Cressie and Chessie, Part III, Great Orms, Lindorms and The Rest of The World

I just dug out an old preliminary draft for my 1995 Preliminary List of Cryptid Forms in Addition to Other Checklists (which finally saw print in the 2010 CFZ yearbook after going through several generations and much attrition) and I looked up the page pertaining to Unknown Giant Eels. This would have been about 2004 and one of the older submissions I had been making to the CFZ to show how the project was progressing. I "Showed my Work" at that stage of the game before being continually chided to condense and simplify the document.And so the list had come to item number 19 (following sharks and other fishes)


The Dragon Fafnir as a Lindorm, Note the ray-finned Pectoral fins behind the head.

19.A Giant green moray eel of 20-30 feet reported off of Fiji according to James Sweeny (A Pictoral History of Sea Monsters...)
20. A "Camoflage" or painted moray eel of the Mediterranean, of similar size, as suggested by Heuvelmans from some Sea-serpent sightings in Wake but not granted a formal category.
21 "Megaconger", a 20-30 foot long "Supereel"looking like a conger eel and evidently collecting most of the smaller series of reports in that category.It lives closer to shore in shallower waters and has a more even overall colouration than the larger "Supereels" as documented in Wake by Heuvelmana.
22 "Titanoconger" the larger "Conger-like" category of "Super-eels", both "Congers occasionally showing the pectoral fins as well as a long backfin. "Titanoconger" makes up the larger-sized section of reports in that categorry and tends to be seen more often at open sea, farther away from land, and displays the more marked separation into a dark back and a much lighter belly. Reports in this category run from 50 to 100 feet long and can be longer, but more likely exaggerated.
23. A "Turtlefaced" eel is also reported, but the category is poorly defined.
24. "Water Monsters were reported in the rivers of England, France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, by Maurice Burton back at the time when he upheld the Giant eel theory as the identity for the Loch Ness Monster. these reports would have been made primarily in the later 1940s up to the early 1960s, involving eel-shapwed creatures mostly at 10-20 feet long, possibly sometimes larger, sometimes said to have heads like dogs. They would seem to be along the same lines as the Lindorms of Scandinavia and Horse eels of Scotland and ireland.
25. James Sweeny in Sea Monsters refers to information given to him by Professor Colin MacGregor of Loch Ness Investigation, to the effect that "They found the skeleton of a 40-foot long eel in a lake near Pasandru [Uruguay]" but unfortunately we have no idea who "They" were or if "They" had the expertise to know that it was an eel's skeleton and not a snake's or a Giant caecilian. I have had no further information beyond the suggestion that in that location this would have been identified as a skeleton of a "Minhocao". As a matter of fact, Ted Hollliday had noted that there was a parallel story that a Minhocao had become jammed between some rocks and was left to rot there, in Uruguay, which matched the story that a "Horse eel" had stuck in a culvert and was left to rot there. Holiday used the connection to suggest that the "Worms" were equivalent in both places.(In The Great Orm of Loch Ness, in a Footnote)
26. Certain Lake Monsters, especially in Eastern Canada, are specifically stated to be Giant eels 5 to 15 feet long [e.g., Cressie] Since similar forms are also stated to live in European rivers(as above), there is probably reason to say the one set tends to reinforce the other and therefore the case for both of them becomes that much stronger. Karl Shuker mentions a report by a scuba diver in Lake Memphremagog, Quebec, describing 10-foot-long Giant eels in 1955. It is probably also significant that the description of the creatures in these freshwater reports should also match the descriptions of the "megacongers" at sea (eg, Charles Gould's 20-foot-long congers seen off Singapore). It should also be noted that the "conger" part of the descriptions refers to the overall appearance and it need not imply they are closely related. Actual conger eels cannot live in fresh water.


