with where this weapon comes from. Because every great

469
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,720
Speaker 1: weapon that a mythical hero uses it has to have

470
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:26,119
Speaker 1: an origin story, right of course. And one of my

471
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:29,600
Speaker 1: favorite origin stories for for like a weapon or a

472
00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: piece of arm or something like that, is something that's

473
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:35,879
Speaker 1: taken from the body of a monster, like like Hercules.

474
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 1: You know, he makes his cloak out of the Nemean lions,

475
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,359
Speaker 1: hard to pure skin, and in this case, we we

476
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: have a weapon that is made from a sea monster,

477
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 1: from the remains from the bones of a sea monster.

478
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:50,919
Speaker 1: Now it's described in some translations is being made from

479
00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:54,280
Speaker 1: the skin of a monster from Hell, but hell, pet

480
00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:56,320
Speaker 1: It says, could have been, you know, the depths of

481
00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,720
Speaker 1: the ocean. And this is supported, he says, by later

482
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:02,440
Speaker 1: tales in which our hero Cooh Holand defeats barb tailed

483
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 1: beasts from the ocean. Now, I think Pettit also talks

484
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 1: about versions where it is said to come from the

485
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 1: skull of something called like a dog head, yeah, which

486
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,119
Speaker 1: could be interpreted as some version of like shark or

487
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:17,880
Speaker 1: dog fish type creature, but also as in some way

488
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:21,200
Speaker 1: seen as a sea monster. Right, So at this point

489
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:22,960
Speaker 1: in the episode, I'm going to tell you what the

490
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,840
Speaker 1: full title of this paper is. Cool Holland's a guy

491
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,400
Speaker 1: Bolga from Harpoon to sting Ray Speer. That's the that's

492
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 1: the title. So we're gonna take a quick breaking when

493
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 1: we come back, we're going to get into Pettit's Stingray hypothesis. Alright,

494
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:41,879
Speaker 1: we're back, all right, So here's the part of the

495
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 1: podcast where we play a game we often like to play,

496
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 1: which is taking a story or an object from myth

497
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: and wondering like, could there be a natural world explanation

498
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:55,040
Speaker 1: for for what inspired this myth or this image or

499
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 1: this creature from mythology? And of course this this type

500
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:00,439
Speaker 1: of game, we always like to point out, does have

501
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 1: a weakness. It has a for Diazanus, you might say,

502
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: which is that we we don't want to overlook the

503
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 1: fact that there's lots of creative imagination involved in mythology,

504
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 1: and you don't always have to explain the contents of

505
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:14,919
Speaker 1: a myth by pointing to something that really happened in

506
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: history or really exists in nature and saying that inspired it.

507
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 1: We don't always know that that's what happened. Maybe sometimes

508
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:23,600
Speaker 1: that happened, Maybe sometimes there's people just using their imagination.

509
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 1: But in any case, this can be a really interesting

510
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:27,879
Speaker 1: game to play because there is no doubt that, at

511
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 1: least in many cases, things in myths were inspired by

512
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:35,200
Speaker 1: stuff people saw in nature. And Edward Pettitt's hypothesis here

513
00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: is that this mighty weapon was the spine of a

514
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: sting ray or at least at some point in its legacy.

515
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:46,719
Speaker 1: Uh it is interpreted as such. Stories of stingray. Barbed

516
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,960
Speaker 1: weapons are employed then to describe this weapon at the

517
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 1: cohol and wheels. Yeah, and this this inspiration could go

518
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: multiple ways if in fact there is such an element

519
00:28:57,240 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 1: of this kind of inspiration in the stories. It could

520
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:02,719
Speaker 1: be that people saw a stingray spine in nature and

521
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:07,040
Speaker 1: this led to the original idea of the guy Bolga sphere.

