1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,480 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right 3 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:16,640 Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Walls are meant to be 5 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:31,440 Speaker 1: protective four walls in a roof for a part of 6 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:35,559 Speaker 1: a person's basic needs, along with food and clothing. Of course, however, 7 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:39,440 Speaker 1: walls can also be confining. The stone walls of a prison, 8 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: for example, aren't seen as protective to the people inside, 9 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:45,319 Speaker 1: even if they are meant to protect those of us 10 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: on the outside. Food didn't see walls as a shelter. 11 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: He saw them as a hindrance, something to be overcome. Fortunately, 12 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 1: Food was resourceful. He had been locked up since the 13 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:02,520 Speaker 1: early nineteen sixties, back before security cameras and censors adorned 14 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: every corner and corridor. He learned the guard's schedules. He 15 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:08,479 Speaker 1: knew when they patrolled his cell and when no one 16 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,640 Speaker 1: was in the vicinity. The first time Foo escaped, he 17 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: got as far as the tree line before he was 18 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,440 Speaker 1: captured and thrown back in. The guard in charge, Jerry Stones, 19 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 1: was furious. He threatened to fire anyone taking shortcuts and 20 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:26,000 Speaker 1: not doing their job, security was of the utmost importance. 21 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: The second time Food got out, he was captured on 22 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:32,640 Speaker 1: a nearby roof. Then one day one of the other 23 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:36,319 Speaker 1: guards noticed something odd. He watched the prisoner from a distance, 24 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:40,720 Speaker 1: taking note of his behavior. Foo produced something from his mouth. 25 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:43,200 Speaker 1: It was a piece of metal he jimmied into the 26 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: lock on his door. The guard didn't know how he'd 27 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 1: gotten it. More importantly, he had no idea how Foo 28 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 1: was able to pick the lock by himself. But like 29 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:56,280 Speaker 1: I said, Foo was resourceful. The authorities were at a 30 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 1: loss for how they could keep losing track of him. 31 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:02,280 Speaker 1: They thought they were doing everything right, and technically they were. 32 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:06,920 Speaker 1: There was just one thing they hadn't counted on. Animal intelligence. 33 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: You see. Foo's full name was Fu Manchu, and in 34 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:14,560 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight he wasn't a prisoner per se, but 35 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: he was certainly behind bars in the Omaha Zoo. He 36 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 1: was an orangutang and did not enjoy staying trapped in 37 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: his enclosure. Foo liked climbing down the exterior of an 38 00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: air vent into a dry moat that led to a furnace. 39 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:31,239 Speaker 1: He would use his strength to pry the furnace door 40 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:34,000 Speaker 1: open just enough so he could slip the wire, which 41 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:36,600 Speaker 1: he kept tucked between his bottom lip and his gums, 42 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 1: into the crack. He'd slided upwards to unhook the latch 43 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:44,880 Speaker 1: and then roam around the zoo. The head zookeeper, Jerry Stones, 44 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:47,240 Speaker 1: couldn't believe the ape had figured out a way to 45 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:50,119 Speaker 1: break out on his own, But almost twenty years later 46 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 1: in San Diego, another male orangutan managed to do the 47 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:57,960 Speaker 1: same thing. This one named Ken Allen had become very 48 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,760 Speaker 1: good at scaling the walls of his closure. Zookeepers there 49 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: eventually brought in a team of professional rock climbers to 50 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:08,079 Speaker 1: find ways to keep Ken from climbing his way to freedom, 51 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 1: or worse, teaching the other apes to do the same. However, 52 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:16,040 Speaker 1: to animal researchers at the time, these escapades weren't as 53 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: interesting as what was going on in other zoos around 54 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:23,320 Speaker 1: the country. The famous gorilla Coco in California could communicate 55 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: with American sign language. She knew over one thousand different 56 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: signs and was able to convey emotions as well as 57 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 1: ask for things from the researchers. And then there was Colo, 58 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 1: a female guerrilla at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. Colo 59 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: couldn't sign, but she had other ways of getting what 60 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: she wanted. One day, zookeeper Charlene Gendri learned Coco had 61 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: taken possession of something her colleagues couldn't identify, and she 62 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:51,120 Speaker 1: was keeping it hidden. Thinking it might be something dangerous, 63 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: they tried to bargain with her. They offered her peanuts 64 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: to try and coax it out of her hand, but 65 00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: she wouldn't let go. She wanted more, Charlene and added 66 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 1: a slice of pineapple to the deal. That's when Colo 67 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:06,080 Speaker 1: showed her what she had been hiding, a key chain. 