Eastern Canadian Native Artist Norval Morrisson's Illustration for "the Mother of all Serpents" which could be taken as a parallel to the Goddess Sedna and making her "Mother of all SEA Serpents"-they do look rather like a bunch of eels.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindworm

Lindworms

Lindworm (cognate with Old Norse linnormr 'constrictor snake', Norwegian linnorm 'dragon', Swedish, lindorm, Danish , lindorm 'serpent', German Lindwurm 'dragon') in British heraldry, is a technical term for a wingless bipedal dragon (often said to have a venomous bite.)


Etymology
In modern Scandinavian languages, the cognate lindorm can refer to any 'serpent' or monstrous snake, but in Norwegian heraldry, it is also a technical term for a 'seaserpent' (sjøorm), although it may also stand for a 'lindworm' in British heraldry.


[It is possible this winged Lindworm means to show the rayed fins of an eellike fish: The head of the animal depicts a fishlike mouth and what could be gill covers-DD]
Generally, the word lindworm stood for the Latin word draco (whence Norse dreki), thus could refer to any draconic creature, from a real life constrictor snake to a legendary dragon. In European mythology and folklore, creatures identified as a 'lindworm' may be winged or wingless, plus quadrapedal, bipedal or limbless. However late persistent tradition designates the lindworm as having no limbs, or just front claws (so that it must slither) in contrast to wyverns that have only hind-quarters (and possible claws on the end of its wings) and in contrast to dragons which have four limbs and may either be winged or wingless.

Lindworms in [Folk}tales

.......The dragon Fáfnir from the Norse Völsunga saga appears in the German Nibelungenlied as a lindwurm that lived near Worms.


Another German tale from the 13th century tells of a lindworm that lived near Klagenfurt. Flooding threatened travelers along the river, and the presence of a dragon was blamed. The story tells that a Duke offered a reward for anyone who could capture it, so some young men tied a bull to a chain, and when the lindworm swallowed the bull, it was hooked like a fish and killed.[citation needed] The head of a 1590 lindworm statue in Klagenfurt is modeled on the skull of a wooly rhinoceros found in a nearby quarry in 1335. It has been cited as the earliest reconstruction of an extinct animal.[1][2]

The shed skin of a lindworm was believed to greatly increase a person's knowledge about nature and medicine.[3]

[This Lindorm definitely has short fins and not wings. although they are a mite far back-DD]



















[Lambton Worm showing a line of nine circular openings on the side of the neck-a trait sometimes mistakenly attributed to Super-Eels: in reality it occurs on Lampreys and not on higher forms of fishes at all-DD]
A "dragon" with the head of a "salamander" features in the legend of the Lambton Worm. The dragon who was caught in the River Wear when it was young. The fisherman who caught it only caught it because he skipped church to go fish. The dragon was dropped in a well and after about 3–4 years became a beast and started terrorizing the countryside of Durham while the fisherman who caught it was away at the Crusades. The villagers caught on and left a sacrifice of milk for the creature, and when the fisher returned home, it was prophesied that he would be the only one who could kill it. He was given armor with bladed spikes to protect himself from the worm's crushing, coiling weight, but he had to kill the first living thing he saw. His father arranged it so that after the lindworm was killed, he would blow a horn and a hound dog would be released and the son would kill that instead of a human. Eventually the Son cut its head off but instead of releasing the dog the father ran to his son. The prophesy also said if the son did not kill the first living thing he saw his family would be cursed for 9 generations; however the son could not kill his father so his family was cursed. Bram Stoker used this legend in his short story Lair of the White Worm.

The sighting of a "whiteworm" once was thought to be an exceptional sign of good luck.[4][This may have been because of the White dragon being the emblem of a certain tribe or State, for which see the prophesy of Merlin concerning the battling of the red and white dragons]
......

Late belief in lindorm in Sweden

The belief in the reality of a lindorm, a giant limbless serpent, persisted well into the 19th century in some parts. The Swedish folklorist Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius collected in the mid 19th century stories of legendary creatures in Sweden. He met several people in Småland, Sweden that said they had encountered giant snakes, sometimes equipped with a long mane. He gathered around 50 eyewitness reports, and in 1884 he set up a big reward for a captured specimen, dead or alive. [5] Hyltén-Cavallius was ridiculed by Swedish scholars, and since nobody ever managed to claim the reward, it resulted in a cryptozoological defeat. Rumours about lindworms as actual animals in Småland rapidly died out (Sjögren, 1980).