522
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 1: But it could also be that ideas about stingray spines

523
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:14,200
Speaker 1: colored later tellings of an existing mythical spear that was

524
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 1: already in some stories. But let's see if there's anything

525
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: to this idea and start by looking at what's the stingray. So,

526
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 1: a stingray is a type of ray and raise or

527
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,959
Speaker 1: cartilaginous fish cousins of sharks. This this family of sharks

528
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:31,239
Speaker 1: and rays, they're called the Elasma bronx. Their fish with

529
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 1: skeletons made of cartilage instead of bone. It's the same

530
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: bendy stuff you've gotten your ears. And the super order

531
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 1: of rays is batoy dea uh. Stingrays in particular are

532
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 1: found in the suborder of rays known as my leo battaforms. Now,

533
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 1: like other raised stingrays kind of have a flattened body

534
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 1: and a large somewhat rounded pectoral set of fins that

535
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:56,440
Speaker 1: are fully fused with the head in the body, and

536
00:29:56,480 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 1: this makes them sort of rounded off like a pancake fish. Often,

537
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,240
Speaker 1: sting rays tend to swim by sort of undulating their

538
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,000
Speaker 1: their their wide pectoral fins sort of just like waves

539
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 1: rather than flapping like wings, and stingrays in particular tend

540
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 1: to have flat bodies that blend in with the seafloor.

541
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:18,960
Speaker 1: Often they're camouflaged, uh, and that's because they spend most

542
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:22,040
Speaker 1: of their time on the seafloor hiding out, often partially

543
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 1: buried in sediment. You'll sometimes see stingrays like down down

544
00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 1: in the sediment with like sand piled on top of

545
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:32,200
Speaker 1: their little wings. And some researchers believe that their eyes

546
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:35,400
Speaker 1: are poorly placed for hunting, given that their body is

547
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 1: this sort of flat disc shape and their mouths are

548
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: down on the bottom and their eyes are up on

549
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 1: the top. But that's okay because they don't need to

550
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 1: rely entirely on their eyes for hunting. Like sharks, stingrays

551
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,000
Speaker 1: have organs that are known as the ampullae of Lorenzini,

552
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:54,000
Speaker 1: and these are small pores in the skin that can

553
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:56,760
Speaker 1: detect electric fields in the water, And of course all

554
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 1: animals generate electric fields in the water, especially when the

555
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 1: contract their muscles. So if there is a prey animal

556
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,240
Speaker 1: out there swimming, moving around, or even just with a

557
00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:09,680
Speaker 1: beating heart, you can probably sense some kind of electric

558
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,760
Speaker 1: voltage difference that it is causing in the water with

559
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 1: your ambulae of Lorenzini. But they've also got a magnificent spine,

560
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 1: and that's what we're going to be focusing on today.

561
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 1: The stingray has a spine with venom, sometimes deadly venom

562
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 1: that can in some cases kill humans. Now, to be clear,

563
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 1: sting rays very rarely attack or kill humans. They are

564
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,520
Speaker 1: not considered aggressive at all. That generally, if there's an

565
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:41,160
Speaker 1: incident between humans and stingrays, it's defensive because the human

566
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:44,680
Speaker 1: like stepped on the stingray or loomed over it, right,

567
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: And the latter seems to have probably been the case.

568
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 1: With the most famous case in recent history of a

569
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 1: sting ray related death out of the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin.

570
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was sad. Yeah, yeah, it was a

571
00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 1: tragic case two thousand six, uh, and he died after

572
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 1: he sustain a numerous stabs from an eight foot wide stingray.

573
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 1: He was in shallow water. Um, he was. He was

574
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,720
Speaker 1: in close proximity to the creature they were filming. And

575
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: the theory I read is that the ray might have

576
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 1: thought Irwin's shadow was a tiger shark and the shallow

577
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:20,479
Speaker 1: water there, and then it reportedly stabbed him hundreds of

578
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: times and one of the stabs pierced his heart and

579
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 1: then he bled to death. Yeah, that's it's a sad story.

580
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 1: But it's not the only time that the people have

581
00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 1: actually been killed by stingray spines there that they can, um,

582
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:35,440
Speaker 1: they cause I mean severe just direct trauma, like can

583
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 1: pierce the skin and cause a lot of bleeding. But

584
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 1: they also in many cases do have very powerful venom.

585
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 1: So but I think it is worth noting like, given

586
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:47,760
Speaker 1: especially that this case occurred in shallow water, that it's

587
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:54,200
Speaker 1: not unbelievable that medieval or even older people would as

588
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 1: certainly people that that made their their livelihoods at the

589
00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: seaside would have encountered and even encounter entered fatally uh

590
00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 1: sting rays at some point or another. No, it's not

591
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 1: unlikely at all, And in fact, we know for a

592
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 1: fact that the ancient people that ancient people. You know,

593
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: long before the medieval Irish myths. Ancient people's knew about stingrays,

594
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 1: and they knew about the venom on their spines, and

595
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,560
Speaker 1: they knew some things about how these spined uh spears worked.

