WEBVTT - The Fish Had Fur, Part 1 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:15.240 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.640 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe mccormaking. Today 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:20.320 I wanted to start off by doing one of my 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.239 favorite things to to kick off a Stuff to Blow 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:25.279 Your Mind episode, which is go back more than a 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.160 hundred years and read an article about what kinds of 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:32.120 animals there are? And I think this one's especially who 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.720 because it concerns the animals of Iceland. So this was 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:40.320 published in a periodical called the Scottish Review I believe, 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:44.520 in the year nineteen hundred by an author named Olaf Davidson. 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.879 And it's an article called the Folklore of Icelandic Fishes 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:54.240 in which Davidson catalogs examples of both totally mundane animals, 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.200 like you know, talking about different kinds of whales and 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:01.760 fish and sharks and things, but then also bizarre stories 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.760 of the boreal realms about you know, uh, weird deadly 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.160 creatures of the waters. And there are just some great 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.600 stories in here, some of which he seems to source 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:15.440 at least partially from Icelandic newspapers and other ones. I 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:20.040 guess he's drawing more on just general folklore. Um, so, 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:22.560 the first one I wanted to mention is is great 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.120 he He talks about something called the coil eel or 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:30.160 rock all, which is something like a cross between a 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.280 fish and a wire saw. So just let me read 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.720 from Davidson here. The coil eel or rock all is 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.080 about two ft in length and lives chiefly in ditches 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.120 or stagnant pools, but is sometimes found in running waters. 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.560 If any animal or human being puts foot into the 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:52.120 water where it is, the eel coils itself round their 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.360 leg and cuts into the bone or even takes it 0:01:55.440 --> 0:02:01.760 right off. Frequently. Yeah, yeah, wire saw right. This frequently 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.640 happens with horses, but cheap escape because their legs are 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.760 too slender for the eel to work upon. How the 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.480 cutting is done is a point on which opinions differ. 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.239 Some say that the venom in the eel is so 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:18.320 strong that it corrodes the flesh and bone. Others say 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.840 that the eel has fins as sharp as the teeth 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.760 of a saw and does the work with these. It 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.880 is also said to have thin scales as hard as iron, 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.320 and its flesh is poisonous. Wow, this is incredible. It's 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:34.560 like the swimming guillotine, a very good comparison. You need 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.280 to get like a an Icelandic wizard who's got one 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.520 of these on a leash that he can throw. Yeah, 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:41.440 that would be great. I mean, these these are this 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.720 is a great hard gimmick right here. Yeah, and and uh, 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:47.359 it's even got an origin story. The rock All was 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:52.280 allegedly created, according to the tails, when a wizard once 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.760 breathed life into a dead, half rotten eel, thus creating 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:00.040 this poisonous animal. Oh my goodness that this needs to 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.920 go into a monster manual right here. Yeah. It also 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.560 strikes me as like a good way to convince your 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:09.079 children not to step in puddles. Yes, yes, the rock 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.280 All made lurk in the puddles? Yeah, do you ever, 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.080 by the way, go through And I know some kids 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:16.480 do this, Some kids have a real like puddle splashing 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.280 stomping phase. I don't know if you ever dealt with that, 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.560 but I've definitely definitely went through a puddle splashing uh 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:27.120 phase for sure. Yeah, I mean I can't deny it's fun. 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.079 But okay, So Davidson goes on to another one. There 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:34.400 there's one called the ohfu oogie, which is a fish 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.840 that has backwards facing fins and which swims in reverse 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.560 tail first. And then there's another one that he calls 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:46.000 the sea mouse. But I think what he's referring to 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:50.000 is now called the rabbit fish or the rat fish 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:54.000 scientific name Chimera monst rosa. Uh. This is a This 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.280 is a cartilaginous fish of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.520 that can grow to about one point five meters in length. 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:05.320 And so the legend that Davidson recounts about this animal again, 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.960 this is probably now the rabbit fish. But what he's 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:12.120 calling the sea mouse is that it swims so ferociously 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.840 that the sea foams ahead of its path, and that 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.719 it can open its jaws wide enough to swallow an 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.760 entire boat, which is not true. But I did want 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:26.080 to read his anecdote about this quote. On one occasion, 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.679 two men were out at sea on the East coast 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.400 in an open boat, while near them was a French 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.840 fishing vessel. Uh. They had been fishing quietly for some 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.800 time when they heard a tremendous noise out to sea, 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.760 and at once suspected that it was caused by a 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.919 sea mouse. In a short time, they saw it, coming 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.680 in the midst of a white foaming wave and making 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.560 straight for their boat. The men were so scared that 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:53.000 they could do nothing to save themselves. The Frenchman saw 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.040 their danger and ran their schooner right in the way 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.320 of the monster, which however still kept the same course 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.240 and speed, and struck the vessel with such force as 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.279 to cant it over to one side. The sea mouse 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.040 continued to press against the ship for a little while, 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.960 and during that time the men were taken on board. 