68 00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: But rather than give her the whole thing, Colo saw 69 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: an opportunity to increase her earnings. She broke the key 70 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: chain into pieces and only gave a new piece away 71 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: when Charlene presented a new piece of pineapple. The object 72 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 1: in Colo's hand hadn't been anything dangerous after all, but 73 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,360 Speaker 1: the experience had taught Charlene something important about the apes. 74 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 1: They knew how to negotiate, Foo Man, Chew, Ken Allen, Coco, 75 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:37,400 Speaker 1: and Colo had all learned how to perform different tasks 76 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:41,360 Speaker 1: once considered only teachable to humans, the ability to pick 77 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: locks outwit zookeepers communicate via sign language and barter for 78 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: stolen goods apparently came naturally to the curious creatures, and 79 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,280 Speaker 1: however scientifically inaccurate it might be for me to swap 80 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:59,280 Speaker 1: animal names in this particular story, the old adage couldn't 81 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: be more relevant given the circumstances. After all, monkey see 82 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:21,159 Speaker 1: monkey Do. Easter Island, just off the coast of Chile, 83 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: was settled by the Rapa Nui people sometime around d 84 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:29,279 Speaker 1: It's perhaps most famous for its Moi statues, the giant 85 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,640 Speaker 1: carved stone heads that populate the island. It's people have 86 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: been through a lot over the last eight hundred years, deforestation, 87 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:40,680 Speaker 1: European imperialism, the slave trade, and the introduction of foreign diseases, 88 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,640 Speaker 1: and yet there are still things we don't know. Every 89 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:47,160 Speaker 1: culture has its own myths and mysteries. The giant statues, 90 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:49,919 Speaker 1: of course, are the largest and best known examples on 91 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:53,560 Speaker 1: the island, but there are also wood carvings, houses made 92 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:57,920 Speaker 1: of stone, and writings. The writings are perhaps the most 93 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: fascinating remnants of the ancient Rapa Nui. Petroglyphs or rock 94 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:06,320 Speaker 1: carvings have been cataloged all over the island as territory markers. 95 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:10,520 Speaker 1: And headstones. Many ancient petroglyphs have been translated over the years, 96 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:14,599 Speaker 1: giving researchers a better understanding of Rapa Nui history, but 97 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:17,520 Speaker 1: there's one type of script that has perplexed them for years. 98 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: It's called Rongo Rongo, and word of its existence was 99 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:25,120 Speaker 1: first spread outside the island by a French missionary. His 100 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:28,240 Speaker 1: name was Eugene A. Rod and he'd been a mechanic 101 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:30,599 Speaker 1: and a minor by trade, but later in life he 102 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:33,479 Speaker 1: developed a passion for missionary work, which took him to 103 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 1: China in the mid eighteen hundreds, than to Chile, Tahiti, 104 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:41,880 Speaker 1: and finally Eastern Island in eighteen sixty four. It was 105 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:45,599 Speaker 1: during his first tour when he encountered Rongo Rongo. He 106 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:48,040 Speaker 1: would enter the homes of the native people and see 107 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: wooden tablets on display featuring unfamiliar glyphs. No one, not 108 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: even the locals, knew how to read them. He didn't 109 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,000 Speaker 1: see anything of note in them. To him, everything about 110 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,880 Speaker 1: the island was strange and knew though. It wasn't until 111 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:06,159 Speaker 1: five years later when a colleague of his accidentally unveiled 112 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 1: Rongo Rongo to the rest of the world. This colleague 113 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:11,640 Speaker 1: had presented one of the wooden tablets as a gift 114 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: to a bishop who had been working alongside him. It's 115 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: differences from the main language of the island were immediately apparent. 116 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:21,960 Speaker 1: First of all, nearly every instance of it had been 117 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:25,000 Speaker 1: carved in wood, not stone. It's been said that wood 118 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: was so valuable on the island only expert scribes ever 119 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: used it in their writing. And Secondly, the bishop could 120 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: find no one on the island who could read the 121 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:37,440 Speaker 1: tablet to him. One person knew its contents by memory, 122 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:42,160 Speaker 1: but not what any of the symbols meant. These glyphs, 123 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:46,560 Speaker 1: which were comprised of shapes representing different plants, people, and animals, 124 00:07:46,840 --> 00:07:50,880 Speaker 1: were arranged in a technique called reverse boustrepadon. To read 125 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:52,920 Speaker 1: the carving, the reader would have to start in the 126 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:56,400 Speaker 1: bottom left corner and read toward the right, then rotate 127 00:07:56,440 --> 00:08:01,239 Speaker 1: the tablet degrees and continue to the next line. However, 128 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:05,000 Speaker 1: despite the obvious pictorial style of the text, Rongo Rongo 129 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:09,280 Speaker 1: has remained nearly undecipherable for over a century. Part of 130 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:13,120 Speaker 1: one tablet has been translated into some kind of lunar calendar, 131 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,120 Speaker 1: though it can't be read or understood, and there are 132 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: over fifteen thousand known glyphs within this system, and no 133 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:23,960 Speaker 1: contextual texts or artifacts to compare them against. This makes 134 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:30,840 Speaker 1: Rongo Rongo arguably an unknowable language. Some historians have claimed 135 00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:33,000 Speaker 1: it really isn't a language at all, but rather a 136 00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:36,680 Speaker 1: proto language, a way to convey information to anyone who 137 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 1: already knows what the symbols really mean. However, with so 138 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:43,040 Speaker 1: few texts remaining and no one with any knowledge of 139 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 1: what any of them say, it's possible that a definitive 140 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:50,800 Speaker 1: Rongo Rongo translation may never come. A picture may be 141 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,079 Speaker 1: worth a thousand words, as they say, but a glyph 142 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:58,280 Speaker 1: carved into a wooden tablet could very well be priceless. 143 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:05,120 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 144 00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:09,040 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 145 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:13,640 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. 146 00:09:13,679 --> 00:09:17,240 Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership 147 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:20,560 Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show 148 00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, 149 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:26,880 Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the 150 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:31,760 Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.