Speaker 1: Welcome to the Hidden Gin, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. When I
Speaker 1: was a kid, there was this family that we were
Speaker 1: pretty close with and kind of grew up with. In fact,
Speaker 1: they had four boys, all my age or older, and
Speaker 1: they reveled in telling us jin stories every time they
Speaker 1: could get me and my younger siblings alone. They told
Speaker 1: us about a time when they were traveling in rural
Speaker 1: South Asia on the way to their ancestral village, bouncing
Speaker 1: along in a rickety train. It was a hot night,
Speaker 1: and the train windows were pushed down, so the dust
Speaker 1: that rose from the tracks created to haze both inside
Speaker 1: and outside the string of cabins. Things had quieted down,
Speaker 1: suppers had been unwrapped and eaten. The last of the
Speaker 1: young boys who were hawking boiled eggs, fried lentils, and
Speaker 1: thick sweet hot tea had passed through the train one
Speaker 1: final time. Most of the other passengers were asleep, either
Speaker 1: slumped over a loved one next to them, or with
Speaker 1: their heads thrown back over a seat, their bodies steadily
Speaker 1: rocking back and forth with the movement of the train.
Speaker 1: The younger two brothers were likewise asleep, curled up against
Speaker 1: their mother, who had pulled a cotton shawl partially over
Speaker 1: her face to filter out the dust, or maybe it
Speaker 1: was so no one could see her mouth slack and
Speaker 1: open as she snored. It wasn't unusual to see other
Speaker 1: passengers with their faces covered by different means, with shawls, blankets,
Speaker 1: even the occasional broka. In the cramped quarters. It was
Speaker 1: one way to have some limited privacy and make sleeping
Speaker 1: in public a little bit more comfortable. Now, there is
Speaker 1: one woman in the cabin who was covered entirely in
Speaker 1: black from head to toe, sitting on the berth across
Speaker 1: the aisle from the two older brothers who were still
Speaker 1: wide awake. They were still pretty young, barely in the
Speaker 1: double digits and only a year apart, which meant they
Speaker 1: spent most of their waking moments trying to find ways
Speaker 1: to mess with each other. On that particular night, as
Speaker 1: the boredom got to them, they traded kicks and pinches
Speaker 1: and elbows, testing each other. Their goal was to keep
Speaker 1: from yelping and waking up their mom, who would likely
Speaker 1: take a slipper to them if they did. They giggled
Speaker 1: under their breath, still jabbing one another, and then they
Speaker 1: noticed the woman in black turned her head towards them.
Speaker 1: The bottom half of her face was covered in the
Speaker 1: black veil of a borka, but the top half was exposed.
Speaker 1: Her large black eyes were wide open, lined with coal,
Speaker 1: staring at them intently. The boys froze under her unblinking gaze.
Speaker 1: Whether a few moments passed or entire minutes, it's hard
Speaker 1: to say, but to the brothers it felt like in
Speaker 1: an eternity. And then still silent, the woman turned her
Speaker 1: head the other way to look out the window, and
Speaker 1: as she did so, she stretched her legs in front
Speaker 1: of her. Her black gown rose to reveal her feet, which,
Speaker 1: to the shock and horror of these brothers, were bent
Speaker 1: completely backwards. I'm Rabbia Chadar, and I'll be your guide
Speaker 1: into the ancient world of the hidden gin. Welcome. I
Speaker 1: heard that story, or some variation of it, countless times
Speaker 1: from those brothers who swore that they witnessed a woman
Speaker 1: whose feet were on backwards in the dead of the
Speaker 1: night on a train to their village. When they told others,
Speaker 1: elder relatives what they had seen, they were casually informed
Speaker 1: that that woman was definitely a gin. It was a
Speaker 1: sure sign of a gin trying to pass as human.
Speaker 1: They could transform to a certain extent, but their eat,
Speaker 1: for some reason, still ended up backwards, or maybe they
Speaker 1: wanted to keep it that way so they could frighten
Speaker 1: the unsuspecting with a flash of their feet. Essentially, and oftentimes,
Speaker 1: the gin manifest themselves to us as they please, shifting
Speaker 1: into human or animal shapes to enter our dimension, but
Speaker 1: never revealing what they really look like to us, which
Speaker 1: is understandable because apparently their original forms are so fierce
Speaker 1: and terrifying we wouldn't be able to handle it. One
Speaker 1: legend tells of a gin that revealed itself to none
Speaker 1: other than Alexander the Great. It was huge, as large
Speaker 1: as a building, with seven heads, and every head had
Speaker 1: two faces, four blazing eyes, a monstrous mouth full of
Speaker 1: flaming teeth, and the massive nose of a bull. Strangely, though,
Speaker 1: it had the feet of a duck, a massive duck,
Speaker 1: but duck feet. Nonetheless, it's not likely you'll see a
Speaker 1: gin in its original form, though that would just give
Speaker 1: it away, and they usually don't want that. But there
Speaker 1: are some manifestations that seem to be most common when
Speaker 1: it comes to gin encounters, which will help us recognize
Speaker 1: a gin when we see one. But remember, we only
Speaker 1: see a gin when it wants us to. And it's
Speaker 1: also said that they only appear to those who believe
Speaker 1: in them. Otherwise our senses are closed to their realm.