[On the contrary, Ivan Sanderson received a letter saying that belief in Lindwurms persisted up into the present day, and he thought that the Lindwurms wwere the same thing as Tatzelwurms, both of them the smaller-sized version of what he called the "Great Orms". He cites all of this in his book Investigating the Unexplained, 1976.-DD]

The Great Orm








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga





Nāga From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
For the modern ethnic group, see Naga people. For other uses, see Naga (disambiguation).

Nāga (Sanskrit: नाग, IAST: nāgá, Burmese: နဂါး, IPA: [nəɡá]; Javanese: någå, Khmer: នាគ neak, Thai: นาค nak, Chinese: 那伽) is the Sanskrit and Pāli word for a deity or class of entity or being, taking the form of a very great snake—specifically the King Cobra, found in Hinduism and Buddhism. The use of the term nāga is often ambiguous, as the word may also refer, in similar contexts, to one of several human tribes known as or nicknamed "Nāgas"; to elephants; and to ordinary snakes, particularly the King Cobra and the Indian Cobra, the latter of which is still called nāg in Hindi and other languages of India. A female nāga is a nāgī or nāginī
.......
In Hinduism

Compare with Tiamat and Apsu. [The Vedic Ahi or Vritra]

Stories involving the nāgas are still very much a part of contemporary cultural traditions in predominantly Hindu regions of Asia (India, Nepal, and the island of Bali). In India, nāgas are considered nature spirits and the protectors of springs, wells and rivers. They bring rain, and thus fertility, but are also thought to bring disasters such as floods and drought. According to traditions nāgas are only malevolent to humans when they have been mistreated. They are susceptible to mankind's disrespectful actions in relation to the environment. They are also associated with waters—rivers, lakes, seas, and wells—and are generally regarded as guardians of treasure. According to Beer (1999),[page needed] Naga and cintamani are often depicted together and associated directly in the literature.

They are objects of great reverence in some parts of southern India where it is believed that they bring fertility and prosperity to their venerators. Expensive and grand rituals like Nagamandala[4] are conducted in their honor (see Nagaradhane). In India, certain communities called Nagavanshi consider themselves descendants of Nagas.

Varuna, the Vedic god of storms, is viewed as the King of the nāgas. Nāgas live in Pātāla, the seventh of the "nether" dimensions or realms.[5] They are children of Kashyapa and Kadru. Among the prominent nāgas of Hinduism are Manasa, Sesha, and Vasuki.

The nāgas also carry the elixir of life and immortality. Garuda once brought it to them and put a cup with elixir on the ground but it was taken away by Indra. However, few drops remained on the grass. The nāgas licked up the drops, but in doing so, cut their tongues on the grass, and since then their tongues have been forked.[6]

Vishnu is originally portrayed in the form sheltered by a Shesha naga or reclining on Shesha, but the iconography has been extended to other deities as well. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms: around the neck,[7] use as a sacred thread (Sanskrit: yajñyopavīta)[8] wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne.[9] Shiva is often shown garlanded with a snake.[10]

Nagas are also snakes that may take human form. They tend to be very curious.

Patanjali as Adi-SeshaMaehle (2007: p.?) affirms that according to tradition, Patañjali is held to be an incarnation of Ādi S'esha.