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.599 Then it disappeared and the men afterwards road to land. 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.599 So okay, saying this fish could like actually knock a 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.280 ship over, uh, definitely not true about that species. If 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.599 there is any truth to this story at all, it's 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:27.480 it's obviously not about a rabbit fish. Um. But also 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:30.679 to confuse things even further, there actually is a marine 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.640 animal now commonly known as a sea mouse, but it 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:35.920 is not a fish at all, but a marine poly 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:40.320 keyed worm, usually about three to six inches in length, which, uh, 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:42.560 this will be relevant to what we're talking about today, 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:44.719 is often covering in something that looks kind of like 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:49.440 a sparkly fur now and and this is an interesting 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:51.560 organism to be to be sure, but I also looked 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.159 up a picture of the rabbit fish, and it is 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:58.240 interesting that its head does have kind of the appearance 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.560 of a rabbit's head. It had I can set definitely 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.479 see the comparison. There, something about the way that the 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:07.159 eyes or are structured. Uh, it has has this kind 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:11.240 of rabbit looking skull. Um. But but then again, I'm 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.760 also reading that they can grow to the five feet 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.919 in length. So I guess if one of these creatures 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:19.640 was to slam into the side of your boat, it 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.240 could at least startle you. It could at least be 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.760 a moment that could then be exaggerated into greater threat 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.520 and tails. Yeah, I guess that's reasonable. I mean, I'm 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:33.080 picturing boats of a size in this story where that 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.640 wouldn't really make sense because it's talking about like a schooner, 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:38.479 right the I don't know how big is a schooner. 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.719 Can a schooner be small enough to be severely disturbed 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.920 by a by a one point five meter fish? I mean, 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.640 if your imagination is there, it can certainly certainly be alarming, 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:54.479 I imagine to confuse things about that story even further, Uh, 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.360 this so called rabbit fish Camira monstrosa. That is one 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:00.599 type of fish called rabbit fish, but then there's also 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.400 a totally different type of fish, also called a rabbit 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:06.240 fish that's not related. So lots to throw you off 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:08.520 right there, But anyway, I wanted to get to the 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:11.960 final citation I want to make from from Olaf Davidson's 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.840 article here because it concerns the topic that we're going 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:17.280 to be getting into over the next couple of episodes. 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.640 So here he goes on my favorite part. On the 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.560 shores of lakes in the north of Iceland, there have 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:28.480 sometimes been found strange and ugly fishes resembling trout, which 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.400 neither dogs nor birds of prey would eat. These were 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:38.280 doubtless specimens of the shaggy trout or load selunger, also 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.720 a very poisonous fish. One of these was cast on 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.400 shore at Savina Votten in eighteen fifty four, and an 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.320 illustration of it is given in the newspaper nor Dury 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:52.640 for eighteen fifty five. It was very unlike in ordinary trout, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.800 both in shape and in color. On its lower jaw 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.040 and its neck, it had reddish hair forming a kind 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:03.200 of beard. There were also hairy patches on its sides. 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.000 And hair on its fins, so there can be no 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:08.880 doubt it was a shaggy trout, though the writer of 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.960 the article in Nordury does not say so. Now I'm 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.679 suspecting that wizard again. Yeah, I mean one I'm wondering. 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.280 Iceland is not super densely populated, right, so you know, 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.160 you have a few larger cities and then the little settlements, 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.240 especially around the coasts all around, but then big parts 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.560 of the inner country are you know, mostly uninhabited. So 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.320 I wonder is that wizard territory? Is that where the 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.520 wizards are out there making fish with beards? Yeah, I 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.160 mean there aren't enough people around to really mess with, 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.200 so yeah, they're doing terrible things to fish. But this 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.400 is by no means the only account of the shaggy 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.160 trout or the furry trout of Iceland. I found more 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.600 about this this local lore in an article in the 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:57.120 Paris Review by David Buckspan from sixteen, which is actually 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:00.680 about something totally different. It's not an article about Icelandic legends. 