Speaker 1: They can hide from us, and they do, but it's
Speaker 1: said that they cannot hide from certain animals. Now, there
Speaker 1: are many cultures that believe animals can see or sense
Speaker 1: the unseen storms on the horizon, for example, or even
Speaker 1: natural disasters. It's well known and well documented that days
Speaker 1: before the horrific two thousand and four tsunami that brutalized
Speaker 1: South Asian coastlines, local animals were acting out of sorts
Speaker 1: from India to Sri Lanka to Indonesia. There were dozens
Speaker 1: of reports well before the massive waves hit of dogs
Speaker 1: that refuse to go outside, elephants that led to higher ground,
Speaker 1: and zoo animals coward in their shelters. There is nothing
Speaker 1: necessarily supernatural about any of it. After all, many animals
Speaker 1: have vastly different ranges of sound and sight that human
Speaker 1: beings do, and according to indigenous cultures, they're just simply
Speaker 1: more connected to the natural phenomena around them, which explains
Speaker 1: why animals may be also more likely to feel or
Speaker 1: sense gin or other creatures we can't see and probably
Speaker 1: don't want to see. They say to beware when a
Speaker 1: donkey brace, because it's surely seeing a devil. But you
Speaker 1: don't have to own a donkey to witness the sixth
Speaker 1: sense animals have for the unseen. Every dog and cat
Speaker 1: owner has seen at some point their furry companion stare
Speaker 1: with alarm at a point in a room where apparently
Speaker 1: there's nothing to see, or they'll growl, flatten their ears,
Speaker 1: crouch at some invisible threat. And then there are the
Speaker 1: three am crazy's, when cats suddenly began tearing around the halls,
Speaker 1: slamming into walls, bursting with a manic energy that doesn't
Speaker 1: exist at any other part of the day. No one
Speaker 1: is exactly sure what causes this middle of the night
Speaker 1: feline mania, and there are some theories about it, but
Speaker 1: none of them account for why this happens at a
Speaker 1: time otherwise known as the witching hour, that time of
Speaker 1: night when black magic is strongest, when the cover of
Speaker 1: darkness is deepest, and when those of us with a
Speaker 1: touch of insomnia often spring awake in bed only to
Speaker 1: see a negon glow from a bedside clock telling us
Speaker 1: it's three am. Whether or not animals see gin, we
Speaker 1: do know this. Sometimes the animals around us are in
Speaker 1: fact jin themselves. While shape shifting gin have the ability
Speaker 1: to transform into pretty much any kind of animal, dogs, cats, scorpions, camels, lions,
Speaker 1: and even insects like beetles. It seems the most common
Speaker 1: creature you may come across that could be a hidden
Speaker 1: gin is a snake. And it's no coincidence that Adam
Speaker 1: and Eve were tricked by a serpent in the garden.
Speaker 1: The serpent was the devil himself disguised, and the devil
Speaker 1: in some traditions, is in fact a gin. There's a
Speaker 1: story from seventeenth century Egypt in which a famous holy
Speaker 1: man named Alhredi had died, but people believed that he
Speaker 1: had returned, reincarnated as a large snake. The snake had
Speaker 1: made the holy man's shrine on the Nile River its home,
Speaker 1: staying curled up at all times in the crevice of
Speaker 1: some rocks near the grave. In his lifetime, Alhredi was
Speaker 1: known to be a healer, a pious man with miraculous
Speaker 1: powers to cure the sick, but after his death, those
Speaker 1: powers seemed to have become vested in the great serpent
Speaker 1: that guarded his shrine, and as long as that snake
Speaker 1: was there, the miracles continued. The locals had different theories
Speaker 1: about Alhredi and a snake. It could have been that
Speaker 1: he was never a human being to begin with, but
Speaker 1: instead that he was a benevolent gin who transformed himself
Speaker 1: into a human so he could help heal people. Then,
Speaker 1: after living the human life and dying a human death,
Speaker 1: he turned into the giant snake to continue to bless
Speaker 1: those that came to the shrine for help. Interestingly, Coptic
Speaker 1: Christians in the region had a different take on Alhredi.
