One of the categories of denizens of the underworld which is most commonly seen (but is of course never actually captured, and scarcely ever caught on film, before mysteriously "vanishing") is the hairy humanoid type, which comes in a variety of sizes, shapes, and dispostions. Often these beings, along with UFOnauts, "Men in Black," "El Chupacabras," and many other strange characters, are announced or accompanied by a foul sulphurous stench, or an ammonia-like odor, perhaps further evidence of their subterranean origins (an odious characteristic they share with the demons of old). Current fields of thought surrounding the nature of these creatures vary widely, from proponents of a "natural primate" or hominid theory, to a wide-eyed extreme of a "paranormal, elemental (spirit), or benevolent space-brother" mentality. The problem with both extremes is that they both may have circumstantial or ancedotal evidence to support them, but entire reams of evidence are often downplayed, ignored, or scoffed at with an almost rabid spite. The evidence as to the true nature of these creatures actually exists within most folklore and mythic traditions of the world, and their origin--the place from which they come and to which they return--is definitely subterranean, as can and will be shown.
Those who seek to fit "Bigfoot," "Sasquatch," "Yeti," "Wendigo," "Skinwalkers," and other such creatures into the worldview of a surface-dwelling naturalist are simply ignoring facts which are inconvenient or threatening to their own pet theories. Perhaps they are worried about endorsing evidence which might draw ridicule or dismissal in their direction, obsessed as they sometimes are with being considered "serious scientists" by the academic community at large, and the world in general. The problem with this attitude is that it is not in fact "scientific" at all, as the scientific method calls for an equal examination of all evidence and all theories, which simply does not always occur. Perhaps the "crypto-hominists" would do well to study the beliefs of native peoples who have long-regarded hairy humanoids as something outside of the "natural" sphere. This does not mean that such beings are paranormal in nature, but rather that they have an origin and nature which is lost in antiquity, and which does not fit comfortably or even rationally into our surface-world ecosystem, or our world-view. Native Americans consider these beings to be supernatural and often subterranean, as do the Sherpas of Tibet and Nepal and other peoples around the world. Medieval European demonology and folklore are filled with hairy "satyr-"type demons, goblins and trolls, all with subterranean origin, and the always-nocturnal "werewolf" also comes to mind. Grendel and his mother, from the Anglo-Saxon epic poem BEOWULF, are another example of this, and in fact incorporated both the hairiness and scaliness of subterranean hybrid beasties, as well as the underwater entrances to cavern-lairs so common to many Naga and Faerie realms. "Braunies" or "Brownies" of Scotland are hirsute and solitary, as are many Scandinavian trolls (who tend to be towering in stature as well), and many other forms.
Other problems with considering all such beings to be surface-world, or "naturally-occurring" creatures are numerous. While physical evidence does exist, primarily in the form of footprints and castings of footprints, witness accounts, recordings of distinctly hominid or anthropoid sounds, and an occasional photograph, film or videotape image, still verifiable "scat" or fecal material (evidence) has not been conclusively presented, although the opportunities to do so have supposedly arisen. Actual specimens, living or dead, have not been produced, yet these creatures pop in and out of not only wilderness regions, but populated and even urban areas, without being cornered, followed, apprehended, or otherwise diagnosed in terms of their origin. A few hairs have been obtained from different sites around the world, usually identified as "primate" but "unknown," and this is indeed evidence for the existence of such beings--but it says nothing as to their place of origin, or primary habitat. What it does prove however, is that they are real, flesh-and-blood animals, and not ghosts or hallucinations, "transdimensional buddies from a happier place," or other such sentimental silliness. The researchers into this particular type of mysterious being who shy away from "elemental" and paranormal explanations are definitely on the right track, but they need to examine other evidence as well. If the cryptozoologists would start looking a little more closely at the possibility of a subterranean connection, they might discover the true nature and origin of the hairy giants (and midgets, and monsters) quite quickly, after all. There is a definite correlation between increased UFO activity and hairy humanoid sightings, both in North America and in the Himalayas (the Nepalese call some types of flying disks "friendly dragons"), and this has even been discovered in Native American legends, some of which connected the "crazy bears" who live in caves with the "strange moons" which sometimes came to pick them up or drop them off, or the "wild men" with the "star people (who probably are not from the stars at all, as we have seen)". Anecdotal evidence does indeed seem to indicate that such beings--along with a wide variety of other mysterious, "unnatural" creatures--seem to be in our surface world for an unknown purpose or mission. They come into an area, interact with humans or infiltrate a desired location, and then depart after minutes, hours or days, seldom staying long enough for many repeated sightings (although this does happen also upon occasion).