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.599 It is about a speaking event with an Icelandic novelist 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.199 who goes by the name Sean spelled s j o 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.800 in but pronounced Sean and you might know him as 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.720 a collaborator with Bjorke. He apparently wrote lyrics for some 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:15.959 of her songs, and I think they've performed in bands 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.240 together at least at some point. Um. But then at 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.720 a certain part in the evening at the speaking thing, 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:27.560 Sean turns to explaining his personal obsession with this shaggy 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.400 trout legend of Iceland, and he definitely expands on what 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.560 we've just established. So he does say, yeah, there's an 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:37.280 animal allegedly known as the furry trout. It looks the 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:39.880 same as a normal trout, except it's covered in fur, 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.840 which is a little different than what Davidson said. Davidson 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.040 said it looked very different from a regular trout. But 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.120 Sean goes on to say that according to the legend, 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:51.240 you might be fishing for a school of regular trout 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.280 with a net and then suddenly one of them there 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.400 in your net is completely covered in fur, and it's 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.160 just right there with the other ones. But he there's 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:04.120 the really interesting variation. Olaf Davidson says that the common 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.839 belief is that the shaggy trout is poisonous, so you 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:08.760 shouldn't need it because it could hurt you. Maybe make 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.600 you sick or kill you. But Sean says that the 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.120 legend he learned when he was nine years old was 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.200 that if a man ate the furry trout, he would 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.720 become pregnant and he would end up having to give 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:24.840 birth through his scrotum. Okay, well, I have some doubts 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.400 and some questions about that that last claim. Yes, and 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.960 he actually even describes like the birthing procedure, which involves 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.920 like the scrotum swelling with the child and like you 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:36.520 have to get a knife and lay him on a 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:38.520 table and all that. It's you can go read the 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.200 article if you want. Uh. But then is it a 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.800 normal human child or is it like a fish person? Oh, 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.240 I think it's just a human child. After that where 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:48.560 I don't know, he doesn't really go into what the 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:58.679 implications for the child is. But anyway, the more I 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.280 got interested in the store is the more I discovered 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.920 that there are, in fact stories from all over the 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:10.920 world about various types of furry fish. And so that's 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.160 what I wanted to look into for the next couple 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.840 of episodes here, because I think you you may well 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.960 agree that fish generally do not have fur, So we 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.240 wanted to talk about like what these stories are and 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:25.360 where they come from and what might explain them. Yeah, 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.079 and and these are going to cover a fair amount 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.720 of ground. We're gonna get into some legends and mythology. 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:34.000 We're going to talk about some some some some definite uh, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.960 denizens of the of the the actual oceans and lakes 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.440 and rivers of our world. Uh, and then also some 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:46.760 possible like misinterpretations of natural creatures. So there's there's a 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.040 lot on the table here with the furry fish, and 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:53.080 I think, yeah, I think everybody's gonna be pleasantly surprised. Now. 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.040 The shaggy trout of Iceland is actually one of several 0:11:56.080 --> 0:12:00.200 reports of furry fish that are collected in a book 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.439 that I was looking at called The Beasts That Hide 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.960 from Man, Seeking the World's Last Undiscovered Animals, by an 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.440 author named Carl Schucker. I think this was originally published 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.719 in two thousands three. I might have been looking at 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:20.520 an addition from but Shooker is a British crypto zoologist, 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.559 and as you may well know, crypto zoologist can mean 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.839 extremely different things, right, So it could be a clear skeptical, 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:33.240 responsible researcher who tries to investigate reports of animals that 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:37.160 are not well documented or not documented at all by 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.840 by regular scientific methods, and find out if these reports 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.360 can in fact be confirmed. And there are cases like this. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:46.720 There are cases of, for example, of animals thought to 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.840 be long extinct but then turning up extant in the 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.920 world today. For example, the sela can't the type of 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.480 lobe finned fish that was thought to be long extinct, 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:59.120 but then live specimens were found. But on the other hand, 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.200 of course we know, if you know, if you're a 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.760 fan of like certain types of TV documentaries or whatever, 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.160 a cryptozoologist could also be a self applied label for 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.319 somebody who says that they have a big foot corps 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.319 in their freezer, but you're not allowed to look at it. Yeah, Yeah, 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:19.680 there's a there's a broad spectrum in the crypto zoology world, right, 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:21.960 And so I think, from at least what I was 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:23.959 looking at in this book, I think Shooker seems to 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.680 be closer to the former. Somebody who's you know, trying 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:31.360 to responsibly apply, uh, you know, reasonable skeptical methods of 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:37.280 investigation to reports of perhaps not well documented animals. There 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:38.959 may be something I missed, but at least in the 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:40.560 parts of the book I was looking at. He he 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.000 does not seem to treat reports of strange animals with 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.480 automatic credulity and and certainly not talk like the big 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.480 foot freezer guy. But anyway, a useful thing about this 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:55.440 book is whatever the actual explanations for these reports, it 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.280 is useful in itself just to collect the reports, right uh, 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.320 to say, Okay, what are people saying about, for example, 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:04.920 furry fish, whether or not there actually is such a 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.840 thing or something that we can identify that could have 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.680 been mistaken for such a thing. At least you know, 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:12.880 what are people saying? And so that's what he does 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.280 in this chapter. He's got at least five different examples. 