Speaker 1: They were well aware of his miracles, but they didn't
Speaker 1: think he was a kindly jin. Instead, they believed that
Speaker 1: he was the incarnation of the demon king Ashmadi, the
Speaker 1: same Ashmani that King Solomon enslaved to build his temple
Speaker 1: along with legions of other gin. Regardless, it seems everyone
Speaker 1: on all sides did agree to one thing. That snake
Speaker 1: was definitely Alhredi. The animal manifestations aren't always perfect. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the shape shifting will result in beastly hybrids, serpents with
Speaker 1: dozens of arms and legs, or creatures with canine teeth,
Speaker 1: heads like birds, and horse like hose. Then there are
Speaker 1: those jin who don't quite come together at all, the nestnas.
Speaker 1: The nestnas appear as half formed human beings, with half
Speaker 1: a head, one arm, one leg, half a torso, and
Speaker 1: half a face which may be positioned anywhere on its body.
Speaker 1: Some say these malformed creatures only inhabit the wilderness of Yemen,
Speaker 1: and others say they can be found on desolate islands
Speaker 1: in the South China Sea. They can't speak, having only
Speaker 1: half the vocal cords necessary, but they can make strange,
Speaker 1: sad guttural sounds, rather fitting for their disposition. That's because
Speaker 1: the nestnas are weak gin. They're terrified of human beings
Speaker 1: instead of the other way around. They flee when people
Speaker 1: get too close, hopping away with a quickness on one leg,
Speaker 1: escaping as fast as possible lest they get captured. And
Speaker 1: they better get away because in some parts they're hunted
Speaker 1: by locals, not just to kill them, but to devour them,
Speaker 1: because apparently the flesh of the nestnas is reportedly delicious
Speaker 1: and sweet. If nestnas are the weaklings in the gin realm.
Speaker 1: Towards the other end of the spectrum, there is a
Speaker 1: dangerous shape shifting gin that you want to avoid at
Speaker 1: all costs. This gin has the ability to constantly and
Speaker 1: terrifyingly keep transforming in order to confuse and days its victims.
Speaker 1: And that gin is called the ghoul. That's right, Google,
Speaker 1: The word we've all used at some point to describe
Speaker 1: someone unpleasant is actually the Arabic word for a very
Speaker 1: specific kind of gin, sometimes taking the shape of several
Speaker 1: animals at once, reported at times to have the head
Speaker 1: of a cat and the tongue of a dog, other
Speaker 1: times appearing in their monstrous forms hunched and hairless, razor
Speaker 1: sharp teeth and snakelike tongues, model skin, and cavernous dead eyes.
Speaker 1: Ghouls in habit the most desolate places, keeping as far
Speaker 1: as possible from human civilization. They lurk in deserts and cemeteries,
Speaker 1: where they hide among ruins, biding their time for people
Speaker 1: passing by, people who are likely to disappear forever if
Speaker 1: they make that unfortunate encounter. What a hapless soul does
Speaker 1: stumble across their path. Goals will entrance them all the
Speaker 1: weight of their debts by repeatedly transforming from one thing
Speaker 1: to another shape, shifting with speed from one hideous creature
Speaker 1: to another, confounding their victims. This way, the goal drives
Speaker 1: their victim mad before making their kill to satisfy their
Speaker 1: hunger for human flesh. Gules are said to be among
Speaker 1: some of the oldest jin, ancient and evil. They are
Speaker 1: so powerful that other jins serve them, and sometimes human
Speaker 1: beings also become their slaves, both willingly and unwillingly. A
Speaker 1: medieval Egyptian folk tale relates that the ghouls came into
Speaker 1: existence in the land of Yemen through the unholy union
Speaker 1: of the smoke from a fire, the seed of a wolf,
Speaker 1: and human seed inside a woman's body. How all of
Speaker 1: these things found their way to the womb, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: and I'm also not sure I want to know. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: the ghouls that were birth haunted the legendary Valley of
Speaker 1: the Ghouls in Yemen. In actual place, these beastly siblings
Speaker 1: were eventually slaid by a king, but there are of
Speaker 1: course legions more. Some of those legions reside in the
Speaker 1: Cave of Ghouls located in Egypt in Mount Burka. A
Speaker 1: story from the late eighteen hundreds tells the tale of
Speaker 1: a man traveling with a group of people past this cave.