Those who would seek to wrap hairy humanoids in a cloak of "benevolence," "ascendance," or non-aggression must not have studied the anecdotal, witness-supported evidence, or are ignoring whatever they find unpalatable. These creatures do attack people, vehicles, houses and mobile-homes; they have been seen to hurl boulders and logs at human intruders, or to harass them by night as they sleep around a campfire. Tales of these bipedal creatures killing both animals and humans, and eating the victims' livers, also seems to be a recurring theme (the liver is one of the organs also purportedly taken from livestock by the Puerto Rican monstrosity, El Chupacabras, another creature with apparently subterranean origins), and like many other non-human bipedal creatures, they seem to have a taste for road-kill, particularly for dogs. They also are obviously more intelligent than the average ape or other non-human primate, as they hide their comings, goings, and origins exceedingly well, apparently even removing their dead, since not even a recent bone has been found. Proponents of the "natural" (i.e., surface-world ecosystem) theory argue with such quips as "When was the last time you saw a dead bear, or found a wild animal skull in the wild?" and other such gems. Actually, this writer has found both dead animals, and their bones, in the wild, and has a small collection of sun-bleached beaver, bobcat, and gray fox skulls to prove it. Many a large mammal is seen dead on the side of the road, from moose, deer and wild pigs, to coyotes, foxes, and yes, even bears.....But when was the last time a Sasquatch was plastered across a highway by a semi-truck, for all to see? Surely an enterprising trucker would recognize the good fortune of such an occurrence, particularly if he had a refrigerated trailer in which to store the remains, and a working citizen's band radio to call for assistance. But this has not happened, because hairy humanoids are by and large not simply another form of ape or hominid which populates the surface of the world. They're just passing through. They're a lot like human beings, but larger. And they're SMART.
In His Book, WILDERNESS HUNTER (1892), President Theodore Roosevelt told a horrifying tale entitled THE BAUMAN STORY which he believed to be true, concerning an encounter between two frontiersmen and a hairy humanoid "goblin-beast." Obviously of the Sasquatch/Bigfoot species, this creature first stalked and harrassed two brave trappers, eventually killing one of them when they became separated. Roosevelt relates:
"On reaching the pond Bauman found three beavers in the traps, one of which had been pulled loose and carried into a beaver house. He took several hours in securing and preparing the beaver, and when he started homewards he marked, with some uneasiness, how low the sun was getting. As he hurried toward camp, under the tall trees, the silence and desolation of the forest weighted on him. His feet made no sound on the pine needles and the slanting sun-rays, striking through among the straight trunks, made a gray twilight in which objects at a distance glimmered indistinctly. There was nothing to break the gloomy stillness which, when there is no breeze, always broods over these somber primeval forests. At last he came to the edge of the little glade where the camp lay, and shouted as he approached it, but got no answer. The camp fire had gone out, though the thin blue smoke was still curling upwards.
"Near it lay the packs wrapped and arranged. At first Bauman could see nobody; nor did he receive an answer to his call. Stepping forward he again shouted, and as he did so his eye fell on the body of his friend, stretched beside the trunk of a great fallen spruce. Rushing towards it the horrified trapper found that the body was still warm, but that the neck was broken, while there were four great fang marks in the throat.
"The footprints of the unknown beast-creature, printed deep in the soft soil, told the whole story. The unfortunate man, having finished his packing, had sat down on the spruce log with his face to the fire, and his back to the dense woods, to wait for his companion. While thus waiting, his monstrous assailant, which must have been lurking in the woods, waiting for a chance to catch one of the adventurers unprepared, came silently up from behind,
walking with long noiseless steps and seemingly still on two legs. Evidently unheard, it reached the man, and broke his neck by wrenching his head back with its fore paws, while it buried its teeth in his throat. It had not eaten the body, but apparently had romped and gamboled around it in uncouth, ferocious glee, occasionally rolling over and over it; and had then fled back into the soundless depths of the woods.