596
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 1: In fact, stingray spine tipped spears already exist in ancient

597
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:25,920
Speaker 1: hero myths. Do you know this? I was not aware

598
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 1: of this. So you know the story the Greek myth

599
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 1: of Odysseus Uh. This is told in in the Odyssey.

600
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 1: For example, Odysseus and the witch Searcy had a son

601
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:41,239
Speaker 1: named Teleganus Uh. And remember, of course, the story of

602
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:44,040
Speaker 1: how Odysseus and Cercy got together is that while Odysseus

603
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: is on his way home, he ends up at the

604
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 1: manner of Searcy, and Cearcy is this witch sorceress figure

605
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:53,320
Speaker 1: who turns all of Odysseus's men into swine, but Odysseus

606
00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 1: saves them with the help of the gods, and then

607
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: he ends up essentially being Sarcey's living boyfriend for a while. Um,

608
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:02,160
Speaker 1: I mean, while while his wife Penelope is home being

609
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 1: very dutiful and waiting on him, he's like shacking up

610
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:08,319
Speaker 1: with Searcy. So as usual, Odysseus is kind of a jerk.

611
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 1: But uh so he's doing that. And while he's there,

612
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:14,360
Speaker 1: he apparently he has a son with Searcy, and this

613
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,080
Speaker 1: son's name is Teleganus. But of course, eventually Odysseus has

614
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: to get home to his home of Ithaca, his wife Penelope,

615
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: and his son Telemachus. And so here is a passage

616
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:31,880
Speaker 1: from Fraser's translation English translation of a passage from Apollodorus quote.

617
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:35,399
Speaker 1: When Teleganus learned from Searcy that he was a son

618
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:38,839
Speaker 1: of Ulysses, who is also that's another name for Odysseus,

619
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: he sailed in search of him, and having come to

620
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:44,920
Speaker 1: the island of Ithaca, he drove away some of the cattle,

621
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 1: and when Ulysses defended them, Teleganus wounded him with the

622
00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 1: spear he had in his hands, which was barbed with

623
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 1: the spine of a stingray, and Ulysses died of the wound.

624
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,200
Speaker 1: A Pettant in his article also quotes a second century

625
00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:01,919
Speaker 1: Greek text on fishing by an author named Oppien, which

626
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,560
Speaker 1: tells another version of this story. And I'll read this

627
00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:08,279
Speaker 1: quote as well. While the stingray lives a terrible and

628
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:11,799
Speaker 1: fiery weapon attends it such i ween as a man

629
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:15,080
Speaker 1: trembles to hear of. And it lives when the stingray

630
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 1: itself has perished, and preserves its unwearied strength unchanged. And

631
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:22,440
Speaker 1: not only on the living creatures which it strikes does

632
00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: it belch mysterious bain, but it hurts even tree and rock,

633
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:30,799
Speaker 1: and wherever it comes nigh. That sting it was, which

634
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:34,320
Speaker 1: his mother Circe, skilled in many drugs, gave of old

635
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,760
Speaker 1: to let to telegan Us for his long hilted spear,

636
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 1: that he might array his foes death from the sea.

637
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,640
Speaker 1: And he beached his ship on the island that pastured goats,

638
00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:47,560
Speaker 1: And he knew not that he was harrying the flocks

639
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:50,680
Speaker 1: of his own father, and on his aged sire, who

640
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:54,040
Speaker 1: came to the rescue, even on him whom he was seeking,

641
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 1: he brought an evil fate. There, the cunning Odysseus, who

642
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 1: had passed through countless woes of the sea in his

643
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:06,000
Speaker 1: laborious adventures, the grievous stingray slew with one blow. So

644
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:09,480
Speaker 1: that's kind of combining, uh weirdly enough, like the like

645
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,040
Speaker 1: the Odysseus tradition and sort of the Oedipus tradition, right,

646
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:16,879
Speaker 1: like accidentally coming across and killing your own father. Well, um,