Speaker 1: He fell behind his party, and as he wandered along
Speaker 1: looking for them, a woman mysteriously appeared out of nowhere
Speaker 1: on the mountain side. She was beautiful, as women often
Speaker 1: are in such stories, and she stood in the man's path,
Speaker 1: giving him two choices. He could either sleep with her
Speaker 1: or she would kill him. She was, as you may
Speaker 1: have realized, a ghoul. Now you can easily guess which
Speaker 1: choice the man took, and after their liaison, he was
Speaker 1: allowed to go his way. But a year later, the
Speaker 1: same woman appeared before the man, this time with a
Speaker 1: baby girl, his daughter. She left the child with him
Speaker 1: and disappeared. The man raised a little girl, and eventually
Speaker 1: she married a man from his tribe and went on
Speaker 1: to have children. Now, before we go on with the story,
Speaker 1: let's pause here to talk about the particular kind of
Speaker 1: gin that gave birth to this little girl. That beautiful
Speaker 1: woman outside the cave of ghouls was a particularly dangerous
Speaker 1: type of ghoul, called a sila, and unlike the beastly
Speaker 1: forms that other gals take. The Sila often takes the
Speaker 1: form of a seductive woman. The Sila stalksman and often
Speaker 1: not only eats her victims, but she toys with them,
Speaker 1: first making them dance and scamper around full of terror,
Speaker 1: before finally putting them out of their misery. In order
Speaker 1: to trap her prey, the Sila often pretends to be
Speaker 1: a woman traveling alone and seduces lone male travelers until
Speaker 1: they're so far off the beaten path us they have
Speaker 1: no hope of escaping, just like what happened in our
Speaker 1: Cave of Ghoul story, and killing aecila is no easy
Speaker 1: task for a number of reasons, but if there's any
Speaker 1: creature capable of it, it's the one that ghouls are
Speaker 1: unable to transform into. The wolf. Wolves hold a special
Speaker 1: place in old Arab customs as symbols of protection. It
Speaker 1: said that the wolf is so powerful against malevolent gin
Speaker 1: that wolf teeth or even a wolf's eye are used
Speaker 1: as charms to ward off evil and mothers have long
Speaker 1: sung lullabies invoking the name of the wolf to scare
Speaker 1: off evil spirits from children. You see, the wolf is
Speaker 1: the only animal that ghouls are actually scared of, and
Speaker 1: they have reason to be scared, because wolves actively hunt
Speaker 1: the most dangerous goal, the sila, that temptress that lures
Speaker 1: unassuming men to their deaths. A thirteenth century polymath by
Speaker 1: the name of Zecharia al Kaswini described at hunt like this.
Speaker 1: The wolf sometimes hunts her at night and then eats her.
Speaker 1: As he tears into her, she raises her voice, saying,
Speaker 1: save me. The wolf is eating me. But once a
Speaker 1: wolf has a hold of his prey, no one will
Speaker 1: rescue her, and ultimately Ceila is devoured by the beast.
Speaker 1: Now no wolf appears in the Cave of Ghoul story. However,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately, the daughter of the Ceila had to be
Speaker 1: disposed of in another way, because, according to the tale,
Speaker 1: after the daughter of the Ceila was raised, married off,
Speaker 1: and had her own children, her father made a discovery
Speaker 1: that worried him deeply. One night, he came across a
Speaker 1: grave that had been violated, dug up, it's deceased inhabitant
Speaker 1: unearthed and parts of the body eaten. The father worried
Speaker 1: that maybe his daughter had something to do with it,
Speaker 1: given her origins, and because he knew that gals primarily
Speaker 1: feasted on human flesh. Dead or alive. He hurried to
Speaker 1: his son in law and told him his fears. So
Speaker 1: the young man began keeping an eye on his wife
Speaker 1: and discovered that she was indeed making nightly outings. He
Speaker 1: followed her one night as she crept out of the
Speaker 1: house to the local cemetery, dug up a grave and
Speaker 1: began to feast on the body. He was horrified, and
Speaker 1: that night, when she returned to their bed, he killed her,
Speaker 1: crushing her to death. But their children lived on, married
Speaker 1: and multiplied, and to this day, in the area close
Speaker 1: to the Cave of Ghouls, the descendants of that couple
Speaker 1: still survive, and they are known as the al Guila.
Speaker 1: Tales of Ghouls are spread far and wide, not just geographically,
Speaker 1: but also throughout time. Long before the Cave of Ghoul story.
Speaker 1: Nearly six centuries prior. In fact, an epic travel log
Speaker 1: was written by a contemporary romance author by the name
Speaker 1: of Rustiquelo da Pizza. He had had the fortune of
Speaker 1: being detained for two years in a prison with an
Speaker 1: explorer who regaled him with fantastic stories of his travels
Speaker 1: and a ventures. Da Pisa compiled the stories together in
Speaker 1: a volume called Quote The Book of the marvels of
Speaker 1: the world, each yarn more amazing than the last. You see.