"Bauman, utterly unnerved, and believing that the creature with which he had to deal was something either half human or half devil, some great goblin-beast, abandoned everything but his rifle and struck off at speed down the pass, not halting until he reached the beaver meadows where the hobbled ponies were still grazing. Mounting, he rode onwards through the night, until beyond reach of pursuit."
So much for enlightened nature-spirit theories, as well as the picture of a shy and nonagressive primate! A medieval chronicler might easily have called this creature a demon, satyr, or a werewolf. The word and judgement of Roosevelt should probably be taken with great seriousness, as he was both a great woodsman and hunter, and a great statesman. Roosevelt was apparently not a total stranger to unknown creatures of hellish description, as he also allegedly embarked on several hunting expeditions in search of the infamous "Jersey Devil" of the New Jersey Pine Barrens (yet another potential subterrestrial), which was also hunted by the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, and which was sighted and fired upon (with a cannon!) by U.S. Naval hero Stephen Decatur.
Hairy humanoids or hominids are often sighted in mountainous regions which have abundant caves and sinkholes, as well as near deep lakes or other bodies of water, as with the Conser Lake Monster of Oregon and the Lake Worth Monster of Texas, and the Thetis Lake Monster of British Columbia. Swamplands are also a favorite haunt, as with the violent and foul-smelling Fouke Monster of Arkansas (made famous in the low-budget psuedo-documentary, Legend of Boggy Creek). Like Grendel, they apparently have an affinity for cavernous places, with both above-ground and underwater entrances, which may account for their habit of following or walking along woodland streams. Grendel was indeed such a beast, and bore more than a slight similarity to the creature in Roosevelt's story, as a passage from Burton Raffel's translation of BEOWULF demonstrates:
A mighty battle ensues, and Beowulf, no person of small stature himself, tears the arm from Grendel's giant body:
Beowulf and his men have next to contend with Grendel's murderous mother, and the hero says:
Beowulf and his band of heroes journey to the home swamp of Grendel and his mother, where they encounter strange reptilian monsters above the submerged entrance to the trolls' subterranean lair, and kill one of these:
They stood and stared at the incredible wave-roamer,
Covered with strange scales and horrible.
The possibility of subterranean origins for creatures of this type are obvious as well.
Next the mighty Geat (Goth) dives into the swamp, to be captured at first by Grendel's horrid mother, and taken into an air-filled space resembling an arched structure, or "battle-hall," beneath the bottom of the lake, which sounds suspiciously like a limestone cavern. The she-fiend is covered with thick reptilian armor (this type of mixing of "hairy hominid" and reptilian characteristics is sometimes reported in contemporary accounts, but is often downplayed or ignored), and Beowulf's sword has no effect. As with her son, he has to grapple with her, but she pulls a dagger and tries to stab him! So much for her utterly "primitive" nature. Beowulf notices that the room is filled with weapons and other booty stolen from vanquished heroes, so he latches onto an ancient sword massive and sharp enough to penetrate her scaly hide. She dies, and he then goes down dark passageways in search of Grendel, only to find the fiend lying dead in a corner. Both of these monstrous Naga-trolls have finally been destroyed.
The question we are left with is: How different is Grendel's mother from Nimue? One is possessed of unearthly beauty, the other is hideous; but both have their "offspring" in the surface world, doing their bidding, in both cases involving a royal house, i.e., human politics. The birth of Arthur is the result of underworld machinations, and the deaths of Hrothgar's warriors at the hands (and teeth) of Grendel are no different in this regard. Both lake-cavern-dwelling ladies are strong and agressive female leaders, and both possibly have their origins in a subterrestrial matriarchal society, which goes all the way back to the rebellion and exile of Lilith. The dark Hindu goddess Kali, destroyer and eater of human beings in one of her aspects, is another face to this same dark reality. While their forms, or genetic lineages may differ (yet be inter-related), philosophically they are the same. Nimue had as much mercy on the enemies of Arthur, through her gift of Excalibur and other acts, as Grendel's mother had on the Danes. Another interesting parallel is the "stolen" yet super-powerful sword that Beowulf found in the cavernous lair under the swamp-waters, and used against the she-troll; what would have been the result if Arthur had invaded the realm of Nimue, and seen her as she really was? Would he have used her own weapon, Excalibur, against her? The parallels, and the circumstantial evidence, just don't seem to stop.