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.040 And so the next thing I wanted to talk about 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.320 was another one that that I came across because I 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:24.200 found in this chapter, and this is Marco Polo's hairy Fish. 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.720 So this story is originally told in the Travels of 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.960 Marco Polo, which is the English title of a thirteenth 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:37.120 century Italian travelogue written by a guy named Rusticello or 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:43.000 perhaps Rusticiano of Pisa, based on the accounts of Marco Polo, 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:47.280 the Venetian merchant, diplomat and explorer of of great renown. 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.080 I'm sure you know who Marco Polo is. Yes, if, if, 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.320 even if you are not super familiar within you know 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.400 the pool name of Marco Polo, which, by the way, 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:58.680 the last pool I was at, or one of the 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.320 most recent pools I was at, they had a sign 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:05.640 that said no Marco Polo. Marco Polo was explicitly banned 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.520 from the pool. Why what is it dangerous? I got 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.240 the impression that it was just maybe annoying because they were, like, 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.800 you know, people were living near the pool, and therefore 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.840 they didn't want to hear children say Marco Polo over 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:18.520 and over again. But occasionally a child would get in 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:23.120 the pool start saying Marco Polo, and the more rule 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.640 oriented children would would remind them that it was not allowed, 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.480 and then some would try and do it, do Marco 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:34.360 Polo with different words, and and and other kids or 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.040 sometimes adults would be like, no, no, you can't, you 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.680 can't just do that. It's still Marco Polo. No, instead 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.760 of Marco Polo, you do Rusty Cello or Rusty Chano. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.960 You know, Rusty Cello. Yeah, wouldn't work. Not not allowed, 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.600 not allowed. I forget, what's kind of variations. They were trying, 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.560 um very obvious ones like you know, um pool cleaner 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.280 fish or something, you know, just based on the first 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.400 two things they saw. Well anyway, so I found out 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.800 about this story of a furry fish because of this 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:05.520 passage from Shooker's book. But then I actually went and 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.800 looked up the original text to put the claim in 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.600 its full context. So this passage from Marco Polo's account, 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:15.640 which is the version translated to English by Ronald Latham 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:20.600 for for Penguin, is describing a marvelous city that Marco 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.680 Polo calls King Pai, but which I believe corresponds to 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.280 the modern day city of Hung Sho. And so at 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.240 the time he entered the city, Marco Polo was operating 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.880 under the aegis of Kubla Khan. That that's a bit 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.720 if you don't know much about Marco Polo's journeys. He 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.240 had a relationship with the court of the cons I 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.360 think uh at least going back through his father. But 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.320 he was favored by by the court of Kubla Khan. 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.960 And so he was not only a merchant and a 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.440 trader and explorer, but he also operated as a diplomat 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.480 on behalf of Koplakan, and at the time of his 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.440 visit to this city that is now known as hung Show, 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.320 the cons had conquered it. So there are a couple 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.720 of names to define ahead of time, so this paragraph 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.000 makes sense. He mentions a figure named King fak Fur, 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.400 who was the original ruler of Kingsai before it was conquered, 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.000 and then he also mentions Bayon, who was a Mongol 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.959 general who commanded the armies of Kubla Khan during the 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:22.160 conquest of Song dynasty China. So the account goes, let 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.640 me tell you now of a marvel that occurred when 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:28.480 Bayon was besieging this city. It happened after King fak 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.320 Fur had taken to flight, that a multitude of the 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.560 town's folk were fleeing by boat by way of a broad, 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.080 deep river that flows past one side of the city. 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.240 All of a sudden, while they were actually on the river, 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.119 the water completely dried up, so that Bayon, on learning 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.600 the news, came to this part and compelled all the 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.840 fugitives to return to the city. And a fish was 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.280 found lying high and dry across the river bed. And 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:58.200 what a fish for it was fully one hundred paces long, 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.919 but its girth was by all means proportionate to its length. 