In Buddhism
Mucalinda sheltering Gautama Buddha at Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, ThailandTraditions about nāgas are also very common in all the Buddhist countries of Asia. In many countries, the nāga concept has been merged with local traditions of great and wise serpents or dragons. In Tibet, the nāga was equated with the klu, wits that dwell in lakes or underground streams and guard treasure. In China, the nāga was equated with the lóng or Chinese dragon. [Several types of Chinese dragons were known as "Curled" or "Coiled" dragons, and they could be entirely legless and serpentine. See below-DD]

The Buddhist nāga generally has the form of a great cobra-like snake, usually with a single head but sometimes with many. At least some of the nāgas are capable of using magic powers to transform themselves into a human semblance. In Buddhist painting, the nāga is sometimes portrayed as a human being with a snake or dragon extending over his head. One nāga, in human form, attempted to become a monk; when telling it that such ordination was impossible, the Buddha told it how to ensure that it would be reborn a man, able to become a monk.

Gigantic naga protecting Buddha amongst the other sculptures of Bunleua Sulilat's Sala Keoku. Nāgas are believed to both live on Mount Sumeru, among the other minor deities, and in various parts of the human-inhabited earth. Some of them are water-dwellers, living in streams or the mer; others are earth-dwellers, living in underground caverns.

The nāgas are the servants of Virūpākṣa (Pāli: Virūpakkha), one of the Four Heavenly Kings who guards the western direction. They act as a guard upon Mount Sumeru, protecting the devas of Trāyastriṃśa from attack by the Asuras.

Among the notable nāgas of Buddhist tradition is Mucalinda, protector of the Buddha. In the Vajrayana and Mahasiddha traditions according to Beer (1999),[page needed] many notable fully enlightened nagas also transmitted and/or transported terma into and out of the human realm that had been elementally encoded by adepts.

Norbu (1999: p.?) states that according to tradition the Prajnaparamita terma teachings are held to have been conferred upon Nagarjuna by Nagaraja, the King of the nagas, who had been guarding them at the bottom of a lake. Refer Lotus Sutra.






Painting Representing an Alleged sighting of a Naga








Naga Statue


Other traditions
A naga at the steps of a building in the Wat Phra Kaew in BangkokFor Malay sailors, nāgas are a type of dragon with many heads; in Thailand and Java, the nāga is a wealthy underworld deity. In Laos they are beaked water serpents. Phaya Naga, Water Dragon, is a well-known dragon in Thailand. People in Thailand see it as a holy creature and worship it in the temple. It allegedly lives in Mekong river.

In Lake Chinni In Malay and Orang Asli traditions, the lake Chinni, located in Pahang is home to a naga called Sri Gumum. Depending on legend versions, her predecessor Sri Pahang or her son left the lake and later fought a naga called Sri Kemboja. Kemboja is the former name of what is Cambodia. Like the naga legends there, there are stories about an ancient empire in lake Chinni, although the stories are not linked to the naga legends.[11][12]

In Cambodia
Cambodian Naga at the Royal Palace in Phnom PenhIn a Cambodian legend, the nāga were a reptilian race of beings who possessed a large empire or kingdom in the Pacific Ocean region. See Kaliya. The Nāga King's daughter married an Indian Brahmana named Kaundinya, and from their union sprang the Cambodian people. Therefore still Cambodians say that they are "Born from the Nāga".

The Seven-Headed Nāga serpents depicted as statues on Cambodian temples, such as Angkor Wat, apparently represent the seven races within Nāga society, which has a mythological, or symbolic, association with "the seven colors of the rainbow". Furthermore, Cambodian Nāga possess numerological symbolism in the number of their heads. Odd-headed Nāga symbolise the Male Energy, Infinity, Timelessness, and Immortality. This is because, numerologically, all odd numbers come from One (1). Even-headed Nāga are said to be "Female, representing Physicality, Mortality, Temporality, and the Earth."