647
00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:19,880
Speaker 1: it's interesting too to bring it back to Kohland. But

648
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,120
Speaker 1: believe they're in the part of the story there is

649
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 1: the Kohland ends up accidentally killing his own son with

650
00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:31,520
Speaker 1: the guy Bolga at one point, like he does not

651
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:33,480
Speaker 1: know that it's his son and ends up engaging in

652
00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:36,480
Speaker 1: combat with him. Well, yeah, Pettit seems to notice some

653
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 1: pretty strong similarities between these myths, and so he's I

654
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 1: think this is one reason he has for wondering if

655
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 1: the idea of the stingray is actually incorporated into the

656
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:50,160
Speaker 1: guy Bulga legend. Uh hell. Pettit also mentions that some

657
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:53,879
Speaker 1: sources claim Cercy had the stingray tipped spear made by

658
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,759
Speaker 1: the Greek forge god have faced us out of a

659
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:00,080
Speaker 1: spine stolen from a stingray by the sea god forced this,

660
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: And of course we know that the guy Bolga was made,

661
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,000
Speaker 1: at least in some tellings, from the body of some

662
00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:07,440
Speaker 1: kind of sea monster or sea creature, right, and in

663
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:11,040
Speaker 1: some tellings the art of the guy Boga is instructed

664
00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:13,799
Speaker 1: to Kohland by a god of the sea. But just

665
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:17,240
Speaker 1: as further evidence of what the ancients knew or thought

666
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:20,360
Speaker 1: they knew about stingray spines. Look, why not have a

667
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:22,319
Speaker 1: look at our old friend Plenty of the elder as well.

668
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 1: There's a pet Pettit points to this passage quote. But

669
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:28,960
Speaker 1: there is nothing in the world more execrable than the

670
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:32,239
Speaker 1: sting projecting above the tail of the stingray, which are

671
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:35,719
Speaker 1: people called the pastanaka. It is five inches long and

672
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,839
Speaker 1: kills trees when driven into the root. That's sort of

673
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:41,840
Speaker 1: like what Opien said right there. It kills not just animals,

674
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: but like trees and stones. I don't know how you

675
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 1: kill a stone, um, But a Plenty continues and penetrates

676
00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:53,360
Speaker 1: armor like a missile, with the force of steel and

677
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 1: with deadly poison. So Pettits sees really strong parallels between

678
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,759
Speaker 1: the myths of Kohland and telegan Us, and sees some

679
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:04,600
Speaker 1: of these parallels between what was understood by the ancients

680
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:08,480
Speaker 1: about the stingray spine and the myth of the guy Bolga.

681
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:11,160
Speaker 1: The guy bolga is said to come from the water.

682
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:14,279
Speaker 1: It gets thrown from under the water. It's associated with

683
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:16,920
Speaker 1: shallow water. Sometimes it's said to be made from the

684
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:20,000
Speaker 1: body or skull of some type of sea monster. And

685
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:22,040
Speaker 1: of course it is true that sting rays can be

686
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:24,799
Speaker 1: found in the coastal waters of Ireland and they can

687
00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:27,799
Speaker 1: grow to quite a monstrous size and like the underside

688
00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:30,480
Speaker 1: of them, Pettit points out, can resemble a grinning or

689
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,439
Speaker 1: grimacing face. That's true that certainly if you've ever been

690
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:35,640
Speaker 1: to an aquarium, you know they if they come up

691
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:38,960
Speaker 1: to the glass. Uh, you see what looks like a

692
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,640
Speaker 1: face there, but the eyes are on the other side, obviously,

693
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:44,680
Speaker 1: and crucially the one of the issues here is that

694
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 1: a stingray spine is not like the fang of a

695
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,480
Speaker 1: snake or something, which, once removed, is just like a

696
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 1: piece of tooth, you know, there's nothing to it. Uh.

697
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:58,400
Speaker 1: The ancients understood that a stingray spine could remain deadly

698
00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:01,399
Speaker 1: for some time after the ray was dead, or after

699
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,520
Speaker 1: it's removed from the ray, so maybe maybe some like

700
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 1: forty eight hours afterwards, So detaching it from the ray

701
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:11,720
Speaker 1: and attaching it to a weapon wouldn't immediately render it harmless.