Speaker 1: This explorer that Da Pisa had been detained with described
Speaker 1: crossing entire continents from Constantinople to bot that through the
Speaker 1: magnificent Karo Kora Mountain range onto Beijing, and circling through
Speaker 1: the South China Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and up
Speaker 1: the coast of the Arabian Sea off the eastern shore
Speaker 1: of Africa. And this explorer spent nearly two decades in
Speaker 1: the court of Kubla Khan, the grandson of the great
Speaker 1: genghis Han, serving the Mongol Emperor, and he had seen
Speaker 1: and heard it all. This explorer, well, it was none
Speaker 1: other than Marco Polo. And that book, well, it's better
Speaker 1: known in our part of the world as the travels
Speaker 1: of Marco Polo. Polos travels along the Silk Road took
Speaker 1: him at one point to a vast desert at the
Speaker 1: center of trade routes between China, Tibet and Turkestan. The
Speaker 1: desert was so vast that some said it took a
Speaker 1: month to cross it at its narrowest point, and it
Speaker 1: took a year to cross it at its most wide
Speaker 1: And while their watering holes dotted throughout the desert was
Speaker 1: otherwise devoid of life, no animals, no people, nothing that
Speaker 1: could be hunted and eaten. And yet it wasn't completely empty.
Speaker 1: There is a marvelous thing related of this desert, which
Speaker 1: is that when travelers are on the move by night,
Speaker 1: and one of the chances to lag behind, or to
Speaker 1: fall asleep, or the light, when he tries to gain
Speaker 1: his company again, he will hear spirits talking and will
Speaker 1: suppose them to be his comrades. Sometimes the spirits will
Speaker 1: call him by name, and thus shall a traveler. Oft
Speaker 1: times we led astray, so that he never finds his party,
Speaker 1: and in this way many have perished. Sometimes the stray
Speaker 1: travelers will hear, as it were, the tramp and hume
Speaker 1: of a great cavalcade of people away from the real
Speaker 1: line of road, and taking this to be their own company,
Speaker 1: they will follow the sound, and when day breaks they
Speaker 1: will find that a cheat has been put on them,
Speaker 1: and that they are in an ill plight. Even the
Speaker 1: daytime when hears those spirits talking, and sometimes you shall
Speaker 1: hear the sound of a variety of musical instruments, and
Speaker 1: still more commonly the sound of drums, Paulo had also
Speaker 1: heard of a terrifying monster found in the wilderness of
Speaker 1: Iranistan and Iran, the famed and feared role Bibon, meaning
Speaker 1: the ghoul of the waste. The ghoul was huge, dreadful
Speaker 1: to behold, and lurked in the waste lands of Central Asia,
Speaker 1: gobbling up travelers right off of their horses. Now, Marco
Speaker 1: Polo had not confessed to seeing this ghoul himself, but
Speaker 1: he had heard it referred to many times by locals
Speaker 1: he met in his travels, and while he seemed to
Speaker 1: believe in the desert spirits that lured travelers astray, Paulo
Speaker 1: didn't put much stock in the role Baban stories. It
Speaker 1: could be that he thought, as others did, that the
Speaker 1: ghouls of the desert waste lands were simply a projection
Speaker 1: of the fear even the bravest soul feels when facing
Speaker 1: the desolation of a vast, deserted place. The isolation, the silence,
Speaker 1: the nothingness for miles in every direction could be enough
Speaker 1: to disorient the most level headed among us, and in
Speaker 1: that condition, howling dust storms could both look and sound
Speaker 1: like a beast rising into the sky. For the travelers
Speaker 1: that survived those journeys fantastic tales to tell would certainly
Speaker 1: be a badge of honor, and for those that didn't well,
Speaker 1: it might be kinder to think they were just snatched
Speaker 1: up by a ghoul than the alternative that they just
Speaker 1: couldn't cut it, or the tales could be precautionary, a
Speaker 1: warning to those seeking to set off into the wilderness,
Speaker 1: a threat of imminent danger to those who didn't stick
Speaker 1: close to the tribe, which is just with the lesson
Speaker 1: from another ghoul story, this one from the fifteenth century
Speaker 1: in Valdad, also just might be. In this story, the
Speaker 1: son of a wealthy merchant falls in love with the
Speaker 1: daughter of a poor old wise man against his father's wishes,
Speaker 1: and that, dear listeners, is the disobedience and rebelliousness that
Speaker 1: this story may have been crafted to prevent. Nonetheless, the
Speaker 1: story goes on that the father eventually relented and allowed
Speaker 1: his son to marry the beautiful young girl, and their
Speaker 1: marriage was celebrated with all the ceremony in bling that
Speaker 1: was expected of the wealthy family. The sun was elated
Speaker 1: with his new bride, but was disturbed that she would
Speaker 1: never eat. She would just leave her food untouched. At
Speaker 1: every meal, he shrugged it off. Maybe she was just
Speaker 1: shy in her new home with his new family and
Speaker 1: didn't feel comfortable eating in front of them. But one night,
Speaker 1: the new groom awakened to find himself alone in bed.
Speaker 1: His beautiful wife was nowhere to be found. He stayed
Speaker 1: awake waiting for her, and she didn't return till an
Speaker 1: hour before the sun rose, Creeping quietly back into their bed.