In the Mekong
The legend of the Nāga is a strong and sacred belief held by Thai and Lao people living along the Mekong River. Many pay their respects to the river because they believe the Nāga still rule in it, and locals hold an annual sacrifice for the Nāga. Each ceremony depends on how each village earns its living from the Mekong River — for instance, through fishing or transport. Local residents believe that the Nāga can protect them from danger, so they are likely to make a sacrifice to Nāga before taking a boat trip along the Mekong River.
Also, every year on the night of 15th day of 11th month in the Lao lunar calendar at the end of Vassa, an unusual phenomenon occurs in the area of the Mekong River stretching over 20 kilometres between Pak-Ngeum and Phonephisai districts in Nong Khai province, Thailand. Fireballs appear to rise from the river into the nighttime sky. Local villagers believe that Nāga under Mekong River shoot the fireballs into the air to celebrate the end of Vassa, because Nāga meditate during this time.[13]

A photograph on display in bars, restaurants, guesthouses, and markets around Thailand captioned, Queen of Nagas seized by American Army at Mekhong River, Laos Military Base on June 27, 1973 with the length of 7.80 meters is a hoax. The photograph is actually that taken by USN LT DeeDee Van Wormer, of an oarfish found in late 1996 by US Navy SEAL trainees on the coast of Coronado, California.[14][15]

In 2000, Richard Freeman from the Centre for Fortean Zoology visited the area and talked with witnesses who claimed to have seen gigantic snakes far larger than any python. The general description was of a 60 foot serpent with black scales that had a greenish sheen. Freeman speculated that the nāga legend was based on a real animal, possibly a giant madtsoiid snake.[16]
http://www.cfz.org.uk/expeditions/00naga/naga1.htm


Although spoken of as a "Gigantic" snake, Freeman's informants spoke of a type of black snake 15 to 20 feet long with a head the size of a football. This could well refer to the same sort of Giant Eel as the rest of the reports are speaking of. Similar reports of Nagas eminate from Borneo, Indonesia and the Philippines. An even larger type of Naga (Nyan) is in the Sea-Serpent class and spoken of as being hundreds of yards long-it is clearly based on reports of the standing waves effect in a long wake again. Some of the definitive "Megaconger" reports are from this region (eg, Singapore) and otherwise fall into the "Naga" pattern.





















Oriental warriors shown fighting Serpent-dragons or "Wyrms"(="Wurms or Orms") Japanese traditon recognises serpentine "River dragons" up to 30 feet long which could well also be the same sort of Giant Eels as spoken of elsewhere. Note that once again one example is shown with ragged but definitely ray-finned pectoral fins coming out of the body just behind the head,


"Tamatori being Pursued by the Dragon", Japanese illustration. Please note that the "Dragon" once again has rayed fins back behind the head and could thus be another Giant Eel.

















Nyaminyami, a "Fish-Dragon" guardian of the Zambezi, sometimes also construed as a Giant Eel Lake Monster (the name is related to several "congo Dragon" names for other Water-Monsters in Central Africa)













Eels are a very important part of the traditional Maori economy in New Zealand. It is therefore no wonder that one of the important categories of forms taken by Taniwhas include Giant Eels. Supernatural eels are also represented in the carved bone ornaments known as Koropepe, two examples shown here. The design is very old and may derive from Neolithic China and Taiwan (see below)




















Prehistoric Chinese jade dragon made into a "C" shape. This is a form that would later be called a Chi dragon. It seems to be the Chinese version of the Celtic Horse-eel.





















A large snakelike creature is said to dwell in the Amur River and it is the Black Dragon that gives the river its common Chinese name of "Black Dragon River". One of the local names for it as a "Great serpent" is Murdur. It would seem to be the same sort of creature that Eberhart lists as living further to the Northeast under the name Primor'ye Giant Snake. On page 443 of Mysterious Creatures (v 2) it is described as being from 15 to 30 feet long and says that some reports mention small legs. The creatures were mentioned in an article in STRANGE Magazine in 1994. The "Black Dragon" fits the same description and the "Small legs" would mean the pectoral fins. Other creatures matching this description were reported occasionally on land in Italy and Sicily (and probably Serbia) in the 1500s, in the 1930s, and again more recently. On one of these occasions the "Big black snake" was said to have a head like a "Brontosaurus" (Once again the blunted snout)




Giant Eel Sea Monsters are occasionally reported from Southern Alaska to the Northwest Coast area, even as far south as California, but the reports are not well distinguished from other sea monster reports in the same area. Some depictions do illustrate the Sea monster as having pectoral fins close to the head and no hind fins: in Native lore, these are commonly called "Sea serpents" (but not distingushed from anything else that might also be called a "Sea serpent")