702
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 1: It could still have, of course the normal like piercing potential,

703
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:18,440
Speaker 1: but the venom as well. Uh. Now this is interesting

704
00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:21,000
Speaker 1: because that that epic battle that Koholand has with third.

705
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:25,920
Speaker 1: It's supposedly rages for three days before they finally reached

706
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 1: the point where ko Holand calls for the guy bolga Um.

707
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,760
Speaker 1: So he couldn't just based on this sort of forty

708
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:36,279
Speaker 1: eight hour rule is like a rough guideline for utilizing

709
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 1: a magical sting ray weapon in battle, Like, he wouldn't

710
00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:41,799
Speaker 1: be able to bring that to the field with him.

711
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 1: Thus he has to call on his charioteer to send

712
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:47,400
Speaker 1: it down the water to him, and then he can, uh,

713
00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:50,360
Speaker 1: he can fetch it with his fabulous seven towed foot

714
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,239
Speaker 1: and fling it up the anus of his opponent. Yeah, so,

715
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:55,840
Speaker 1: I I don't know if Pettit's right about this connection.

716
00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,040
Speaker 1: I mean he he also he adduces a lot of

717
00:39:58,080 --> 00:39:59,879
Speaker 1: evidence that we didn't even have time to get into

718
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:03,200
Speaker 1: a so, stuff about like the minut chef, the translation

719
00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:05,239
Speaker 1: of the word bolga and how that could point to

720
00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:08,360
Speaker 1: stingrays and stuff like that. But I'll be sure to

721
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:10,880
Speaker 1: link to the entire article on the Landing page for

722
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: this episode of Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

723
00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:16,000
Speaker 1: So anybody who wants to really dive into the evidence

724
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:21,200
Speaker 1: there and risk getting stung, you'll be able to do so. Yeah,

725
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 1: so I don't know if he's correct about this, but

726
00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:26,880
Speaker 1: it's a really interesting case and another wonderful example of

727
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 1: bio mythology. Yeah. I love the way that myth and

728
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:34,440
Speaker 1: legend traditions present us with these little mysteries, like that

729
00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:37,360
Speaker 1: they can be these little puzzle boxes because of the

730
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:40,960
Speaker 1: odd characteristics of elements within them, you know, like the

731
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:43,839
Speaker 1: idea of the spear being thrown through the seven toed

732
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,960
Speaker 1: foot from under the water into the anus and you

733
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,480
Speaker 1: just wonder like, Okay, is this just weird just because

734
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:53,280
Speaker 1: it's weird, or does all this weird disappoint to something?

735
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:56,000
Speaker 1: Is there something I'm missing? Yeah? Or to what extent

736
00:40:56,040 --> 00:40:59,840
Speaker 1: are we dealing with errors and translation? Uh? You know

737
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:03,640
Speaker 1: things that should be a notable um you know, metaphor symbol,

738
00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:07,359
Speaker 1: but out of context just sounds like something just really

739
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:11,279
Speaker 1: whack adoodle looking. Uh. These are always questions one has

740
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 1: to ask. But that being said, I feel like you

741
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 1: can always just embrace just the raw alien nature of

742
00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 1: the myth you're presented with two and just to enjoy

743
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:25,160
Speaker 1: it on that level as well. Yeah. Nothing nothing more

744
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:30,319
Speaker 1: fun than a really impractical weapon. Yes. Uh, speaking of

745
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:34,040
Speaker 1: which I have to say, as a fan, a longtime

746
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:37,399
Speaker 1: fan of the Mortal Kombat games, you know they put

747
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:39,480
Speaker 1: on somebody have a Guy Balla in there. No, but

748
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:41,120
Speaker 1: they should, like one of the things that you have

749
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:48,280
Speaker 1: in these games, especially today, increasingly overly complicated fatalities where

750
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:50,839
Speaker 1: you know, one fighter finishes off the other one by

751
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:53,720
Speaker 1: doing something just predict you know, like not only slicing

752
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:55,880
Speaker 1: off their head, but then slicing the head in half,

753
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:57,920
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. But really, when you look at

754
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:00,120
Speaker 1: the story of the Guy Bolga, they've got nothing, you know,

755
00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:04,280
Speaker 1: like the Irish mythology has has has all the Mortal

756
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:10,200
Speaker 1: Kombat you need. I'd like to see Raid in versus Kohlan. Yeah,

757
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:12,000
Speaker 1: they could put him in there, make him, make him

758
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:15,480
Speaker 1: a downloadable character. Wait, they have started crossing genres, haven't they.