Speaker 1: The next night, he decided he would only pretend to
Speaker 1: sleep to see if she again left their bed, and
Speaker 1: she did. He followed her at a distance out of
Speaker 1: the house and all the way to a cemetery, where
Speaker 1: he saw her step into a large tomb with an
Speaker 1: open door. He cautiously entered after her, only to behold
Speaker 1: a ghastly sight. A circle of ghoules feasted on bloody,
Speaker 1: decomposing corpses, and among them was his lovely young bride,
Speaker 1: munching away with them. The man hurried home, terrified, but
Speaker 1: said nothing to his wife when she returned to their
Speaker 1: bed hours later. The next day, when she again refused
Speaker 1: to eat, he finally couldn't take it anymore. He screamed
Speaker 1: that he knew her secret, that she fasted all days
Speaker 1: so she could feast every night with the ghouls. The
Speaker 1: wife silently rose from the table and retreated to their bedroom,
Speaker 1: where she waited for her groom. He eventually joined her,
Speaker 1: uneasily getting into bed, neither of them saying a word.
Speaker 1: Both silent and tense, that night, she didn't leave her
Speaker 1: husband's bed at all. Instead of sneaking out for her
Speaker 1: midnight meal, she waited patiently for the first signs of
Speaker 1: slumber to overtake him. Then she pounced on her hapless groom,
Speaker 1: teeth bared towards his neck, attempting to draw and drink
Speaker 1: his blood. He awoke immediately and fought back, struggling to subdue.
Speaker 1: The fight was vicious. She had a shocking super strength,
Speaker 1: but ultimately he was able to kill her with a
Speaker 1: blow to the head. The next day, he buried her,
Speaker 1: but she didn't stay buried. Three days later, she arose
Speaker 1: from the dead and returned to her formal marital bed
Speaker 1: to once again try and suck her husband's blood. He
Speaker 1: fled an escaped her, and the next day returned to
Speaker 1: her tomb, where he found her cold dead body. This time,
Speaker 1: he took no chances. He burned her corpse to ashes
Speaker 1: and scattered them in a river, and it worked. She
Speaker 1: never returned. Now, you may have noticed that while this
Speaker 1: woman was fond of eating corpses as wouls do, she
Speaker 1: was also pretty focused on sinking her teeth into her
Speaker 1: husband's throat. So if this particular goal sounds very much
Speaker 1: like a vampire, there's good reason. The connection here runs
Speaker 1: thick as blood. Thou shall not eat the blood of
Speaker 1: any flesh at all, because the life of the flesh
Speaker 1: is in the blood, and whosoever eat it shall be
Speaker 1: cut off. Leviticus spells it out pretty clearly that consuming
Speaker 1: blood for God fearing believers is not just a no no.
Speaker 1: It means being condemned to exile, to being cut off
Speaker 1: from family and community and from God himself, and driven
Speaker 1: into darkness because of their blood lust. Well, that's where
Speaker 1: we find vampires, hiding, shunned from the rest of the world,
Speaker 1: in the world of the Gin, much like the vampires
Speaker 1: of our imaginations, there are some who are driven by
Speaker 1: pure blood lust. The first of those are the paless.
Speaker 1: The palest are Gin associated with the desert, and they
Speaker 1: have a peculiar way of satisfying their cravings. They have
Speaker 1: what you could call kind of a foot fetish. The
Speaker 1: payless will wait until the intended victim is asleep and
Speaker 1: then lick the bottoms of their feet until they bleed.