{"Cadborosaurus" shown as a sort of Eel, from one of the standard Internet Cryptozoology sites. Artist's name is on it]




Finishing up in South America on our world tour, we find that reports of Giant eels tend to be lumped in with Giant snakes. It will come as rather a surprise to most Cryptozoologists that the common name used as reference for them in the Parana River system (and some areas further to the south as well) is "Minhocao", or to say, "The great worm" in Portugese. (I am certain that there is a Spanish-language equivalent for "Great Worms" which are supposed to have a magical "dragonstone" in its head, but I do not know what it might be. Perhaps it is enough to say "Culebron")

Minhocao del Rio portrayed as an eel, with once again the blunted snout and short fins coming out of the body just behind the head.













And below, A Minhocao out for a swim on the River. Neither one of these creatures seem to be represented as being especially large.




http://xfilesmisterioso.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

Monday, July 13, 2009 THE MINHOCÃO [Babel Fish Translation]

The people that resides in the vicinity of the well of Rio Cuiabá still tell-the legend of "Minhocão" a subterranean creature known also by frequenters of the rivers in the South of the country, in the early days of colonial times. Presents itself as a huge snake of as much as 60 to 70 feet long and six feet in diameter. Its action is pernicious, provoking landslides of edges, sinking ships and destroying homes and roads.

The minhocão is ubiquitous and amphibian. It is a myth that is perpetuated in the imagination of the peasants, the legend is known throughout the State of Mato Grosso.

Account that the lagoon from storage in Tramandaí (R/S) was the abode of the Minhocão, a monstrous snake eyes and tongue of fire green and by the head. In addition to turning our boats, ate the chickens and the pigs from the edge. Today the people believe she returned to her natural habitat, the sea.


Some describe the Goliath Minhocão as a serpent with wide eyes and bright. They say that came on top of the water, sliding and that its head high seemed like the bow of a boat with two eye headlamps. The monster at other times, saracoteia and espana waters and howls so terribly that other animals on earth are taken from paralysis.

In the Amazon, the minhocão is the infamous boiúna, or cobra grande, a myth that terrorizes the children, women and many gullible caboclos. No lack of people talk about this haunt that presents itself so great, as it imposes the immense Amazonian stage. It is regarded as the guardian of the night and after each storm appears in the form of Rainbow. Is also connected to the Universal deluge.

It is believed that it is because of anaconda running all these legends that the popular imagination comes weaving.

There is the smallest debt in the calculation of measures among the various snakes of the world our Anaconda is one of the largest, which can reach, according to recent estimates there are more than 14 metres. Note that a serpent with half this size, can stifle a man to squeeze it.

It was the fear in combine with the lie that has led the Anaconda that José Spider says to have seen, in 1722, in the Madeira River, which he said measure 40 steps. CITES-also a copy shot by famed Explorer Fawcett, measuring 20 metres.

The same we can say that that swallowed a whole horse in Goiás, according to the narrative very diligently Gadner in his work "trips to Brazil".

On occasion the Press publishes the story of a fabulous suruci captured and killed, always in the Amazon region. One of the most sensational stories was the three youths who camped in the forest and were sleeping. In the morning one of the boys had disappeared and his colleagues to find it had the terrible surprise, was being devoured by an Anaconda.

Below the narration had a note for anyone venturing to penetrate the forest alone, because really it offers many dangers.


SYMBOLISM

The snake or Serpent is the animal that caused mythical and symbolic interpretations. Very strange Animal, crawler, echoes the beginnings of time, as a source of sin and of all terrors. Ambiguous, masculine or feminine, Chthonic or cosmic, she defies their contradictions. Is the expression of original night.

Closely tied to Earth, she lives in dark holes, in a subterranean region, which for the ancient was the underworld, so it is important for the Geobiology and Feng Shui.