The poet leaves no doubt as to the origin and home of Grendel and his mother:
And
While the Anglo-Saxon author credits the Biblical Cain with part of Grendel's ancestry, the description sounds identical in every way to that attributed to the children of the possibly-hominid Lilith, and her ancient reptilian allies.
The northlands of ancient Europe were by no means the only places haunted by the monstrous male and female humanoids, scaled and hairy, of the wastelands and cavern-realms. In his monumental translation of the great work, THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, Sir Richard Burton elaborates on his description of a cannibalistic Ghulah, (Grendel's mother?) who is able to appear as a beautiful woman (Nimue?) when the need for such deception arises. About the Ghulah, his annotation reads:
"The Ghulah (Fem. of Ghul) is the Heb. Lilith or Lilis: the classical Lamia; the Hindu Yogni and Dakini; the Chaldean Utug and Gigim (desert-demons) as opposed to the Mas (Hill-demon) and Telal (who steal into towns); the Ogress of our tales and the Bala yaga (Granny-witch) of Russian folk-lore. Etymologically "Ghul" is a calamity, a panic fear; and the monster is evidently the embodied horror of the grave and the graveyard." i. p55
And the "Ghuls," from which our word "ghoul" has come, are a race are no less heartless, predatory, and bloodthirsty:
"Allah ease thee, O King of the age even as thou hast eased me of these Ghuls, whose bellies none may fill save Allah!" ix. p. 152
Proof of the underworld lust for human or hominid genes can be found, if searched for, in nearly every folklore tradition, as can their tendency to see primates, including humans, as a food-supply. The Tibetan Buddhists have a legend which states that the people of Tibet are descended from a "Monkey-King--" i.e., an advanced hominid or human--and a "Rock Ogress," a being which lives in caverns and haunts the snowy slopes of the Himalayas. The ogress attempts to seduce the monkey, at first unsuccessfully, until she plies him with these words:
(From The Clear Mirror: a traditional account of Tibet's Golden Age, Sakyapa Sonam Gyaltsen's 'Clear Mirror on Royal Genealogy', translated from the Tibetan by McComas Taylor and Lama Choedak Yuthok. Published by Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca New York, 1996)
From this union, and to the Monkey's initial woe, Tibetan humans were born. In case the connection is lost on the reader, the "ogres" are synonymous with the Yeti of the Himalayas. While smacking of subterranean propaganda worthy of Merlin or a Japanese Dragon-King, this demonstrates again the universality of the same concepts previously seen.
Returning to the connecton between hairy beings, water, and caverns, the well-known UFO abductee Betty Hill, in an interview with author and bigfoot-researcher Jack Lapseritis (who is a proponent of the "benevolent space-brother" Sasquatch theory), gives an excellent example of the strange connections which exist in our modern, waking world. To quote from his book, "THE PSYCHIC SASQUATCH," Mrs. Hill told him the following about her family's knowledge of Bigfoot in New England:
"Another strange thing happened on the Connecticut River. I don't think there was ever any publicity about this, although people who lived in the area all knew about it. My informant said that at one spot in the middle of the Connecticut River there was a good-sized island that was uninhabited. Then suddenly one day it was inhabited by small, prehistoric-appearing (hairy?--W.M.M.) people. They didn't know how many of them there were, maybe 50. They lived on the island for three years. No one ever succeeded in getting near them. The police had gone out to the island on boats and had gone onto the island. These small, primitive people could outrun anyone. They would take off running and then could not be found. There were many caves on this island, and it was believed that maybe they were hiding in the caves, but the police just could not find them. Anthropologists went to the island and could observe them at a great distance but couldn't get close to them. No one ever succeeded. It is not known how they lived or what they did for food. No fires were ever seen on the island, but they lived there year-round for approximately three years. Then, just as suddenly as they had appeared, they disappeared."