Speaker 1: It said that these gin aren't very bright or even
Speaker 1: really too dangerous, but the fact that they can manage
Speaker 1: their feet licking without waking anyone up does take a
Speaker 1: certain level of skill. Luckily, it's not too hard to
Speaker 1: outwit this kind of gin. All you have to do
Speaker 1: is sleep feet to feet with another person, so nothing
Speaker 1: can get to the bottom of your foot. Apparently, the
Speaker 1: payless either don't know or don't care that they could
Speaker 1: get blood from other parts of your body. The payless
Speaker 1: may give you a good giggle, but there's nothing funny
Speaker 1: about another blood sucking creature found in Hindu folklore that's
Speaker 1: not only believed to be a gin, but some call
Speaker 1: the original vampire. Hundreds of years before Glad the Impaler
Speaker 1: came onto the scene in Romania, the vetala already existed
Speaker 1: in Hindu folk core and tradition. A terrifying evil species
Speaker 1: of gin, the vetala were thought to inhabit the reanimated
Speaker 1: corpses of the dead. They often haunt ternal grounds, which
Speaker 1: are above ground sites with the dead or left to
Speaker 1: either putrefy or be cremated. They are super strong, super smart,
Speaker 1: and super hungry for the blood that sustained them. One
Speaker 1: of the most famous stories by the Vitala is found
Speaker 1: in an ancient sanscrit book hailing from the eighth century
Speaker 1: called the Vetala Pachisi, which means the twenty five Stories
Speaker 1: of Atala. The story revolves around the famous Indian king
Speaker 1: victrum Aditya, who was an actual historical figure from the
Speaker 1: first century that reached mythological status over the sentries. There
Speaker 1: are different interpretations and versions of the story, but the
Speaker 1: basic premise is this the mighty king was asked by
Speaker 1: a sorcerer to help capture of Atala that could be
Speaker 1: found hanging from a tree in a graveyard. An eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy adaptation of the story by the British Oriental list
Speaker 1: Sir Richard Francis Burton recounts the encounter of King Victram
Speaker 1: and the vampire like this. Approaching the tree, he sat
Speaker 1: there for a while to observe the body, which hung
Speaker 1: head downwards from a branch a little above him. Its eyes,
Speaker 1: which were wide open, were of a greenish brown, and
Speaker 1: never twinkled. Its hair was also brown, and brown was
Speaker 1: its face. Its body was thin and ribbed, like a
Speaker 1: skeleton or a bamboo framework, and as it held onto
Speaker 1: a bow like a flying fox, by the toe tips,
Speaker 1: its drawn muscles stood out as if they were ropes
Speaker 1: of coin. Blood it appeared to have none, and as
Speaker 1: the raja handled its skin, it felt icy, cold and clammy,
Speaker 1: as might a snake. The only sign of life was
Speaker 1: the whisking of a ragged little tail, much resembling a
Speaker 1: goat's king Vicram climbed the tree and sliced the branch
Speaker 1: the beast hung from with his sword. He scrambled down
Speaker 1: the tree trunk to get ahold of the creature, but
Speaker 1: it slipped out of his grasp like a worm, and
Speaker 1: levitated with legs up and once again grabbed a tree
Speaker 1: branch with its toes. The Vitala swung back and forth
Speaker 1: from the branch, laughing in the king's bewildered face. The
Speaker 1: king tried again and again and again to cut down
Speaker 1: the beast and capture him, but each time the Vitala
Speaker 1: rose back up into the tree unbothered. Finally, the Vittala,
Speaker 1: growing tired of the game, asked the king, who are
Speaker 1: you and what do you want? His Royal highness responded
Speaker 1: that he was Raja Victram, the great King of the land,
Speaker 1: and it was his mission to take him back to
Speaker 1: the sorcerer as he had promised to do. Hearing this,
Speaker 1: the Vitala suddenly became coi and agreed to accompany the
Speaker 1: king if only he was allowed to tell him stories
Speaker 1: during the journey, and in those stories pose riddles with
Speaker 1: this condition. Every time the king answered one of the
Speaker 1: Vitala's riddles, the demon would escape and return to his tree.
Speaker 1: But as long as the king remained silent, either out
Speaker 1: of humility or because couldn't answer the question, the Vitala
Speaker 1: would remain in his custody. Now this might seem kind
Speaker 1: of counterintuitive and contradictory to most such stories that involved
Speaker 1: conditions with riddles, but you see, this was a test
Speaker 1: of the king's pride, and he accepted the test. And
Speaker 1: so they took off, and the vampire told King Vicram
Speaker 1: story after story after story, twenty four in all, and
Speaker 1: in each story a riddle, and every time the king,
Speaker 1: unable to control his ego and pride, would respond to
Speaker 1: the Vitala's riddles with an answer, and every time he did,
Speaker 1: the Vattalah would slip away, journeying back to his tree
Speaker 1: in the graveyard, and the king would have to start
Speaker 1: all over. Finally, after hearing the twenty five story and riddle,
Speaker 1: King Victram pressed his lips together, refusing to answer. This
Speaker 1: overjoyed the Vitala, who then revealed a secret to him.
Speaker 1: The sorcerer, he said, was no friend of the king, indeed,
Speaker 1: he was his enemy in disguise, out for the King's blood,
Speaker 1: and the Vitala himself was in fact a trap the
Speaker 1: sorcerer had placed for the king. Once revealing the secret,
Speaker 1: the Vitala extracted itself from the body it inhabited, letting
Speaker 1: out a slow, low hissing sound as it left. Thanks
Speaker 1: to the secret spilled by the Vitala, King Victram was
Speaker 1: able to trick and kill the sorcerer, thereby growing in
Speaker 1: power himself. And all this because he was able to
Speaker 1: just once show a little humility. Now, the Vitala isn't
Speaker 1: the only vampiresh creature in Indian folklore. In fact, there
Speaker 1: are lots of them. The stories about the origins and
Speaker 1: how they terrorize people vary, and you can hear all
Speaker 1: those echoes in European vampire lore, but most of them
Speaker 1: have a few things in common. That you'll find vampires
Speaker 1: lingering and living among the human dead and graveyards and crematoriums,
Speaker 1: that they yearned for human blood, and that, like the
Speaker 1: gin woman in the train at the beginning in this episode,
Speaker 1: you'll find that their feet are turned backwards. As you
Speaker 1: may have guessed it by now, there's no one definitive
Speaker 1: way to identify a gin, but you'll probably know one
Speaker 1: when you see it. The only time you might not, however,
Speaker 1: is when a gin takes what I think is the
Speaker 1: most dangerous and sinister form, transforming into someone you know,
Speaker 1: which has been known to happen. Jin can and will
Speaker 1: take on the appearance of not just any human, but
Speaker 1: an actual human who's already living, or sometimes a human
Speaker 1: who's very much dead. They can then play tricks on
Speaker 1: the friends and loved ones of that person, lying to them,
Speaker 1: persuading them to do things or believe things they shouldn't.