759
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:17,400
Speaker 1: I think I said, I don't play the Mortal Kombat

760
00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:19,239
Speaker 1: games anymore, but I feel like I saw that they're

761
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:23,080
Speaker 1: They've got like Aliens and Jason Vorhees and stuff. Yeah,

762
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:27,040
Speaker 1: they've definitely brought in characters from other franchises, but but

763
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 1: I don't think they've brought in any I don't know

764
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:31,880
Speaker 1: if they brought in any additional mythological figures they should.

765
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:33,880
Speaker 1: I mean they already played with a little bit of that.

766
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:37,239
Speaker 1: So um. Now, one additional question I had based on

767
00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:38,880
Speaker 1: all of this, is all right with the with the

768
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 1: guy Bolga, you have a kind of impractical weapon that

769
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:46,239
Speaker 1: is also sure fire like it is gonna end the

770
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:49,120
Speaker 1: fight if you ever actually pull it out, But yet

771
00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 1: he'll ko holand will wait three days to actually do it.

772
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 1: Do we have other examples in our fiction and other

773
00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:59,560
Speaker 1: myths where you have this this this sure shot weapon

774
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:03,000
Speaker 1: that for some reason your heroes never actually produced until

775
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:05,200
Speaker 1: the last minute. I feel like that happens a lot,

776
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:07,319
Speaker 1: But I'm struggling to think of an example right now.

777
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:10,840
Speaker 1: The only one that really came to mind recently was

778
00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:15,120
Speaker 1: in the original Pacific Rim film. Like the Big Robots,

779
00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:18,200
Speaker 1: the what do they call the the the the agers,

780
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 1: they're they're beat down there on the point of being

781
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,879
Speaker 1: defeated by the giant Kaiju monsters, and then only then

782
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,879
Speaker 1: do they start using these big swords that pop out

783
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:32,719
Speaker 1: of their their limbs and just completely decimate the the

784
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:35,319
Speaker 1: creatures that they're battling. Oh, I know an example. You

785
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: remember the Mighty morphin Power Rangers. How like they would

786
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 1: have to keep when they faced a more powerful monster,

787
00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:44,560
Speaker 1: they'd have to keep like upgrading to like the next

788
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:47,919
Speaker 1: level of robots. And you always wondered, like, why don't

789
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 1: they just go to the top level of robots every

790
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:53,280
Speaker 1: time so they instantly defeat their opponent no matter Why? Yeah,

791
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:55,799
Speaker 1: why why isn't that your first move to go and

792
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:59,840
Speaker 1: do exactly instead of destroying half a city battling the

793
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 1: the monster for sure? Yeah, or for instance, Voltron is

794
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,279
Speaker 1: another example, Like I feel like they would try and

795
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:08,719
Speaker 1: battle whatever the ro beast or the threat of the

796
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:11,319
Speaker 1: week happened to be with just the lions, and then

797
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:13,279
Speaker 1: they're like, I guess we need to form Voltron to

798
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: actually deal with this scenario. Just go ahead and form Voltron.

799
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:18,319
Speaker 1: That's exactly the same thing as the Power Rangers. Yeah,

800
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:20,440
Speaker 1: first they'd fight it hand to hand, and then it

801
00:44:20,440 --> 00:44:23,000
Speaker 1: would get big magic wand make my monster grow it

802
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:26,120
Speaker 1: get big, and then they'd form a bigger robot. Uh,

803
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 1: and then they'd fight it and then they'd have it

804
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 1: would get bigger again or something, and then they'd have

805
00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:31,840
Speaker 1: to do another thing. They'd have to go to the

806
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:34,879
Speaker 1: like the final robot level. Well, and I guess maybe

807
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:36,600
Speaker 1: in all of this, there is a certain amount of

808
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:41,880
Speaker 1: like martial arts storytelling, like like I I am reminded

809
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:44,839
Speaker 1: in professional wrestling, for instance, especially in like the Japanese