While the primordial God, the Serpent is linked to the fertilizadora rain and fertility. Primitive beliefs in common was the assertion that the snakes met with women could impregnate them. It was thought that the bite of a snake was responsible for a girl's first menstruation.

If conceives the idea according to which the Rainbow is a serpent that if desaltera at sea, precepts also accepted among the Bororo people of South America, South Africa and India. Rolled into itself is the symbol of the philosopher's stone of Alchemy and represents infinity. She rolled and biting the tail is the oldest symbol of the world.

The serpent also the spirit of the primordial Water that sometimes is terrible in its cholera. In the Greek cosmogênese, according to Hesiod's Theogony, she is the "Ocean". Nine of his turns encompass the circle of the world, while the tenth, resvalada under the world, so the Styx. In Greek mythology, Aquelôo, the largest river of ancient Greece, metamorfoseou into a serpent to face Hercules.

It is considered that the serpent possesses the power of self renewal, because of its ability to change and renew your skin. This mutant gave rise to beliefs that give him the power of immortality.

But this deity is also destructive. The womb of the Earth is ophidian and attracts and absorbs as a womb of death rapacious, all creatures to meet and fertilize. Indeed, so deep, death and destruction are linked to the life and birth.

Believe the batacs of Malaysia, that a cosmic serpent, living in subterranean regions, will destroy the world. Gemano-Scandinavian mythology, the Midgard Serpent, which covers the whole world with its rings will cause the end of the times, on the occasion of Ragnarok.
Text researched and developed by Rosane Volpatto

Bibliography consulted
The Amazon-Gaston de Bettencourt
The Cobra Grande-article by Leticia Falcão, found in the Amazon View Magazine, issue No. 28
Animal Symbolism Jean-Paul Ronecker
The mysteries of Woman-m. Esther Harding
Myths and legends of Rio Grande do Sul-Antonio Augusto Fagundes
The legend of the Big Snake: discussions about imagination and reality.Grace do Socorro Araújo de Almeida Macedo










Two More portraits for Minhocao of more recent vintage: please once again note the lungfish-shaped pectoral fins shown on the latter example. "Lungfish-shaped" forefins are indeed also occasionaly also reported in other places.

http://www.rosanevolpatto.trd.br/Minhocao.html

Published by Gil Gonçalves in 03:00

http://www.abrasoffa.org.br/folclore/lendas/minhocao.htm

Minhocao the [Babel Fish]

a gigantesco, half fish half serpent, who lives in the water where it turns boats, and on Earth, subterraneo, overlapping towns, bridges and other constructes.
Myth without borders in Brazil this being, recorded by many scholars and "seen" by all cr modules that describe him as "a huge, black bicho, half fish, half snake, that goes up and down this river in hours, chasing people and embarkses; just a Raban, to send to the bottom a boat as ours. sometimes takes the form of a Surubim, of a size never seen; other, also m says, turns into a passaro great white, with a pesco the stringy in an earthworm, and perhaps for this reason, which is called the minhocao ".
The narrative, recorded in the late 19th century: testimony of boatmen of San Francisco S River, has the same for the than occurs in first built the Via Anchieta, Sao Paulo, second count some falls aras who worked as pe es: an excerpt, in the midst of serra, had her tra ado changed as pe es: an excerpt, in the midst of serra, had her tra ado changed due to an minhoc which devastate buildings, the, night, all that was done during the day for the incr modules, still with the result that one viaduct was never finished ...
















The main article conflates the Minhocao and the Sucuriju gigante: I have turned the Sucuriju part into another colour. These last two illustrations are also interesting because they show that sometimes the Minhocao will travel together like a mass of Eels, and the last photo shows that sometimes the "Minhocao" is actually another "Patagonian Plesiosaur". That illustration is meant to go for either the big rivers associated with the Amazon, or with the Parana River around Uruguay. Either one would work. It is also important to see that much of the material ascribed to the Minhocao and the Sucuriju Gigante is of a Mythological nature.

Best Wishes, Dale D.