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.960 Its whole body was hairy. Many people ate of it, 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:09.399 and many of those who did so died. Mr Marco, 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.239 as he relates, saw the head of this fish with 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.320 his own eyes in a certain temple of the Idols. 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.720 Now we should put some caveats in, right, because there 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.080 are several reasons the story is already coming to us 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.280 in a kind of hazy fashion. Right. We're getting it 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.480 through several layers. This is an account written by Mr 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:33.240 Rusty Cello Rusty Chano of Pisa, based allegedly on the 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.800 accounts of Marco Polo, who claims that he saw the 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.040 head of this fish with his own eyes. But it 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.159 sounds like he must have at best heard second hand 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.119 the accounts of the story about the river drying up, 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.679 revealing the giant hairy fish a hundred paces long, and 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.560 then the people eating it and dying from it. Right, 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:55.560 because the story is saying, oh, the head is preserved 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.520 in this particular temple, and this is the backstory on 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.560 that head. Right now, While I think they're good jumping 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.480 off points to to start thinking about possibilities, I don't 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.120 think we can be too sure that either of these accounts, 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:10.879 either the Icelandic furry fish or Marco Polo's hairy fish 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.879 and in Hung Joe Uh, that they are necessarily based 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.840 on anything real than anybody actually saw. These could be 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:21.040 you know, fanciful imaginative stories people made up, or they 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:23.480 could be based on something. But I do think it's 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.119 interesting that in either case that both of these hairy 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:31.800 fish so far are regarded as poisonous and harmful to eat. Yeah, 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:34.440 this is very interesting, and I was particularly fascinated by 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.760 this Chinese um account or this Chinese episode. It was 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.800 like technically a Venetian account, but decided to read a 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:44.640 little bit more about it. So I was looking at 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:49.879 a C. Mules Marco Polo's descriptions of Quinsai, and the 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.920 author here basically looks at this everything that Marco Polo 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.440 has to say about the city, and it's analyzing it 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.119 and comparing it to other accounts and Chinese historical accounts, 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:01.320 and the there says that they can find no mention 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.480 of this this fish in Chinese sources detailing the siege 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.800 in question. However, he says that roughly forty years before 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:13.280 Polo's visit, strange aquatic creatures had been reported in the river. 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:15.920 This would have been the summer of twelve thirty nine. 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:20.399 Quote Chao Yu Kon reported that recently, while he was 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:24.000 watching the violence of the boar. Now just a quick 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:26.960 description of what the boar is, and this will make 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.560 sense if you think back to the passage that that 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.760 that Joe just read. Uh, this is a bore current, 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.240 a rare natural phenomenon in which the leading edge of 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.679 an incoming tide forms a wave or waves of water 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:42.840 that travels up a body of water and reverses the 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:48.359 direction of the current. Anyway, the author continues, Um, while 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:50.600 he was watching the violence of the boar, he had 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.840 suddenly seen strange creatures which were neither dragons nor fishes 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:59.600 in shoals, ruffling up their bristles and raising their spines. 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:02.680 And he wished to report and announced to the emperor 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.320 that he proposed to use powerful crossbows and guns. And 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:08.800 there's a question mark after guns, So I'm not sure 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.680 if the particular terminology is in question there or whatnot? 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:16.879 Um to remove this ill omened portent whoa so this 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:19.520 along with other accounts and quote the sight of some 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:22.479 monstrous skull or tooth which may well have been shown 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.919 in some temple um and they also point out that 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.600 a large tooth was actually shown as Buddhist tooth at 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.120 the time. All of this may may have then been 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.560 cobbled together and you know, reformed into the account we 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:38.960 just looked at. Okay, so it's possible that the account 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:41.600 we're getting, I guess third hand at this point through 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:47.159 Marco Polo's uh biographer here is some sort of half 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:51.520 remembered synthesis or reassemblage of these other pieces that we're 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:55.600 seeing in Chinese sources. Right now, this is conjecture on 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.480 my part, but I'm reading that the the sing Tang 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:02.040 river here was no own to at least sometimes have 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.520 yang Z River dolphins in it um now their namesake river. 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.160 The Z is several hundred miles north, but at least 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.800 prior to the nineteen fifties there were sightings of dolphins 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:16.240 in this river. So I can't help but wonder if 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:18.880 this might have been a case of a half rotted 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:23.800 river dolphin washing up. Because tissue and fibers on rotting fish, dolphins, 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:27.800 and whales can sometimes take on shocking forms that maybe 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.359 that then can be connected to various myths and legends 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:35.359 or theories about cryptids. Oh yeah, I mean that. We 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:38.520