Speaker 1: Imagine how easy it could be to mislead someone that way,
Speaker 1: and how much trouble it could get an innocent party in.
Speaker 1: But then there is that one way to make sure
Speaker 1: the person you're dealing with is really who they say
Speaker 1: they are, because for some reason, the gin can shape
Speaker 1: shift to trick you. But the one thing they can't
Speaker 1: change is their feet. Their feet will either be backwards
Speaker 1: or they'll be cloven hose, like in the story of
Speaker 1: the beautiful Queen of Sheba, who was reportedly born of
Speaker 1: a gin mother and a human father. But even she
Speaker 1: couldn't shake the gin jeans, and in some accounts, while
Speaker 1: she was stunningly beautiful, she did in fact have hairy
Speaker 1: goat legs, hoves and all. Now we'll close out with
Speaker 1: the story closer to home and closer in time to
Speaker 1: us from New Mexico. According to the book The Vengeful
Speaker 1: Gin in Ninete, the uncle of the questa New Mexico
Speaker 1: police chief, was driving home late one night on a
Speaker 1: lonely highway. A woman appeared out of the darkness, walking
Speaker 1: on the side of the road by herself, dressed strangely
Speaker 1: enough in a red evening gown. There was no telling
Speaker 1: where she had come from. The highway was empty, and
Speaker 1: he hadn't passed any abandoned cars. He pulled over and
Speaker 1: offered her a ride, and she hopped into his pickup
Speaker 1: truck quietly, not saying a word. After a few silent men,
Speaker 1: it's the man turned to his passenger to ask her
Speaker 1: what she was doing in the middle of nowhere that
Speaker 1: late at night, and was horrified to find her dress
Speaker 1: had fallen open, revealing legs like a goat and cloven hooves.
Speaker 1: But before he could react or even scream, she poof
Speaker 1: vanished into thin air. I guess the lesson to all
Speaker 1: of us is, then, when in doubt, check the feet.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us this week. Next week we'll be
Speaker 1: back to take you another step into the world of
Speaker 1: the Hidden Gin. Until then, remember we are not alone.
Speaker 1: If you loved today's episode, I'm going to ask you
Speaker 1: a big favor. Please stop my iTunes and leave me
Speaker 1: a rating and a review, even if it's just one
Speaker 1: short sentence. Not only is that how other listeners discover
Speaker 1: the podcast, but it's also what keeps the podcast going.
Speaker 1: And for every thousand reviews that I get on iTunes,
Speaker 1: I'll release another Patreon episode absolutely free. That's right, We're
Speaker 1: on Patreon, so if you're a Gin enthusiast, check out
Speaker 1: the Companion Patreon series at patreon dot com slash Hidden
Speaker 1: Jin again. That's Patreon dot com slash Hidden Gin and
Speaker 1: remember Jin is spelled d j I n N. That's
Speaker 1: where you're gonna find an amazing series of interviews between me, scholars, experts, artist, historians,
Speaker 1: and everyday lay people who have had extraordinary experiences with
Speaker 1: Jin and everybody can check out the first episode absolutely free.
Speaker 1: It's me and my husband sharing our gen stories and
Speaker 1: it was a lot of fun. And if you have
Speaker 1: any Gin stories, well, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Email me at the Hidden Gin at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Once again, it's the Hidden Gin Gin with a D
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com and you might just hear back
Speaker 1: from me, or you might hear your story on the show.
Speaker 1: And finally, don't forget to follow us on social media.
Speaker 1: We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with the handle the
Speaker 1: Hidden Gin. There you can wheat, post, insta, dm me.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from all of you, and believe me,
Speaker 1: I read every single message. The Hidden Gin is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and hosted by Robbia
Speaker 1: Chaudry and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with
Speaker 1: executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. Music
Speaker 1: for the show was provided by smith Sony and Folkways Recordings.
Speaker 1: Our theme song was created by Patrick Cortez. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.