810
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:48,799
Speaker 1: of varieties. Uh. They'll be like a super finisher that

811
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:51,520
Speaker 1: an individual has, like a move that they rarely bust

812
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,520
Speaker 1: out because it's like too dangerous. But if the matches

813
00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:58,000
Speaker 1: is you know, goes on long enough and there are

814
00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:01,080
Speaker 1: other finishers haven't worked, then they will turn into uh,

815
00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:02,840
Speaker 1: you know, to something like that. You know, the like

816
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:05,120
Speaker 1: the gonzo bomb, you know something that is that the

817
00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:07,799
Speaker 1: kind of the equivalent of the Guy Bolga. What is

818
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:12,640
Speaker 1: the Gonzo bomb? It's this guy named uh Kawata would

819
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:14,239
Speaker 1: use it and it's like a power bomb where he

820
00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:17,120
Speaker 1: just drops you right on your neck. Um, you know.

821
00:45:17,239 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 1: Brutal movie only busted it out like a few times,

822
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:22,279
Speaker 1: but it was kind of like his his super move,

823
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,440
Speaker 1: his super form that he would assume. And so I

824
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:28,120
Speaker 1: guess it makes sense from a storytelling point of view,

825
00:45:28,160 --> 00:45:32,160
Speaker 1: if you're you're telling the story of epic mythic combatants

826
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:35,399
Speaker 1: going at each other, that there would be this one

827
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:37,719
Speaker 1: move beyond that they might turn to. And in the

828
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:40,160
Speaker 1: case of the Guy Bolga, it's not a pleasant weapon.

829
00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:43,399
Speaker 1: It's a treacherous weapon. It's kind of like your hero

830
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:47,879
Speaker 1: cheating a little bit at the very end out of desperation. Well,

831
00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:50,400
Speaker 1: they had to cheat to defeat him in the end too,

832
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 1: that's true. So yeah, though I guess he did that.

833
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:57,239
Speaker 1: I guess it's the opposite order, but but still, yeah,

834
00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:00,759
Speaker 1: some treachery ends up being employed. Uh, even on the

835
00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:04,360
Speaker 1: mythic battlefield. This is the new version of the han shot.

836
00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:08,319
Speaker 1: First T shirt is well uncheated first. Oh man, you

837
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:11,080
Speaker 1: have printed? I'd where it? Speaking of you know, we

838
00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:13,520
Speaker 1: do have a T shirt store. Um you can, you can?

839
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:17,279
Speaker 1: Can we get those made? I would love to see it.

840
00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:19,960
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe it will. It will be there soon for

841
00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:21,719
Speaker 1: the time being that we have all sorts of fun

842
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:25,879
Speaker 1: like squirrel related and great basilisk related and black hole

843
00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 1: related designs, as well as just you know what you

844
00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:31,160
Speaker 1: might expect, like logo based designs as well. You can

845
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Speaker 1: find that if you go to our mothership Stuff to

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Speaker 1: Blow your Mind dot com. There is a link at

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Speaker 1: the top for our store. It's our t public store.

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Speaker 1: Check that out. It's a fun way to support the show,

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Speaker 1: but the best way to support the show is to

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Speaker 1: simply rate and review us wherever you have the power

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Speaker 1: to do so. Wherever you get this podcast, also be

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Speaker 1: sure to check out our other show, Invention, that's already

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Speaker 1: out there. I think we're what about a dozen episodes.

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Speaker 1: In each episode a new life changing, world altering Invention

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Speaker 1: and not dislways life changing, the world altering. Sometimes just

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Speaker 1: weird and small and interesting, that's true, but I mean

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Speaker 1: at all, it's still it ultimately changes the shape of

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Speaker 1: life in some way or another, like even things that

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Speaker 1: didn't quite come to being, like the death Ray. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can't disagree with you. Theyre so definitely check out Invention.

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Speaker 1: If you like this show, We're pretty sure you'll like

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Speaker 1: that show too. Anyway, big thanks as always to our

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Speaker 1: excellent audio producers Alex Williams and try Harrison. If you

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Speaker 1: topic for the future, just to say hello, you can

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Speaker 1: email us at blow the Mind at how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.

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Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works dot com. My present fe

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Speaker 1: fo fo fo fo fo fo