She then relates how a helicopter tried to get a close look at these four-foot tall, "prehistoric-looking" people, but they would out-run the helicopter at an amazing rate of speed and "just disappear." The sightings of these "mystery hominids" coincided with ongoing UFO activity in the same area.
Lapseritis' book contains many additional accounts of great interest (although the New Age slant regarding the temperament and nature of Sasquatch is rather heavy), including Sasquatches guarding mysterious cave entrances from intruders, underground machinery noises associated with bigfoot sightings, and sightings of hairy humanoids and "gray" aliens together. If the Sasquatch is indeed a watchdog, errand-runner and hominid servant of an even more mysterious and less-seen race or species, then this would indeed explain much about the behavior of these hairy giants (or midgets, as the case sometimes turns out to be). Their ability to endure the extremes of nearly all surface-world environments, including sunlight, might make them valuable servants of hidden masters. Primates, or primate-hybrids, as slaves to ancient reptilian intellects? Sounds far-fetched, but many clues exist to indicate that this is the case, from hairy trolls, demons, and other medieval tales, to all of the accounts mentioned in this section. This does not mean that some "hairy humanoids" could not be unknown anthropoid apes or primates as yet undiscovered by science, and living in the wild; perhaps a few of these do continue to exist in a low-profile way, as the gorilla did until the 19th century. But the sheer variety of types seen and described and the frequency of these sightings (even in populated areas), along with the peculiarities of behavior (furtiveness, "focused" on an apparent mission at times) and other circumstantial evidence, indicates that the majority of such unknowns are quite possibly affiliated with a vast, unseen, yet natural, reality.
Rumplestiltskin and Tom-Tit-Tot longed to steal a human child; the Pied Piper of Hamelin took more than a few. Demon lovers, djinn, succubi and incubi haunt our collective unconscious. "Fairy princesses" and "frog princes," somewhat human, somewhat other, populate the world of pre-adolescent folktales, as do any number of stunted, deformed, or miniscule beings. Dragons and monsters lurk in the dark corners of our minds, and always have. Some claim to still see, against their will, such beings in dark lochs, thick woods, and deep cellars and caverns, or coming and going in flying, glowing chariots or disks. Are the paranormal, cryptid, and fortean forms of today simply the stuff of which folklore is made--or is it the other way around? Are these things, these beings and their activities, the "ground of being" from which all of our mysteries and terrors have actually sprung, and continue to spring?
The victim of a traumatic event sometimes finds that his or her memory of that event is not perfectly clear; often it's hazy, disjointed, and comes back in snatches of memory and images which jolt one from sleep. Other victims of trauma, abuse, and terrifying encounters or experiences find that the truth of what happened to them has been covered up by confabulation, and upon occasion by a blanket of lies woven by the perpetrator or perpetrators. Could it be that our entire folklore and mythic experience is just such an confabulation, but on a species-wide scale? Has humanity been conditioned, are we being conditioned, to overlook and dismiss, to turn into 'fairytale" and "fable" very real and ongoing events and victimizations? Are we simply a "resource" to somebody, used and deceived by an ancient enemy which occasionally masquerades as friend, when it serves a purpose? Do humanity and the rest of the surface world represent a genetic smorgasbord or farm, where genetics, protein, and other goods and services are readily available, and are at the command and demand of an unseen population of diverse races and specie?
All of the religious, folklore, and mythic traditions must surely not be, as Joseph Campbell once postulated, the mindless result of the "energies of the body," the "activity of the organs." Humanity is not the cause of reality, but is a part of reality, and a largely-ignorant part at that. The farther one is removed in time from originating events, the dimmer the truth becomes--to the animals in the field, that is. The farmer and the hunter know full-well where the animals came from, what their lineage is, and how to take them down for any purpose at any time. The animal reacts as an animal always will, with fright, confusion, aggression or flight--but the hunters and farmers are always still there, somewhere behind the scenes, in their hunting-blinds or farmhouse parlors, accustomed to their role and ready to act with impunity. The final questions arise:
What are the folktales of the beasts of the field? Is humanity the helpless livestock and fodder of an older, predatory race or races? And if we are, will we always permit it to be so?
--Wm. Michael Mott
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Article copyright (c) 2000, Wm. Michael Mott
MottGrafix@aol.com
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